Time Run: The Celestial Portal Review

When it comes to escape rooms in London, Time Run is hailed as one of the best. With an immersive story line, elaborate sets and special effects – it’s supposed to be something completely different than the regular run of the mill escape room. Unfortunately I haven’t had a chance to visit Time Run: The Lance of Longinus but I was lucky enough to be invited to review their latest chapter, The Celestial Chain.

The story line for this chapter is this ‘A rogue goddess, once imprisoned, has broken free of her shackles – the titular Celestial Chain – and is moving freely through time; wreaking havoc and leaving a trail of devastation in her wake. Gather the artefacts you need from across time to imprison an ancient force’.

Arriving with my trusty team of five (one who had experienced Time Run’s first game plus is an expert in Escape rooms and three escape room newbies), we waited patiently to ring the doorbell for our allocated spot. Time Run is very particular about late comers. Miss your allocated time and you’ve lost your booking. At 10.15am exactly, we were greeted by Doctor Aubrey Defoe and the rules and story line of Time Run’s The Celestial Chain were explained to us. At this point we were raring to go and get started.

Time Run: The Celestial Chain isn’t your typical escape room. Our aim was not to escape from each room but to solve clues to help us collect artefacts which we’d need to stop Nemesis from destroying the world. Easier said than done right? Well four out of the five rooms you visit, you’re only given 12 minutes to solve the clues and collect your artefacts before being ushered out into the next room.

While this helps the game time move quickly, it does get slightly frustrating when you’re just about to solve a clue or get that box open to get your artefact and you’re told to move on. This has to be the biggest let down of the game. My friend Rodney is still sore that after painstakingly maneuvering a box to his reach, he didn’t have time to unlock it before we had to move on.Luckily we had Luna and Babbage helping us along though some of their helpful hints weren’t so helpful. Especially in the last room as once we managed to solve half the puzzle to get our Furium tubes, we again had to leave.

Overall our team did pretty well, we scored 90 out of 100 for our efforts in Time Run. Our enthusiastic attitude earned us the ‘team type’ of The Bold as we launched into history with frantic dynamism but sometimes action is best served with a side of deliberation. It definitely described our team to a T.

Time Run: The Celestial Chain is now open and definitely worth adding to your list of escape rooms to complete in London. Not only is it full of immense detail, an immersive story line, challenging puzzles and plenty of laughs, it’s something that has never been seen before. It was an enjoyable way to spend 90 minutes and my entire team thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

Tickets can be booked on line at http://www.time-run.com/

Reporter: Tegan LeBon

Twitter and Instagram: @toogs1

Time Run: 9-15 Helmsley Pl, London E8 3SB