You know that feeling when you’re hurtling through space in a malfunctioning escape pod, you have to repair it before the meteor shower hits, and you can’t stop humming David Bowie’s Space Oddity? We’re lost in space, in Edinburgh.
- Location: Edinburgh
- Players: 2 – 6
- We played: October 2018 as a team of 5
Great things about Operation Odyssey
- A good game host makes all the difference to an escape room experience. Our host for Operation Odyssey was enthusiastic, funny and attentive both before and during the game, getting into character to make our time at Can You Escape more entertaining.
- Many of the puzzles in Operation Odyssey required careful cooperation and communication between teammates. We emerged with a closer sense of comradeship with our fellow space travellers.
- The non-linear flow of this room (ahem, sorry, this spacecraft) means that there are several puzzles which can be solved in parallel – ideal for splitting up if you’re a larger group. Everyone in our team of five was kept occupied and the time flew by.
- To keep the lights on, you’ll need to find and use “radioactive” fuel cells at regular intervals, a device which adds an extra element of urgency to the game.
- We liked that there was an element of humour to some of the puzzles. The ending of the game was also playful and unexpected.
On the other hand…
- Although the overall theming of the room was strong, there were quite a few incongruous game elements, objects that had no clear reason to be in a space vessel. In particular, a lot of the clues to puzzles came in the form of laminated pieces of paper that didn’t fit the narrative. There were also a lot of padlocks, although it was generally clear which code or key was for which lock.
- We messed up one task straight away, and there was no way to reset it – it could only be bypassed by the host. Maybe we should have approached it more cautiously, but it would have been great to have another try!
Who should try this room?
Operation Odyssey was a great choice for a group of five as we were all kept busy and entertained. This room is fun without being extremely challenging, and would be good for most groups of friends or family.
Rating – 8/10
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