Key Info
- Nakheel Mall, The Palm, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
- 60 Minute Game
- 2 - 7 Players
- Escape Rate not Stated
- 175AED Per Player
- Free Parking at Mall
- 8/10 Difficulty
We Escaped In
47 Minutes
- Pete, Nate
- April 2023
Room Brief
You, brave inhabitants of Abbasid, now is the time to show your loyalty and save our caliphate from the Dark Khalif and his evil plan. He already succeeded in conquering the neighbouring Caliphates and exiled our Sultan. His next step is to destroy our land and our people, dominate the area and create a new Caliphate that will be ruled under the power of fear. You are the only one who can resist and defeat him and save our land from this upcoming disaster.
Immersion
Pete
Nate
By the time we got around to playing Game Over we’d already spent a few days exploring Dubai and what it has to offer. Anyone who has been knows that this city absolutely prides itself on delivering the best possible experiences and customer service available. As a result, its safe to say we had fairly high expectations of what Dubai’s escape rooms might offer. Thankfully, this room did not disappoint.Â
Game Over are based in the Nakheel Mall, which sits on the Palm in one of Dubai’s most popular areas. Nestled among the likes of Hugo Boss and Sephora, their unit in the mall stand out thanks to its over the top 3D wall art and neon signs. Its not too dissimilar from Escape Hunt’s look and feel in the UK and like those guys, Game Over is a big operation with branches in multiple countries.Â
One Thousand and One Nights takes place in an Arabic souk. The room well decorated to look like the winding streets of one of Dubai’s traditional markets and features stalls, doorways and produce that players may or may not need to use throughout the game. The designers here have taken a square room and built additional walls and rooms to create a winding alley feel. Paired with toned down lighting and an ambient soundtrack, the room absolutely captures the feel of a covered market.Â
Entering the room, it was obvious the gameplay would take us into other areas. These areas were partially covered and offered glimpses into other, similarly themed zones which brilliantly kept the theme from the entrance consistent across the game.Â
Puzzles & Challenges
Pete
Nate
The aim of the game here isn’t to simply escape the market, but rather to solve the clues in order to defeat an evil Sultan. One Thousand and One Nights is more of a technical escape room and features fewer padlocks than more traditional games. Solving puzzles tends to revolve around physical actions, placements of objects or activating hidden switches.Â
The game began in the winding and dark, but fairly large, market place. Here there were some fairly obvious nods to puzzles dotted around that we knew we would need to solve in order to move on. The solutions to these puzzles were hidden in the room and a bit of searching we were able to kick off a series of puzzles that got the game underway. From this point on the game became a good mix of traditional clues with technological solutions and results.Â
Without offering up any spoilers, there were three points in the game that really felt like they offered something very different to other rooms we have played. One of these involves using precision rather than logic and thankfully we were provided with enough “ammunition” to have multiple goes (which we needed). The one puzzle that could have been a bit of a standout moment for us was unfortunately not the easiest to handle. What should have been a really fun 5 minutes was actually quite frustrating!Â
Games Master & Clues
Pete
Nate
The team at Game Over were friendly, accommodating and welcomed us in to the game despite the fact we’d made a very last minute booking whilst visiting the mall. We were given a choice of rooms and the staff managed to get us playing within 5 minutes of arriving. Our host was great, explained the quirks of the game and then handed over to the room.Â
We say handed over to the room as from this point on the room acts as story teller and clue master via an integrated screen. The screen is disguised by being a port hole into a door so this rather high tech addition to the room doesnt look out of place. Our digital GM informed us of the scenario and set us off on our way easily.Â
In the event we wanted a clue, we were to interact with the touch screen and request a pre-determined clue. If still unable to solve the clue we could again request a more in depth clue. If both of these options failed then the same screen would connect us with our real life games master on the outside. This actually worked well as the initial clues were subtle enough for us to not feel too guilty about accepting hints.Â
The man in the market wasn’t the only occupant of the room however, and at various points of the game we had to interact with other characters who were equally as well integrated into the theme of the room.  Â
Value for Money
Pete
Nate
For our one hour experience at Game Over, we paid 175aed per person, which in sterling is about £38. This isn’t the cheapest game by any means compared to games at home but locally this is a decent rate. There isn’t much to do in Dubai that doesn’t set you back more than £38 per hour! The room was of great quality and the venue looks superb. We didn’t really mind spending a little bit more here.Â
As with most of the malls in Dubai, there was free parking at the venue.Â
Enjoyment
Pete
Nate
We played a couple of games while visiting Dubai, safe to say we enjoyed what Game Over had to offer most. The game offered us a challenge and a novel theme. We appreciated the strong and consistent aesthetic throughout the game and the many surprises the room threw at us whilst we were playing.Â
We escaped the room with the help of its occupants and a few clues, leaving feeling very happy with ourselves for saving the Caliphate! This room is definitely worth a visit if you are visiting the palm.Â
Total Score
What else we got up to in Dubai
We spent a week in Dubai exploring the city. We took in a number of the cities viewing platforms including the Frame, The Palm Tower and the incredible Burj Khalifa. All three are well worth a visit and offer different views over the city. The Palm gave us spectacular views of the iconic islands and was the easiest (quietest) to visit.Â
We managed to enjoy a bottomless brunch at the Atlantis Hotel, where we ate and drank far too much! We spent a good few hours strolling around the Mall of Dubai, Nakheel Mall and Dubai Hills Mall where we also took the chance to have a ride on the Storm Coaster, the fastest vertical launching rollercoaster in the world. Fortunately during our visit the annual Global Village was still running which was an incredible opportunity to sample world foods and enjoy the funfair.Â
Outside of our urban adventure we also enjoyed the wild life of UAE. We went quad biking, camel riding and sandsurfing which was an absolute must. A brilliant morning and we were home just after midday to enjoy a few hours by the pool. We also visited the Al Qudra lakes for a barbecue surrounded by flamingos, cranes, geese and wild cats. We also took time to take a visit to Abu Dhabi where we visited the grand mosque before hiring kayaks and paddling around the natural mangrove islands.Â
