Time Run, London Fields review ★★★★★

In a madcap fusion of theatricality and gameplay, Time Run invites teams of three to five people to embark upon an adventure through three eras to recover a lost relic.

You are welcomed in to a delightfully detailed Victorian study, hidden away in the railway arches near London Fields. Once there you are briefed on the perils of time travel and the trials that await.

The premise is that you are a team of time-runners helping Victorian era-hopper Luna Fox to recover an invaluable object from the past. We were skeptical at first — it sounds a little like a kids' computer game and the video recordings that welcome you into the experience are a little twee. This will be a doddle, we thought.

But how wrong we were. Not only is the mission brought to life with delightful details, it's thrillingly tricky and full of surprises. Your attempts in each room are streamed live to a guide, who (probably with much mirth) drops small hints and occasionally lets you know when you're completely missing the point — like when we smugly assumed that we'd found the answer to the mystery, and a comment flashed up on the screen advising that actually, it was just the first in an intricate web of clues.

Our journey began in the future, where we rushed to decode clues in a space station in order to open the door. As we fumbled around, missing subtleties and finally, frantically, piecing it all together, helpful clues occasionally popped up on screen.

Next up was an ancient tomb, where our tasks included aligning the planets and rearranging the gods. Finally we were up against the clock in a Nazi Germany office, where a particularly dastardly puzzle left us stumped. Though the time ran out, the Time Run experience was unusual, utterly entertaining and a great night out with friends.