by Houdini's Escape Room Experience Nottingham (website)
Clifton Blvd, Redfield Way, Nottingham NG7 2UW
4-8 players
Languages: EN
60 minutes
Overall rating
based on ratings from 34 users
combined with 5 pro reviews
Your review
Player reviews
Props held together by gaffer tape, dirty props and floors. I came out of this game really wanting to sanitize my hands.
The game we needed some nudges along the way, it's a large and expansive set - but something just didn't quite work/flow.
On day one of this game I may be less critical, but there's a lot of care and attention required to bring this back to that level.
Really interesting theme with lots of detail. Interesting story line and the host played her part well.
Once again, issues 2 days in a row with Houdinis which surprises me for how highly rated Houdinis is. Turned up early again due to the email, didn't get spoken to until our exact start time. Fail to understand why put it in the email but never have staff there.
Anyway, GM was friendly and funny and tried his best to get into the role, I don't envy these guys trying to play a character all the way through but he did well.
The room was amazing, fully immersive, puzzles seemed to fit, the only downside was the failed reset and the skipping of a couple of puzzles. It is perfect for kids despite the website under 14 notice.
I would fully recommend the room but the overall experience at Houdinis has left me wondering why they are so wildly raved about.
We visited at the end of July and played Extinct as it was listed as the most difficult room available. As a group we had all played a fair few escape room, so we were eager for the challenge. The host who greeted us was enthusiastic and friendly, and I will give them credit where due for the great dedication they showed remaining in character for the entirety of our room!
Initially entering our room the set was great with immersive sounds and props- quite dark but this was due to the atmosphere and nature of the room theming. It was a little difficult navigating the space as a group of 4 with only 1 or 2 poor light sources, but I imagine this was to encourage us to work together. I do think the lighting affected the hosts ability to run the room for us though, as on completing a puzzle she had to wait for us to tell her we’d completed it over a radio. We weren’t aware that we had to do this so lost a little time standing around and didn’t get that instant sense of achievement after having solved something.
Without revealing any spoilers, travelling through our escape room we were starting to enjoy completing challenges and puzzles. Whilst the host was clearly very enthusiastic and passionate, it did feel like they were talking a LOT through the radio to us when we just wanted to be left to work through the room ourselves. We had plenty of time left so felt a bit puzzled as to why the games master was giving us so many nudges and talking to us so much. This felt a little frustrating after about 15 mins, especially when we’d be working through a puzzle and would sometimes feel as though we’d been cheated the satisfaction of coming to the correct answer ourselves. By about 20 minutes we’d stopped replying as much on the radio as it felt a bit too overbearing and was completely ruining the immersion of the game.
Whilst the room itself was themed well, it didn’t actually feel like there was that much to do. It felt like a lot of the game was padded out with films or audio and without this aspect- and interruptions from our games master- I feel that our team would have completed it in probably just under half an hour. Not a time that reflects the difficulty the room is rated at.
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In a departure from normal, I played Extinct as part of a family group including two kids (9 and 12) who were more or less new to escape rooms, which meant a rather different dynamic to playing solely with adult enthusiasts. The venue was clearly set up to handle younger players though - there was a horde of kids of a similar age in the lobby when we arrived, who’d just emerged from one of the other games.
Entering through the noisy arcade area and dealing with the waiver wasn’t the most immers...
Houdinis Escape Tenpin Southampton: Extinct
November 2022
Overview
This was first visit to Houdini’s in Southampton after months of planning and prep and we couldn’t wait. Their reputation did mean that we were all really looking forward to trying their rooms out and it was just a shame that we could only manage 3 rooms on our visit. You are given an iPad to complete your information details and sign waivers. There is a big waiting area with plenty of seating before being taken into the start of the main brief. There is a refreshment area and a sideboard selling a lot of home escape games. We were taken to an old cinema style room with popcorn machine and cinema screen ready to show us our brief. The host was brilliant in going straight into character and because of how well she did, it was difficult to know when our brief ended and the game began, which was great.
Room impression
The second you walk into the room, you know that Extinct is no ordinary room. The set was incredible. It actually feels like you are in Jurassic Park and it blew us away. With some rooms it can take some time to immerse yourself into the theme but this was certainly not the case. Throughout the game, there were twists and turns that had obviously been well thought through and we couldn’t fault the design of this game at all. The lighting is dark enough for you to need torches in parts but the majority of the room is bright enough for the rest of the game. As mentioned, there are plenty of twists and turns, having to climb and crawl in some parts, making this room easily one of the best we have taken on.
Puzzles
As you can imagine, with so much being put into this room, there was a large variety of puzzles. There was plenty to do and for a team of 4 there was always something for us to do which was nice not having to stand around and wait for some puzzles to be done, which you can sometimes get in some rooms. The puzzles linked in really well with the set of the game and sometimes it felt as if you were simply exploring the environment rather than completing an escape room. There were also nice elements of the game where our brains kicked into gear remembering something that had happened at the beginning of the game. To summarise, the games were truly immersive and quite incredible. There was one slight sour note where one piece of vital equipment failed us towards the end of the game and this almost cost us escaping. This led us to having to use the walkie talkie and break of the immersion of the game to co firm if we were doing it right.
Game Master Clues
At the start of the experience you have to nominate someone to be the comms operator, being given a walkie talkie to carry with you. Normally when given a walkie talkie it tends not to go with the room you are completing, however, it felt only right that when trying to escape the dinosaur jungle, we had a walkie talkie. We didn’t need many hints at all but when one came through there was a chime on the tv to get our attention.
Round Up
With this being our first experience with Houdini’s, we have probably set ourselves up to be disappointed with future rooms. If that is the case then it was completely worth it! Extinct was incredible and easily one of the best rooms we have done. It felt more like a movie set than an escape room. This is simply a must do room if you are visiting Southampton.