Houdini’s Escape Room Experience: Escape From Alcatraz

Good fun room, but cant help but think we were delayed on some of the puzzles by the GM laying it on a bit thick regarding your "cellmate" in the briefing. Maybe we took this bit a little too literally... lesson learnt! Phone torches were needed as the mini ones provided are crap.

I actually thought this was better than Titanic. The puzzles are clever and flow with the rooms and transitions. A more difficult game than Titanic which makes it more satisfying to complete. 

Good room, good set, needed a couple of clues and one particular puzzle was worn out so we could see which "buttons/keys" needed to be pressed. Host said no one has ever noticed that so perhaps we are just eagle eyed.  We also skipped a whole puzzle without realising and still completed the room. 

The room was well built and had some clever puzzles in that fitted the theme. There were a couple of extremely sneaky ones that I can't imagine how we were meant to have just come across them. 

Our gamesmaster was a fantastic actor and set the mood well at the start. However during the game his hints and help, when asked for, were really awful - so unhelpful that it felt like he was trying to frustrate us rather than help us. Really wished that rather than speaking in nonsensical riddles, he instead gave us simple and clear hints.

The main issue we had with the game was it was during a 30C heatwave and there's no real air circulation or ventilation in these basement rooms. It was so unbearably hot and sweaty that we struggled to stay focussed on the game - and at one point I gave up and just sat in front of one of the desk fans to cool off for a few minutes.

Despite these issues, we enjoyed the room much like the other excellent rooms at Houdinis for its ingenuity and theme.