Escape Reality Birmingham: Machina

This is one of those 'creepy' games which are never quite as scary as they could be.  We sailed through the first two thirds of this game, then got really hung up on something daft and wasted lots of time.  Enjoyable, and the dressing of the room is much better than some of their others.

Clue system is awful, just generic clues on an iPad after scanning a QR code - often telling you to do something that you’d already done. GM kept coming into game if we were stuck which disrupted the flow. Avoid this company.

This was probably one of our better experiences at Escape Reality, as everything in the game worked. It was just a shame the game was so dull. The aesthetic was flat and not really in keeping with the theme. Escape Reality has a habit of locking you in black empty rooms, that only contain the props necessary for the tasks themselves. So in that sense, if you know what you're doing, you can walk through these linear stories pretty easily. We certainly should have done better in terms of time and was largely delayed by our own anxiousness to interact with (spoiler alert) locks that only have a certain number of attempts. We also tried to avoid using the scanable clues - this is Escape Reality's way of circumventing the unstaffing of their venues. Your games host is also managing other games, e-mails, the phone and walk-ins. They're not watching you on CCTV and they're not listening to you. If you get truly stuck and the scanner isn't helping you, you switch on a light and wait for your GM to respond. Our GM, on this occasion, was lovely and very responsive, but I personally don't agree with the management decisions that are made by Escape Reality. And although this won't stop us coming back, the fact I've ran out of games there will. Apparently there are no plans to install new games, which makes me wonder if they're winding down. So, if you're thinking of going, you might want to do so sooner rather than later! But find a discount code. I don't suggest paying full price, as these rooms don't provide the full experience. Our room didn't so much as have atmospheric music to help lift our dull surroundings. I get the impression many of the puzzles are designed in such a way as to not be tampered with too, as they don't have the budget or means to replace items. So instead, they've just locked things away and now you play by looking. Not touching. It was, overall, a playable game, but just a bit dull.