Keyhunter: The Triads

I feel mean giving it such a low score, as it felt like more of a family run business than the bigger companies. It doesn't have the same finesse or sophistication as other places, but it was the care and lack of attention to detail that really let it down. 

As it's my first loss I don't want to seem bitter, but I feel my review is honest because of the issues we had. 

Firstly, should you go to Keyhunter, make sure you read the game synopsis on the website before hand. There's no snazzy video intro here or atmospheric room design to lead you into your mission. It felt like we were in someone's house and had just been led up to a bedroom. The Games Master gave us no background story, just pointed out which puzzles to start with and that if we finished within the time to just let ourselves out. She left us with a walkie talkie and then the clock started. There is a laminated card in the room with the synopsis from the website printed on it, so you can find out the story while you're there but it'll eat into your time to read it. 

The puzzles themselves were more just annoying than difficult. I felt like I was playing 52 Card Pick Up. Once you had completed the puzzles, it then wasn't clear in which order to enter the revealed digits into the padlock. This ate into our time a lot. Mostly because we have not come across this before. Normally a puzzle would reveal a full and complete answer, so we spent more time looking for what we'd missed in the puzzle than just entering the combinations. We didn't want to cheat. Eventually we asked over the radio, but the Games Master confirmed you have to just test the possible combinations. 

I think there radio was also on the same frequency as the local Tesco or something. I'm sure there were other people talking on it. We were never sure if or when someone was talking to us, or whether it was part of the game.

It turned out we were on the last puzzle when the time ran out. The Games Master was nice enough to talk us through the last bit, and I do believe we would have finished if not for the issues in the room. Not only all the above, but the room also required some physical strength I wasn't prepared for having just come out of surgery a couple of weeks before. I've also never been to an Escape Room where you practically have to trash the place in order to complete it. This was too physically exerting for me and there was no warning for that. 

I think if Keyhunter was cheaper than other escape rooms I could be more forgiving of their shortcomings, but it isn't, so I feel they really need to up their game.