Escape Hunt Manchester: The Last Vikings

Required some prior knowledge in one task which was quite annoying. 

A Victorious Viking Venture!
This marked my first visit to Escape Hunt: I was saving it for when I had a big group coming to keep costs down.
Story
Summon the Norse gods for their protection against the Ice Giants who are on their way to destroy your village. NB: I really like this storyline: simple, creative and adventuresome with a clear goal!

Puzzles
We were all stumped at first- the first puzzle must have taken us ten minutes- but with a couple of hints, we then powered through. There were one or two occasions where it was almost a tad too unclear what needed to be done. However, it seemed to gradually get easier: we made light work of the final tasks. The puzzles were entirely (and appropriately) practical, making it the most hands-on room I’ve ever done so far. Vikings wouldn’t have been involved with number-crunching or word games! The game was very linear, perhaps too much so for a group of 5. We were all often huddled around the same thing, so I'd recommend a smaller group for this one.

Mise-en-scene
The room was thoughtfully decked out like a Viking cabin. There were ‘proper’ props e.g. metal helmets, furniture and tools to appreciate. A lack of traditional number locks in favour of other means of progressing fitted in nicely with the Nordic setting.

Final Comments
We broke out with ten minutes to spare. This room scores highly in all three of my sub-categories!