Escape Reality Birmingham: Bank Job

Bella Ciao, Bella Ciao, Bella Ciao Ciao Ciao!

Theft was on the mind after watching Money Heist on Netflix, so we were excited about this room! 

Unfortunately the room is quite dated now. We had fun, but some things were made difficult by the state of disrepair; draws that don't open, objects held together with cellotape. 

One major aspect of the game had us waste about 15 minutes, to find it wasn't working. Worst still, it was missing it's QR, so hints were unavailable. This would have been only our second hint, so as a measure, I would say this is a fairly easy game. 

On calling the GM into the room to help, he confirmed it was broken. He then couldn't manually release it, so he had to skip the challenge inside. He then gave us a hint towards the next challenge, so in total 15 minutes were lost and 3 challenges!! So actually, it put a real damper on the whole experience; skipping 3 challenges is a big chunk of game play.

When I requested a discount on a future game, our GM said no. He said they don't have the power to do that. I was really gutted.

I've always disagreed with the way Escape Reality is managed, given you've got one member of staff on the desk, seeing people in, delivering the briefings, monitoring your game on CCTV, seeing teams out, answering the phones, covering the desk, selling drinks, resetting rooms... It's just too much.

I get the impression there's a backseat manager somewhere just enjoying the money roll in, while starving the place of any investment, so I'm not sure how much longer Escape Reality will last. Oddly, I had enquired in here a week prior about bringing in a large party, which I thought would be of interest given they claim to host corporate events on their website, but the staff told me no - they don't do large parties that require hosting multiple rooms. I get the feeling there's a big disconnect between management and the staff here.