“There had been suspicion that M.Corp had been experimenting with radiation and it was confirmed when there was a nuclear explosion devastating the surrounding area. The lingering radiation is turning survivors into mutants.
An underground research facility nearby has been working towards a possible treatment, but an emergency distress signal has been sent out and you’ve been tasked to recover the antidote research. Upon arrival, however, it seems the facility’s self-destruct sequence has been initiated…”
A race against time to find the antidote, cure a bunch of radioactive mutants and escape your underground research facility to ultimately save the world is quite an intense premise!
Escapism have done a great job here with a hook to entice you in and give you that sense of pressure that what you’re doing really matters.
There is a disclaimer on their website that reads “Please note that some aspects of this room may be unsuitable for younger players. Please speak with your game host if you wish to make the room child friendly.”
We love the fact that rooms are becoming more inclusive and dynamic to include different ages and types of people. Very curious to know what they do to affect it’s ‘child friendliness’, but imagine that it would be down to a handful of particularly gruesome or scary props!
The premise of an underground research facility will conjure up all sorts of images and ideas, and Radioactive didn’t disappoint with its room design.
The room begins with an intro video to get you up to speed on the context and mission briefing. The cool thing about this is that the video actually includes members of Escapism staff (ours just so happened to include our actual host!) and is a really cool way of adding some personality to the room. It gave us a laugh as well with a few humorous moments.
Without giving too much away, the beginning of the game is really cool as you’re in quite an enclosed space as you watch the video. It gives you no indication of the size of the full room beyond here, and your first tasks involve a series of puzzles to get past this initial area and into the next.
Without saying exactly what this enclosed space was, it was basically identical to something you’d find in the real world! You really wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.
If you’ve played previous rooms at Escapism, you’ll be pleasantly surprised at what they’ve done with the space beyond the initial area. It’s actually fairly big and well-lit overall.
We were expecting a darker experience with maybe torches and flickering lights, but the mid-section of the game was actually clean and a decent size. Surprising as the room theme has a darker concept behind it, but this still came across even in a brighter room.
There are several small touches and bits of attention to detail that didn’t go unnoticed to really set the scene.
It’s something special when a room just ‘clicks’, and Radioactive did just that.
It’s credit to the puzzle design and flow overall when this happens, as it means all the puzzles were very logical and well signposted.
Everything made complete sense and the moments where things really clicked were very satisfying and happened quite often.
We completed the room as a team of 2 which meant there was lots to do. We were never bored or too frustrated and were challenged with a variety of puzzle types including observation, colour, communication, teamwork, directions and so much more.
In general, the room had an impeccable flow without too much backtracking. The variety of puzzle types and sense of flow makes this such a solid room with all the elements you’d expect and want from an escape room experience.
On Escapism Chester’s website, Radioactive is rated as a 4/5 for difficulty. After playing (and smashing) the room, we would probably say it’s more of a 3/5.
We did fly through this room but we’re aware that previous experience puts us in good stead here. We only needed 1 clue throughout the experience and if we hadn’t been so incredibly dense in this one section, we could have completed it with a good time without any clues.
That’s not to say that the room is too easy. Even as experienced escapers, we still felt challenged and occupied throughout.
All in all, enthusiasts will get a kick out of this room and hopefully click with it as much as we did. In general, we’d actually recommend Radioactive for someone’s first ever escape room experience.
The difficult level along with the variety of puzzle types makes for a complete first-time experience, whilst still being challenging!
As mentioned, we only required one clue throughout our experience (because we were just completely dense to something quite obvious), and this was delivered via a TV screen (with a sound alert) that also doubles up as your timer.
The screen was easily visible at all times.
The GMs and team at Escapism Chester are always fantastic!
Radioactive was 1 of 3 rooms we completed that day in Chester, so we were already familiar faces by this point! The briefing was short as the bulk was delivered via video but we had an awesome experience here from beginning to end.
At the time of writing this, we’ve completed all of Escapism Chester’s games so we can’t wait for newer games in the future so we can return!
We did!
This room definitely clicked with us and flew through it with only 1 clue and a time of 46 minutes and 11 seconds.
We love playing rooms in Chester and Escapism should absolutely be on your list if you’re passing through or live locally.
Radioactive is one of the most solid rooms we’ve experienced and is probably among our favourites (if not our overall favourite) at Escapism. Great flow, immersion, and variety of puzzles.
If you’ve never played an escape room before, Radioactive at Escapism Chester is the perfect first-time experience.
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