Houdini’s Escape Room Experience Birmingham: Escape From Titanic

Let me start by saying that this wasn't even the room we were supposed to be doing. We had booked Hexmore, and on arrival we were told that Hexmore was so broken that he didn't want us doing it and he asked if we were happy to do Titanic instead. So I was already annoyed that they didn't contact me in advance and ask us to change (what would they have done if we had already done Titanic before?) we were taking some friends for their first ever escape room and wanted something easy for them. It's a good job we were experienced enough to help them through it; because this room was a mess! 

The GM was completely unenthusiastic and unhelpful. He led us to the room where we were given no briefing whatsoever. No health and safety, no 'these are the sort of locks you might find', nothing. Just told us that because of the mixup he would give us 90 minutes and sent us in. There is a lot of GM intervention in this room so if you get an uninterested GM like we did then this room is not going to be as enjoyable. 

HERE IS YOUR SPOILER WARNING! The rest of this review does contain some spoilers.

The first area was in my opinion the best room, theming was great and there seemed to be lots of puzzles for everyone to solve. However... on inspection, the puzzles were badly damaged. Clues were stuck to elements using stickers, half of which were missing and you could just about see where they had tried to carve the missing clues back onto the objects, but it was very hard to see and very clearly not intentional - just broken. Here's the one that got me the most agitated -  the numbers for one of the clues had been stuck on/scrawled in the wrong order! So the solution was spelled wrong, very confusing. But it wasn't just the clues that were broken, one of the key puzzle elements that we collected instantly fell apart in our hands so we had to keep putting it back together until we found out where it needed to go.

There are also a lot of red herrings throughout this room which may well have just been old broken puzzles that they didn't bother to fix.

Moving on to the next area involved some crawling (there was no prior warning on booking that there would be any physical activity). However, we quite liked it and it fit with the theme. 

The next area had such potential, this was the room where they could have absolutely gone to town on the theming but it was quite the opposite. Very minimal and very cheap. They had large black panels on the wall in place of windows. They could have at least put some artwork there that made it look like you were looking out of a window, not just solid black panels. What few elements there were in here were just more red herrings and we were so convinced they should be puzzles that the GM just used the microphone to tell us exactly where to find a hidden clue (which we hadn't asked for and was so direct it was very aggravating).

In the next area were were then tasked with the typical morse code puzzle, but the GM didn't even let me finish putting in all of the information before he activated the next step, so it was rather pointless. 

To end it all off, the finale was rather weak. The premise was cool but the budget fir theming must have run out as they seemed to give up on it. This section of the game was aimed at 4 players so may have been tricky with less, especially as the elements didn't stay put without you holding them. The game then just sort of finished and we were left wondering if we were meant to just press the switch to exit or wait for the GM to eventually turn up and let us out. 

Overall, I was left very disappointed by a game that I had heard good things about. The room seems dated, it's broken, it's rather illogical in its puzzles and red herrings at times and the GM was a let down. The whole location (not just Titanic) seemed very unprofessional and in need of some serious work. The newcomers enjoyed it, but as enthusiasts were would definitely not recommend it.  

Some basic puzzles with not a lot of thought along with too much searching and illogical puzzle solving made a room that had great promise and a good overall look very disappointing. I noticed the Southampton version of the game is 90 minutes so may be bigger and better but we visited Birmingham. The hosting was also not great as it felt they were trying to push us through as quickly as possible and even giving a clue when I had asked not to. Most of the clues were just telling us where to find something or what to do rather than a gentle push in the right direction. 

The GM got my back up from the start, and the experience left me feeling deflated and underwhelmed.

Firstly, make sure you're at least 15 minutes early!! We didn't realise this, and was then informed our time would be docked for time spent filling in the monstrous 'paper work' for the whole team. 

Once we'd all provided our apparently inoptionable names, phone numbers, DOBs, e-mails and signed waivers for all 4 team members, taking turns on their one tablet, we finally got to the room. 

The room is beautiful and really fits in well with the team. I thought their website had said this room could do up to 7 people, but I wouldn't have wanted any more than the 4 of us in that tight a space. Then, later on, we found one of the tasks would be difficult to do with less than 4 people! So 4 is perfect.

The puzzles were in keeping with the theme, which is a really big plus, but it's probably the only positive I have. The room is ultimately flawed, as it requires intervention by the GM, who is busy on the desk and answering calls.

Effectively, the room has become run down and I think they've made changes to the room, so there's 'red herrings' left behind by previous iterations. They may simply be red herrings, but it really felt like there were things in the room that were intended to be part of the game. I mean literally... there were padlocks left unlocked! Does that sound right to you?

Here's a Spoiler Warning before you continue reading this review!! I'll try not to go into too much detail, but... it's hard.

There were 2 aspects of this game that I really struggled with; I didn't realise it was going to be so physical. Our mom wasn't too pleased! And I'm recovering from surgery. Going through a tunnel is one thing. Going through it multiple times and doing puzzles in the tunnel was a pain. 

I thought it was great, being a mission on a ship, that we had to use maps and a compass, but they should have provided a unit of measure for the map. Usually, there would be a piece of string or a ruler or something. Parts of the game were physically broken, so the GM had to intervene. And one task in particular had us all frustrated;  communicating and performing Semaphore. It's a great idea - I'm not irritated by the concept - but 14 letters later I was getting annoyed. At that point, you've worked out the puzzle, you've figured out the task... so now you're just watching the time tick away as you perform Semaphore, over and over, waiting for the thumbs up or thumbs down from the GM - taking us back to what I was saying before - any game that requires GM intervention, where the GM is not dedicated to your game, is flawed. 

And I say watch the time tick by, but actually, they haven't included a clock! I found this very frustrating to not be able to gauge our time.

Worst still, there was no end to the game. I don't know what the ending used to be, or is supposed to be, but it didn't happen for us today. We made it into the final room. We had collected the necessary. We're positioning them into place to perform the big team finale sequence - it was set up to have a great ending! Then the GM walks in and congratulated us on winning the game. ... But we didn't finish the game? I don't know what we were supposed to do or achieve in that final room, but it didn't happen. He then apologised for having the booking times wrong, so there was no need to dock our minutes for being late! It turns out the next team aren't due for another half hour - which we could have told him because we know his schedule from the website. So for all the stress and fallout at the start of the game, it was all for nothing in the end.

To be honest, by the time we'd entered the room, having filled in all that paperwork and being told our time would be docked, I wanted to tell him to stuff his room and walk out, but we'd already paid and it had taken us an hour to travel there. 

In the end, it was a pretty bitter experience and I don't think they'll be winning any awards for customer service. I can't even name the GM, because when we asked for his name, he just said "call me Captain." Yes, funny, because we're on the Titanic... but now I don't even know who I'm moaning about. All in all, not an impressive or enjoyable experience.

Had wanted to do this game for a while and it lived up to my expectations. Great theming and a good variety of puzzles. Although our games master said at the start we could have as little or as much help as we wanted, I feel he guided us quite a lot towards the end when we hadn't asked for it which I think is why our finish time was quite short. Despite this it was still an enjoyable experience and different to a lot of other games I've previously played.

Titanic was an original theme which is something we value in a room. Great use of space without feeling either empty or crammed. All of the puzzles were relevent to the story and did not feel shoehorned in and provided a decent level of challenge for an experienced team.

A well-decorated room that created good immersion, with a good variety of puzzles that felt intrinsic and natural.