Extinct - Escape from Jurassic Island

OK room, some cool puzzles, but looks well worn and in need of some TLC, ( can tell its a chain in a bowling ally where teams of kids hurtle through them trashing everything. Overall game play in fun, not to hard for an experience team.

We had Thalia run our game for us and she was welcoming and wonderful as our games host! Atmosphere and set was brilliant, puzzles were a bit here and there and hard to follow on to but overall a great room!

Firstly, we turned up 15 mins prior, as per the email, not a sign of anyone. We called the number on the desk, no response. We went up to the people running the bowling who said they haven't seen anyone from the escape rooms today. We waited a bit more and phoned again, to get a response from another of their locations saying to wait and if no one turns up then to call them again. Finally someone showed up and got us to sign in, no apology or anything, and just danced around to the music whilst we were trying to sign in on half working iPad. We eventually got into the game about 10-15 minutes after our booked start time. The game:  Unhappy with our GM for this game. Her intro was appalling, then for the first 30ish minutes of the game she just radioed through telling us how to do everything. We weren't even getting a chance to figure anything out for ourselves. We had said before entering we were an experienced team so i thought, oh we must be getting this many clues because its a room with 16% escape rate and its part of it, maybe there's loads more stuff to do. But no, there wasn't, we didn't need the help. It got to the point where i just stopped replying on the walkie when she asked us to explain what we were doing as she couldn't see, she got the hint eventually that we didn't want help, but my god it ruined the whole room for us. then in the debrief she literally got out her phone and read us a bunch of discount codes from their website. No idea what that was about, it almost felt like she was being forced to be there and had a gun to the back of her head. The game itself maybe was ok, but i have no idea since we weren't really given the chance to even try half the puzzles

I’ll start off by saying that I did really enjoy this room. I played it with a first timer and they absolutely loved every second and you just have to love a room with a little verticality. It’s fun that the safety video is themed to each room specifically and that the GMs get into character for the story and the ending. The GM congratulated us each time we reached a new room which showed they were paying attention, (although at the end asked us how we worked out the answer, so not sure if they listened along too, or if this Q&A at the end was just part of the experience) I did like the logic part of the final puzzle but one element kind of relied on memory and if you’d forgotten it I don’t think you’d be able to “win”. Clue system via walkie talkie which I’m never a fan of, but didn’t need to use it in the end so it’s a mute point. A door was left open which the GM had to come in to close, but it didn’t effect our game as it was done quickly before we’d entered said room. A few other things did feel like they used to be more elaborate and technical puzzles but have since broken and been retrofitted to work differently, but I am just speculating. Overall, I would recommend this room! Specifically for groups of 2-3 with little experience (maybe a 4 at a squeeze) Or to play at a leisurely pace for experienced players.