It's 1994 and you've stumbled across Dr Wellington's abandoned laboratory at the former Canterbury Experimental Electric Company founded in 1883. Dr Wellington based his controversial crime and punishment experiments in the treacherous cells of the former city gaol which has since laid abandoned for 80 years after his sudden and mysterious disappearance. You and your cohorts have just 60 minutes to escape before you are trapped for eternity and in certain mortal danger, sharing the fate of his many victims!
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Played: 18 Aug 2022Team size: 2Outcome: Successful escape!
Fantastic setup in some of the original cells in the old gaol with authentic props. Sometimes I find prison rooms a bit dark and damp but they've done such a good job at converting the old building that it managed to feel authentic without being grungy.
It's a pretty linear game in a fairly small space so a good one for smaller teams.
Great atmosphere in the cells, and some wonderful props to interact with. We played late in the day in December so it was a little dark in places for my eyes, but the critical props had lights over them. Inventive puzzles, the cell setting and lovely victorian streampunk vibe throughout made this game very immersive and enjoyable.
An interesting story set in the original jail cells, you move from cell to cell solving puzzles to progress. A wide variety of puzzles are on show here and although you move in a linear fashion, puzzles in each cell can be tackled individually.
Crime & Punishment Lab is built within the Westgate, Canterbury's medieval gatehouse, a local landmark and grade I listed building, among the most spectacularly authentic locations I've seen used for an escape game.
Although the towers date back to the 14th Century, the game is set in Victorian times, drawing on a more recent part of the building's history when the Westgate was used as a gaol. The game uses genuine old cells as well as plenty of historical equipment and curios. In the initial b...
Rooms don't come much more authentic than this one - set in one of the old towers in Canterbury's walls. Great puzzles and GMing led to a very enjoyable experience.
I love a venue with an interesting setting; even better with historical significance; and a triple whammy when the game itself leans into the story of the surroundings. Escape In The Towers is a prime example of successfully marrying their vintage building with relevant narratives.
If you manage to secure a location like an 1830s-built former jail in Canterbury, it’s probably tempting to make a straight up prison escape room. It’s to the credit of this game that it instead just takes the cells as a jumping-off point for a sinister story about human experimentation. Rather than be prisoners in the 1800s, you’re explorers in the 1990s rediscovering the abandoned lab of a mad professor, tasked with discovering exactly what he was up to, and of course, avoiding the same fate.
Crime and Punishment Lab felt like an early-generation escape room despite being quite new, but pulled it off with a high standard of theming and a huge stack of puzzles that we found very enjoyable.