Houdini’s Escape Room Experience York: Room 13

This was the best of the 3 rooms at Swindon Houdini's and in my opinion is the only one worth doing. I really loved the decor - it does feel like you're in a hotel and it's a multi room experience which is always a winner. There was (as with all games we have played here) some broken tech so the GM game in as we tried to open the directional padlock just in case it didn't work. 

As I've described in my other reviews at Houdini's, the clue system for the games games (at least in the Swindon branch) is the GM just appearing in the room to give you hints. It's very disconcerting and completely ruins the immersion. We only had 1 hint for this room  so only saw the GM twice during the room but if I'm honest, one time is too many!

I still wouldn't really recommend doing this room - although I enjoyed it, Houndini's seems to have a lot of broken tech which takes them a long time to fix so it may not be very good on another day of the week.

Advice: wait a few weeks/months for the tech to be in place properly! 

It's a shame because the room and puzzles were actually really good  and immersive but the whole experience was ruined by the gamesmaster loitering in the room. 

I don't think it was the gamesmaster's fault as he was clearly told to do this by his managers so that he could give clues if a team is struggling; as they don't have their clue system set up yet. 

Overall good, solid escape room and logical fun puzzles - but the hovering gamesmaster felt extremely off-putting and awkward

We visited Houdini’s in Thurrock to play a fairly new escape room today: Haunted Hotel.  The room had the extra novelty of being situated within an actual hotel!  We got out in 36 minutes 43 seconds.  That’s not a brag - it just seemed to be missing an extra challenge / puzzle / room and so we felt a little disappointed when we completed it in quite a quick time (unusual for us!) There could have been more in the way of context / storyline.

It was spooky but not particularly terrifying - there was a lack of jump scares which to be fair is not everyone’s cup of tea.  However, the theming and decor is brilliant and there was a general sense of unease throughout.  Jake our Game Master played his role brilliantly and was suitably creepy.

Overall, this new escape room may need a bit more added to it to really hit Houdini’s high standards, but was still a good adrenaline rush.