by clueQuest - The LIVE Escape Game (website)
169-171 Caledonian Rd, London N1 0SL
£15.00
Languages: EN
90 mins
Your mission in Stolen IQ is to decode a series of secret messages from a compromised and imprisoned agent, Lisa Hammerschmidt. Together, you can stop the evil Professor Blacksheep in his tracks, rescuing the world’s top scientists he has kidnapped for dreams of world domination.
Overall rating
based on ratings from 13 users
combined with 7 pro reviews
Your review
Player reviews
This was my very first Print and play game, it didn't disappoint, the puzzles where all varied and somewhat challenging. the only things I can put a finger on is that we played this via a remote session so I weren't together with my friends and the amount of cutting stuff out(but most print and play games have this issue). A bit better story and it would have gotten half a star more. Looking forward to playing the second part.
Solid experience but a little on the easy side. Some good ideas with puzzles but felt Part 2 (which we played first, and which did give us a substantial clue as to one of the answers so would not recommend doing this) was much stronger in terms of puzzle quality and game experience. Again too much cutting (some of which having played it was avoidable!). Having enjoyed Part 2 as much as we did though, I would definitely play future at home experiences, and I do like the physicality of assembling the puzzles IRL rather than on a computer.
We've enjoyed playing clueQuest's real-life games in London - they're full of cartoonish fun, with a rich set of characters and high-quality puzzles offering interesting interactions. So we had high expectations for this game. Unfortunately, it becomes apparerent that cQ's experience does not lie in creating paper-based games, and this adaptation feels awkward.
Firstly, there's the preparation: it took me, no exaggeration, 40 minutes to cut out all the pieces before starting to play the game. While the game itself took us only one hour to complete. Some of that cutting out is not strictly necessary (I'm sure most players would be fine with looking at a printout of a photo on a full A4 sheet without it needing to be cut to 6"x4" size, for example), and whoever does the cutting out gets some pretty big spoilers (if not the actual solution) of the puzzles while doing so.
The printed artwork and accompanying web videos are high-quality, but somehow fail to capture the fun of the cQ franchise.
And the puzzles are solid enough but, in all honesty, I've seen better executed elsewhere.
For the next game in the series, I'm hoping cQ learn from experience of others more practiced in creating puzzles for printed media - D.A.S.H. or Puzzled Pint, say - as I'd love to bring Professor Blacksheep and chums into my home once more.
Reviews by escape room review sites
An upfront warning for this game: clueQuest's title 'Print + Cut + Escape' is accurate in all its parts. Before the Escape and after the Print, there is a great deal of Cut - you need to go through the game's pages and cut out a great many components to prepare for play. You won't spend as long cutting as escaping, but you should set aside half an hour at the very least for the preparation.
Both the printing (24 pages, greyscale but with plenty of images) and the cutting are pretty essential to...
clueQuest's signature is their 3D puzzles and we loved to building them. It's a great feeling to be able to see something formulate from a bunch of scrap that had no relation to each other and achieve that "aha" moment.
In Stolen IQ you play the role of a secret spy on the hunt for Agent Crimson who has gone missing. In typical ClueQuest fashion it has mice, sheep, and theatrical hilarity!
Read the full, detailed review at EscapeMattster.com ⬊
clueQuest is back with yet another escape room experience but this time from the comfort from your own room. As our favourite escape room business, the team have created a unique experience known as Print Cut Escape that joins the rest of the escape room lineup!
