The Panic Room Gravesend: Hell House

This is an example of a excellent and challenging game room that truly requires coordination and communication within the team. Quality puzzles, variety was mind blowing. No repetition, no cheap "now work it out 6 times more" manual labour. Brilliant. 

We really enjoyed this game but we felt that there were a few things that could be fixed or improved on to make this a five star game. 

When we went into the room (no fog for us, not sure why, I know it is normal to have it and when we played Riddled next door the team after us had fog) and one of the secret doors was already open and the GM had to come back in and wedge it shut. Later on when legit opening it the "switch" was very stiff - the door fits too tightly in the frame.

It's marketed as a horror room but it isn't scary, just ridiculously dark. One weak lantern between four people isn't enough. In the areas with lamps we ended up taking the lampshades off to give more light. A few more noises when opening doors and rooms could make this more intense. 

There is a lot of crawling. A lot. The flooring  in the crawl bit has cork chips and they do provide kneepads (which I really like) but there is a lot of crawling and it needs at least two people to do this.

There is a lot of reading - you're given a notebook with clues in which guide you at various places. The script used is very small and intentionally gothic - because the notebook is quite old and worn the font is very very hard to read, especially in the low light. 

There is a constant thumping noise which we thought was intended to create a creepy atmosphere but it's actually the axe throwing next door! At least it fitted thematically (not so much for the wizard school room, where the thumping is just annoying).

They make really good use of the space, this room works on lots of levels. Overall we really enjoyed this but with a little work it could be superb.