by Houdini's Escape Room Experience York (website)
clifton moor centre, York YO30 4XZ
2-6 players
Languages: EN
60 minutes
On April 10th 1912 the largest ship ever build left Southampton on her maiden voyage. She was called the ship of dreams, transporting people to New York in the height of luxury.
Just 4 days into the journey disaster struck as she collided with an iceberg.
On board, as first class passengers, with the impending doom; what would you do to escape the ill-fated ship?
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Overall rating
based on ratings from 76 users
combined with 6 pro reviews
Your review
Player reviews
Unfortunately, there were a few things that weren't great. The health and safety briefing at the start didn't include all of the information needed, so the GM then kept coming into the room to point out things he forgot to tell us (including 'when the phone rings I'm trying to send you a clue'- we were not told this, and prior just thought it was background noise!). He also came in to explain that some puzzles weren't working- it didn't affect our game too much at all, but it is something to note if you really enjoy the immersion aspect. It's also important to note that the GM directly interacts with the game, and you need to shout out answers in order for them to open something- I didn't mind this, and our GM was very attentive with his responses, but I can imagine that this might not be everyone's style.
I think this is definitely worth doing if you can get a deal on it (we used the 2 for £40 deal), but it's not one to travel for.
Fantastic room! A lot of thought has gone into the theming, really well laid out and enough to keep us all busy.
Our host was great and personable, but I don’t think there’s any reason a host should have to come into the room to clue (if you can call it that). Quite a vital component was also missing from our game — something that was only realised by the host about 15 minutes in after I couldn’t nail a precise element needed to end the game. Easy and preventable fix as well, you shouldn’t write on glass as it will eventually rub off?
Theming was great and I had a hoot with my friends but it was seriously a bummer as we’d have gotten out much quicker had the puzzle been in working order.
I really wanted to love this room. I'd read so many great reviews of the other versions of this game and it looks absolutely brilliant... but we found this a tricky experience.
There are bound to be teething issues with a new setup and we visited the York branch after six days of it opening, so hopefully the issues will be straightened out as more people do the rooms.
The set is just gorgeous and there are some lovely puzzles in here but we spent a long time trying to work some fiddly tech that, in the end, just didn't work. There also seems to be a bit of a design flaw in that the people from the room next door burst into our room halfway through our time, which did kind of ruin the immersive nature of the game.
I hate to leave any kind of negative review but this one just didn't work for us; saying that, all of the issues were solvable so hopefully all those problems will get sorted.
One of the worst games I have ever played. Despite having only been open three weeks, a lot of the room was damaged. Letters has been scratched off things that we thought were clues but were actually just room damage. One clue had been printed back to front. Some puzzles couldn't be used because they were broken. One puzzle we solved but the mechanism just didn't trigger. There was no way of speaking to the host. He kept just crawling into the room to tell us things were broken and to just move on. Also the room hasn't been reset correctly so he had to crawl back in and give us a key. It really broke the immersion and flow of the game.
A fun active experience. A very large room with lots of areas to it. Our host (v) was very overbearing and would have told us how to do every single puzzle before we'd even tried it if we hadn't started ignoring her.
Houdini's does seem to be carving out a reputation but it's probably not one they would want. The hosting here was fabulous, but the room was broken in a few cases and it was clear it needed some maintenance doing on it. It was on ok way to spend an hour but not worth going out of your way for, for the numbers only.
Reviews by escape room review sites
‘Immersive’ is a worrying term for a game based on the sinking of the Titanic, but fortunately they don’t take things as far as plunging players into the icy waters of the Atlantic. Instead, this game places the players in an upper class berth on the doomed ship, just as it begins to sink.
Houdini Escape excel at providing a good experience before and after the game, starting from the atmospheric lobby and the mini-cinema used for game briefings. I particularly admired the way they use a simple...
Let’s talk about climaxes. The one thing all good games shouldn’t do these days is to leave you unsure whether you have actually completed it. It definitely shouldn’t be dependent on the GM walking in and telling you.
As it turns out, the room has a lot going for it. It sprawls over several rooms (well, "cabins"), it looks fairly realistic (except for lack of motion, I guess) and proposes a few tasks I had never performed before (something I always appreciate after playing so many rooms). There are many references to real-life details in the puzzles, to the point where Titanic experts would probably be able to circumvent a puzzle or two. Yet, having said all that...
I had never heard of Houdini Escape rooms before, so when it was suggested that we do one of their rooms, I was unsure what to expect but was up for the challenge. They have multiple locations around the country and with Southampton closest we headed there and it seemed only apt to do the Titanic room. When we arrived we were greeted by the nicest host/games master who i'm so sorry but I don't remember his name. He is an absolute credit to the Houdini team. His passion and enthusiasm for his job was clear to see and he really made the whole experience, from checking in to escaping that much more fun and entertaining.
Houdinis Escape Onslow Road Southampton: Titanic
November 2022
Overview
This was Second visit to Houdini’s in Southampton after visiting the their Tenpin location earlier in the day taking on Extinct. We had booked in at their Onslow Road location for what is arguably the best rated escape room in the country, Titanic. This was our first 90 minute room. There is a car park nearby where you then have a 2 minute walk to the location so not too bad at all. The reception area is decorated as you would expect for an old immersive experience but it is not as grand as the Tenpin location. You are given an iPad to complete your information details and sign waivers. We were taken to an old cinema style room with popcorn machine and cinema screen ready to show us our brief.
Room impression
The room is up to 7 people, however, we would not recommend going with a group of that size. Some of the areas in the game are quite tight and as a team of 4 we did struggle a little bit in some parts. The set of the game is as you would expect, fully immersive and completely in keeping with what task we were taking on. We would say that some of the props and games in the room were starting to look a little tired and were not as impressive as Extinct that we had done earlier in the day. In saying that, they had done a brilliant job in creating an immersive experience that we did all enjoy.
Puzzles
At the beginning of the game we found it quite easy to split up and tackle a few games on our own but as the experience went on, the games did become linear. As previously mentioned, some spaces were quite tight and this left some of our team stood watching whilst others were attempting the solve some puzzles. This put a little dampener on the experience for us and with much bigger teams, we can imagine this being quite a big issue. There were a lot of hide and seek games during the experience and at the beginning a few padlocks were to be found but on the whole, the puzzles were varied and fun throughout. It did take us a while to work out that when we did get a puzzle right, a ship’s bell would ring. We’ve not experienced this before and it was a nice touch to add to the immersive experience.
Game Master Clues
We can’t remember asking for any help during Titanic. Our games master did keep a watchful eye on us and if we steered slightly off track then a foghorn would sound which let us know we needed to have a little re-think. We were told that if we needed a clue all we had to do was ask and she would have came over on the speaker system.
Round Up
We had high expectations of this room and to the large part it did not disappoint. A lot of effort has gone into making one of biggest tragedies in human history a tasteful experience. You could see that game was starting to look a little tired on some of the puzzles that will probably need addressing at some point but it kind of added to the history of it all. This game is a must when visiting Houdini’s Southampton.
See also
- Houdini's Escape Room Experience Southampton: Escape the RMS Titanic (Southampton) (closed)
- Houdini's Escape Room Experience Birmingham: Escape From Titanic (Birmingham)
- Houdini's Escape Room Experience Cheshire Oaks: Escape from R.M.S. Titanic (Cheshire Oaks)
- Houdini's Escape Room Experience Nottingham: Escape From R.M.S. Titanic (Nottingham)
- Houdini's Escape Room Experience Coventry: RMS Titanic (Coventry)
- Houdini's Escape Room Experience Greenwich: Escape From R.M.S. Titanic (East London)
- Houdini's Escape Room Experience Crewe: Escape From R.M.S. Titanic (Crewe)
- Houdini's Escape Room Experience Southampton: Titanic (Southampton)
- Houdini's Escape Room Experience Swindon: Escape From R.M.S. Titanic (Swindon)
- Houdini's Escape Room Experience Milton Keynes: Escape From R.M.S. Titanic (Milton Keynes)
- Houdini's Escape Room Experience Dundee: Escape From R.M.S. Titanic (Dundee)
- Houdini's Escape Room Experience Worcester: Escape From R.M.S. Titanic (Worcester)
- Houdini's Escape Room Experience Stafford: Escape From R.M.S. Titanic (Stafford)
- Houdini's Escape Room Experience Sheffield: Escape From R.M.S. Titanic (Sheffield)
- Houdini's Escape Room Experience Manchester: Escape From R.M.S. Titanic (Manchester)