Experimental Hughes

Rating: 2/5 - Interesting Stranger Things inspired set, but there were some iffy puzzles and an unhelpful GM. Pros: ➕One type of visual effect/puzzle was really cool and something I rarely see. ➕Multiple rooms to discover and explore. ➕Lots of tech with a some padlocks mixed in. ➕The most interesting set and theming to me of the 5 games we played at Locked Up. ➕There were lighting and audio effects. ➕Brightness was mostly sufficient, not too dark. ➕Many of the puzzles relate to the theme with a lot of props used for the puzzles. Cons: ➖Two puzzles completely stalled our game. I believe one puzzle was reset incorrectly and made it practically impossible to complete. The other puzzle was poorly designed, the solution was not clear, you could not tell if you had something in the correct position. These were two very common puzzle types that I've done countless times before so I knew exactly how to solve them, but this was the time I've had major issues with either. ➖Our GM was unhelpful when we got stuck, we asked for help but she told us to do things we were already doing. And at the end it was clear she wasn't following along since she didn't even know if we solved a specific puzzle or not. Fortunately, the other GMs we had at this company were more helpful. ➖There was one tech-based input that we couldn't even tell was an input. They could've made it more obvious that it could be interacted with. ➖Only 4 hints allowed when the standard now at most companies is unlimited hints. There are some aspects that are a bit creepy, but no jump scares. I recommend 3-5 enthusiasts, you can play it as a team of 2 like we did but I don't recommend it. We didn't escape since we got stuck on 2 puzzles, but even if we didn't get stuck, there is a lot to do and we would've struggled to finish anyway as a team of 2. There is no crawling or climbing. My ranking of the rooms I've played here starting with my favorite, assuming you have a good GM, no technical issues, and a properly reset room (which can be a problem here): 1. Missile Crisis 2. Experimental Hughes (a bad GM ruined our experience, but I'm ignoring that for the ranking) 3. Vault Heist 4. The Forgotten (ignoring the tech issues we had) 5. Capone's 21 Club