Pinti has played 3 escape games and rated and reviewed all of them
the best room out of the ones we did at houdini's. really well put together set, only a few minor gripes to be had but overall really enjoyable visually. the atmosphere was great and we definitely got into it quite quickly whereas other rooms it usually takes a bit for any kind of immersion to kick in.
only real negative was one puzzle wasn't working entirely as intended, multiple pieces of something fit together to help you reach an object to progress but one of the pieces didn't fit with it so naturally we assumed we were missing another piece that it turns out we weren't. luckily my arm was long enough to reach without needing all pieces but i could see there being an issue for other teams. luckily the host was very attentive and friendly so i think if that did happen they'd likely help the team past the issue (if it hasn't already been fixed)
the puzzles felt varied and interesting, as did the methods of reaching the solutions. some really cool ideas at play even without any crazy hi-tech props needed. definitely scratched the itch of what you want from an escape room and we left thoroughly satisfied with our time spent there. a lot of rooms you find 1 or 2 puzzles feel like they don't quite follow the logic or flow of the room but that wasn't the case with this room (for us at least) so i have to rate it highly.
if you're going to do 1 room with houdini's then i recommend that this be the room you choose.
a solid room, theme was good and the props were fairly well put together. an unfortunate mishap with something not working as intended in the first part of the room put the start on a bit of a dampener but the host was brilliant and more than made up for the interruption honestly. immersion was decent, the level of the puzzles varied to the point where we were overthinking some of the more basic ones as a couple felt like they were "trickier" and we assumed the rest would match.
ending was okay, i can see why other reviews say it fell a little flat but it wasn't bad by any means. i think the room probably deserves a slightly lower rating but our experience was enhanced by an absolutely fantastic host which is why i've rated the experience as i have. i'd say this room is worth a go especially if you're a fan of this type of genre.
the worst of houdini's escape rooms that we've done so far - the most glaring issue being that in the other rooms the host speaks to you via something in the story (an ai on the ship in space break, a parrot in the pirate ship for the pirate one etc.) which keeps you immersed even when engaging with the host. for this room there is no such system in place and you have to shout for the host who then physically runs into the room, completely taking away from the immersion aspect of the room.
the puzzles also felt fairly uninspired, a few really good ideas sprinkled in (which is why the rating isn't lower) but the room was predominately number/code locks which begins to be a drag after a while. the pacing of the room also feels off where you're given stuff pretty much immediately that isn't used until close to the end, 2 rooms later. while i can appreciate that there is going to be some misdirection in these rooms it's just frustrating when you've got maybe 4 numbered locks to open of varying lengths on the go at the same time and one of like 2 clues you immediately have is completely irrelevant for the next 30+ minutes.
one other issue we had was there's a moment where you've got to open something and it takes a decent amount of force as it seemed to be held shut by a magnet but the host specifies "no excessive force needed" so we assumed it was just closed and needed to be triggered to be opened for probably half of our time in the room while it was supposed to be accessible the entire time. it's a small cabinet type door and it took considerably more force than full sized doors took to open so take from that what you will.
theme was okay, but again not really up to the standard of the other rooms. this also extended to the props which just felt lacklustre once again in comparison to the others.
overall it was a disappointing room as i could see some pieces of great ideas just completely let down by the other aspects of the room, which ultimately just led to a monotonous experience. the ending was also underwhelming and didn't really feel like an ending, caught us off guard that it was over. story and plot line similarly just felt disjointed. i'd recommend against doing this room unless they address these issues, and just go ahead with one of their better rooms as the difference in quality is like night and day.