From TES issue 54 (November 2008)

Series 2/3. Level 3.
THE FINAL GUILLOTINE CHAMBER

The closing stages of a winning quest always demanded tension and excitement and, although I’m absolutely certain that no dungeoneer would ever have been killed off here, the Guillotine Chamber provided a nice little prelude to the impending victory for both winning teams in series 2. The room looked like it was suspended in space, and the only exit was being guarded by a guillotine that was chopping up and down at quite a pace. Leaving through this exit would mean that victory was but a heartbeat away – very exciting stuff, I’m sure you’ll agree.
Upon arrival in this room, the two winning dungeoneers from series 2 each had to step very carefully up to the brink of the starlit void in order to collect a vital item that was suspended in space (an energy tree for Julian and the final letter of the spell FREE for Mark) before walking over to the guillotine and leaping through the exit when the deadly blade had risen to the top of the doorframe, which sported a rather nice demonic face. Neither team found any trouble in completing this feat, but it did add a nice bit of tension to the scene, and underline the significance of the final room, deep in level three, at the very point of victory.

Now, you may wonder why I have included series 3 in my headline for this article, as well as series 2. As we are all painfully aware, series 3 had no winners, and so no one got far enough to reach the Guillotine Chamber. However, if they had got far enough, I’m sure it would have been there waiting for them, not least because the room was featured in the closing credits of episode seven of the series. The series 3 quests took the same basic structure as those in series 2, in that three separate pieces of the quest object were picked up in levels two and three, before being reunited at the very end. As in series 2, I’m sure the floating arrow that followed the Guillotine Chamber would have been the place to do this in series 3. Of course, I could be wrong…

Difficulty: 5 Well, reaching out into space was a tricky maneuver.
Killer Instinct: 1 Unlikely to finish off a quest so close to victory, I feel.
Gore Factor: 9 Could have been very nasty!
Fairness: 8 Well, level three should be tough!

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