Escape Stockport – Little Shower of Horrors

Escape Stockport – Little Shower of Horrors.
Location: Stockport
Game Date 18/10/2017.
Team Amy, Ian, Sam & Jamie.

We teamed up for Little Shower of Horror with Sam and Jamie from Lock us Up… you can read their review here.
I feel I have to preface this by saying this is going to be the hardest review I am going to write. I am not in the business of tearing people down when they have worked hard to create an Escape Room, I find the good, I report honestly on games… But Escape Stockport (NOT to be confused with the Escape brand that is a nationwide franchise of good quality games) have not put any care into their game. Which we found out last night…

Theme:
“Please note Strictly adults only.
Intense horror escape room: you awake to find yourself in the pitch black chained up. A series of puzzles awaits you and your group, you either all escape or none of you do.”

We “awoke” to us all being handcuffed (with Velcro handcuffs, which ended up being a godsend) in various corners of a bare, wood panelled room, that was incredibly small… There was no attempt at theming, atmosphere or tension.
For a room that purported to be intense, adults only and scary this was only scary due to the real dangers found in the room!
Exposed screw heads, live wires, sharp edges….
Ian being chained to a WORKING shower, with live wires exposed near to the padlock. (honestly, part of the brief was “don’t turn the shower on it still works)
Myself being chained to the wall, Jamie to a radiator (god help him had it have been on) and Sam to the wall.
We were provided with 1 torch between the 4 of us, which we had to share.
There were no cameras in the room, which meant the Game Host was not watching over us to make sure we were O.K. and safe, and clearly due to this he had no idea of our progress throughout the room.
The room was small, dank and had nothing redeeming about it whatsoever.

Game Play:
The aim of the game was to free each team member to escape.
There was no logic in the puzzles (maybe save for the very first puzzle) and this meant that whilst Ian and Sam got released fairly early, Jamie was cuffed for approx 50 minutes and I was cuffed for the entire hour (thank god for those Velcro cuffs)
The entire game took place in the light of a black-light, which after 60 minutes is quite headache inducing.
There were deliberate red herrings within the room, one of which was a jigsaw, this is utterly unacceptable, time wasting and served to further complicate the final puzzle.
There was almost no flow in the game, we managed to bluster our way throughout the game… which was pure guess work and luck until we got to the final puzzle and were stuck on it for nearly 20 minutes, again… ridiculous!
I can’t really say any more on this room. There was no logic, no flow and no enjoyment whatsoever.

Clue System:
The host occasionally laughed as he was just sat outside the door, at one point we were asking for a clue and were told “you’re not allowed hints” – then after asking and asking, explaining what we had left to open we were given a clue for a lock we had already opened….

Game Host:
Stewart was our host and he was a nice guy, but he didn’t know the game as it was his first time running it.
He admitted at the end he didn’t know how the final puzzle worked, or how to solve it. This explains the lack of hints, and deliberate stalling of us throughout the game. HOW is a host supposed to run a game when he doesn’t know it, can’t see the players and wont help….

Did we escape?
No… not for lack of trying. Please do not think this bad review is because of the loss, there are several games we’ve lost that have been excellent (Vault 17, The Invitation Rest Easy Motel)

Website: http://escapestockport.co.uk/
Price:
4 Players £50

I honestly can’t recommend this game. Don’t waste your money.