Review: Murder in London - Ultimate Escape Rooms, Los Angeles

FUN FACTOR

7

Murder in London

Ultimate Escape Rooms

Marina del Rey location

Date played May 29, 2023 Group size 4

Booking size 2 to 10 (private booking); We recommend 4

Objective: Travel back in time to 1889 to stop a murderer

Overall Fun Factor: 7

Difficulty: Moderate

Good first room? Maybe

Why this rating? We enjoyed this escape room and recommend it!  We particularly enjoyed the immersive and expansive set and variety of puzzles - some of which had cinematic payoffs.

Summary - why you are here: The overall objective is to go back in time to London in the 1889…retrace a murderer’s steps, find clues, “talk” to witnesses while correctly identifying information about each victim, all to stay ahead of the murderer and anticipate their moves… so you are not the next victim in the headlines! There was a moderately high amount of scavenging for clues and props which required searching high and low.

Set:  The set is immersive and well constructed.  Your group starts off on a street scene - there are several alleys, buildings and storefronts to explore, including a pub.  At the outset only a couple of areas are open, but more will open up as the game progresses. The set is very immersive with many rich touches - like period street signs, gutters and building materials.  There is a phone booth which is oddly a modern touch-tone phone placed on a shelf - considering the generously constructed set in all other respects we wish Ultimate Escapes closed the loop and provided something closer to a period-appropriate device or explanation; the staff we spoke only confirmed our observation. That one exception aside… the set is expansive, fun and immersive and our group of four had plenty to explore, especially as more places opened up…we did not get in each other's way.

Puzzles:  Ultimate Escape did a good job of presenting puzzles that effectively used the props appropriate for the time and place in an organic function.  What made this room sing for us were the props - When used correctly the props caused various effects which made sense in the world we transported to. This game relied a lot on technological effects and all of them worked as intended.

Game Flow - the game initially is focused exploring the open portions of the street scene available upon arrival and to learn as much about the murders as possible.  

Lighting - the lighting was in keeping with the mood of the technology of 1889 but not in a way that was overly bothersome - there were several “bright spots” around the set which provided enhanced lighting for puzzle solving when needed.  Ultimate Escapes gets our appreciation for providing ample light sources for all players to use during our game play.

Hint System - We always appreciate a clue system that helps to maintain immersion. When we played the game, our game-guide, gave hints using a god mic system but maintained immersion by using an effective English accent.
This is a good room for players with at least a few escape rooms under their belt.  Although this might make a good first-time escape room, we believe that experienced players will appreciate the organic touches that Ultimate Escapes built into this room.

Ultimate Escapes has several locations - we played this game at the Marina del Rey location.  This location does not have free parking - but the parking lot is huge and there is no problem finding a space.  It also provides a good opportunity to explore the Marina - on one of our visits we were serenaded by a pack of cute sea lions! Ultimate Escapes do not have their own bathrooms, but the nearby public restrooms were clean and adequate - if you visit during the hours that the public restrooms are closed Ultimate Escapes will provide you access to the staff restrooms.

The staff are all friendly, engaging and true escape room fans!

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