by The Escaporium Halifax (website)
Ground Floor, Berwick St Mills, 23 Square Rd, HX1 1QG
2-8 players
Languages: EN
60 minutes
Well known alien hunter and conspiracy theorist, Professor Ross Well lives at 51½ George Street. After years spent collecting, and hunting evidence of extra-terrestrial life, he got his lucky break and came across a crash site up on the moors, complete with a live alien! He brought the alien back to his house with the intention of keeping him, but the mothership has tracked their friend down and arrived to collect him!
You begin your mission outside Professor Ross Well's house - what you will find in there is anyone's guess! But what you do know is that you only have one hour to return the alien back to the mothership, or our planet will be destroyed!
Your excellent investigative observation skills will be put to the test in Area 51½!
Overall rating
based on ratings from 40 users
combined with 4 pro reviews
Your review
Player reviews
We were a little nervous going in because we knew there would be a lot to do as a team of 2, but we thoroughly enjoyed it. Lots of puzzles and we enjoyed working together rather than splitting up the whole time. Great theme.
A stunning room which was very visually pleasing, the room is an excellent example of what an escape room can be! A lot of the references went over my head but my wife understood loads of them (all alien related) but we both really enjoyed this room. Lots of puzzles, great hosting and a thoroughly enjoyable experience. We were also glad of the extra time as we still had 7:30 left!
Genuinely the best room I’ve ever played. The puzzles are great and the set was magical. Brilliant hosting too. 10/10
An excellent and unique room. Did it as a team of 2 and needed the extra time, loads of brilliant and original puzzles.
An ambitious and immersive sci-fi themed room. There's an overwhelming amount of puzzles for a team of 2 to take on despite the extra 15 minutes given to smaller teams
Probably one of the best themed games we’ve played - the attention to detail is stunning and there are some great wow moments in this one. A few leaps in logic at times and yet another instruction booklet (we don’t like these) but still really really good!
Reviews by escape room review sites
We already played four rooms of Escaporium in Halifax in April 2022 and were very excited about the latest adventure Area 51 1/2, which we had already heard a lot of good things about. A 208th place in Terpeca’s first year (second best newcomer from the UK) also bodes well for a great experience.
What’s it about?
Professor Ross Wells is a conspiracy theorist and alien hunter. It is suspected that he discovered and abducted an alien. We are now standing in front of his house at 51½ George Street and have little time to get to the bottom of the matter. The mother ship is already approaching Earth to search for the missing friend. Will we succeed in freeing the alien from the professor’s clutches?
Area 51 1/2 is actually a 60-minute room. However, if you play with two people, you get 75 minutes of game time due to the quantity of puzzles and their mainly parallel structure. Some tasks require teamwork and good communication. We needed almost the entire time because there is really a lot to do. Puzzle lovers will get their money’s worth here.
Overall, I loved Area 51.5. In fact, in my whole trip down to Yorkshire to visit Al, Ash & Tasha, this was my very favourite room I did – and I’d be surprised if it didn’t make a regular appearance on all the enthusiast lists in the future.
Lists
- Best UK escape rooms 2023 by Escape the Review virtuosoThese are the 100 highest rated escape rooms in the UK, as of 31st Dec 2023, based on combined ratings from enthusiasts, bloggers and experts - every game here comes highly recommended.