Can you keep your nerve against a ticking clock? Good at problem solving? Want something to do this holiday that doesn’t involve an Easter bunny?

Yes? Well, I liked to think I was the same but am having to write this from beyond the grave as I failed to work out the clues that would have saved my life.

Escape Plan LIVE is a new team game at Fort Amherst. The aim is to get out of a room or find a life-saving object within 60 minutes.

It means, if you want to win the game you might need to pick your group better than I did…

There are four scenarios: the air raid, a hostage rescue, a murder scene, and an asylum. All are set in the dark and creepy tunnels of the (allegedly) haunted fort.

We chose the air raid and were exposed to a deadly gas. We had to get the antidote inside one of two padlocked cases in a bomb shelter to survive – using clues in the room to release the locks.

Too much information would spoil the experience, but I dare anybody not to feel genuine frustration and even desperation scrabbling around frantically to piece the clues together.

It doesn’t matter that you’ve paid for the experience and you know you are not actually going to die as a result of an asylum being demolished, a murderer on the loose or a maniac kidnapper, because getting into the story makes the whole thing really fun.

You might even be surprised how quickly that happens, and how you and your friends react.

For me it became a bit of an obsession. But one of my team mates turned out not to be too useful, and in the end he gave up and used the time to “boost our morale” with his terrible singing voice. It almost drove us all insane.

He argued his mind didn’t work in a way that fitted with the challenge – that there was not always a logical method to follow.

That is why you need lots of different minds to break the codes. And we did almost survive, but ran out of time with just two locks left to break.

For the same price as a cinema ticket, that hour was interesting, unusual and tough – but it also really made us laugh.

I can see it becoming addictive. I already want to go back and try the murder mystery.

The small print:

Escape Plan LIVE opens on Saturday, April 4 and is only running until early June.

Tickets cost £9 per person, and the challenge is suitable from children over 10 provided there is an adult present.

Groups can be up to six, eight or 10 depending on the room chosen.

If you are a small group, it may be you are put with other people to make up the numbers in challenge.

However, you can book a room as a single private group and then age limits do not apply as long as there is an adult present.

See www.escapeplanlive.com