As a break away from the ever increasing digital entertainments so many of us turn to in our spare hours, the Journal team was invited to solve a crime instead.

Ultimate Escape, one of Llandudno’s newest attractions and part of the ‘escape room’ activity sweeping the UK, offers two themed rooms in which groups of up to six people test their brains by solving puzzles, or in our case – a murder.

The room we selected presented us with a CSI style scenario: a crime scene with pieces of evidence to examine, a victim, several suspects and locked boxes containing further clues.

To gain access to the boxes we had to put our heads together to solve their opening mechanisms, some proving devilishly tricky.

Our ultimate goal was to solve the case by identifying the victim and the guilty party as well as determining when, where and how the crime had happened – all within one hour.

Unfortunately we did fail to crack the case, though we had fun discovering the secrets of the room, which was impressively dressed to look like a garden.

Ultimate Escape owner and creator Julian Chappell said: "Escape Games appeal to everyone who like a challenge combined with a lot of fun.

“The sense of urgency when having to solve puzzles and complete the challenges against the clock makes the feeling of satisfaction greater as each step is completed, and the sense of achievement when all challenges have been met is addictive.

“I decided to open Ultimate Escape in Llandudno as up until now the people of North Wales have had to travel to Manchester to find an Escape Game.

“At the moment Ultimate Escape provides the only Escape Games in North Wales, but they are so popular I would be willing to bet that more will follow.”

Rhyl Journal chief reporter Suzanne Jordan said: "This was my first experience of an Escape Room. so much effort had been made with the look of the room - it actually felt like we were outdoors.

“A lot of thought had gone into the storyline and clues. We didn't escape in time and we were wrong with our choice of murderer! But we had a great time working together."

North Wales Pioneer reporter Annie Roberts said: “I've never tried an escape room before so I was excited but slightly nervous to be locked in a room but I was so surprised at how realistic it was.

“As a fan of crime dramas it was great to be able to play out a crime scene and try and solve the murder mystery. I'm disappointed we didn't manage to guess the right suspect but it's definitely made me more inquisitive to try out other escape rooms.”

Ultimate Escape, based at The Old Stables in Garage Street also offers a room called ‘Escape From the Future’ which involves time travel and paradoxes.

To find out more visit www.ultimateescape.co.uk or call 01492 471493.

Pioneer readers can get a 10% discount off any game booked during October (to be played any time) by entering RJOURNAL in the ‘Discount Code’ box when booking online.