The Escape Room – Room 13

The Escape Room – Room 13
Location: Manchester
Game Date 23/08/2015.
Team: Amy & Ian

Theme:
“On the way home from a vacation with your family, your car breaks down in the middle of nowhere with no reception to call for help. Seeking shelter from the dark of night, you decide to check yourself and your family in to one of the rural hotels nearby. The elderly caretaker of the run-down hotel informs you that there are no other hotels within walking distance. After checking into one of the rooms, you find a series of rather supernatural things occurring within the room and you have been locked in from the outside. Complete the puzzles within the haunted room to figure out a way to escape within sixty minutes or suffer the wrath of the spirits you have angered.”

The theming was fabulous, from the elevator, through to the hotel corridor and multiple rooms, everything felt like you really were in a hotel. The ambience created was very tense and spooky, everything a run-down haunted hotel should be!

Game Play:
This has got to have the HARDEST first puzzle I have ever, ever experienced. In all honesty, I still don’t know how to solve it, or how we solved it on the day… this was a downer a little bit on the game as we took SO long trying to figure it out.
The other puzzles within the room were all very good, so very easy, but thankfully none harder than that damn first puzzle!

Clue System:
Now… this is where I have a problem with The Escape Rooms, their hint system- In most games the host will watch via CCTV and will deliver hints when THEY think you need them, usually through a screen.
At The Escape Game, they do not do this, to have a clue, you have to press a buzzer within the room, then a Game Host will come in, ask where you’re stuck and give a clue in that way. I don’t like this, maybe some people do, but I feel it hampers your game and you could spend way to long on something that, if the Game Host was watching, they would have given you a nudge when it was needed.
I suppose this really is personal preference though, as a few people I’ve chatted to like this method!

Game Host:
We didn’t really have much interaction with the Game Hosts, but the interaction we did have was friendly and welcoming

Did we escape?
Yes! With a decent amount of time left on the clock too! Phew!

Website: http://www.theescaperoom.co.uk/Manchester
Price: £20pp