Grand Escape: Paranormal Room 1409

There were some original puzzles with a strong design. Some elements can feel a little disjointed or illogical, depending on your approach to the puzzles, which can be irritating because the clues were not always helpful in redirecting you. But all things considered, it was well executed. 

The big reveal at the end, while I appreciate the effort and cost that went into the room, did feel a little underwhelming. Perhaps our game master talked so much about it before the game that I imagined something else. 

Just going off ETR's prompts, I would say this room was immersive, but due to some rather lackluster hosting, no opening video and no music, it lacked atmosphere. There's a screen in the room, so we were waiting for something to set us off, but it never came. The screen is only for the teeny-tiny clock and for the host to share clues.

This game tries to balance hi-tech with the more traditional padlock style rooms, but it didn't hit that balance for me. Off the top of my head, I count 8 traditional padlocks and 2 digital pads. The 2 digital locks didn't even indicate how many digits we needed. With the added fear that they lock out, you would try a number everywhere else first. This got very boring. If I additionally add up the more hi-tech puzzles, there must have been at least 13 puzzles to complete, and remember we didn't get to see the whole game - we failed before we could see it all.

The room is pretty, but underwhelming in it's unoriginality and the lack of paranormal presence. The name over sells it. I was expecting more.

Unfortunately, I didn't find this game great value for money, so we won't be spending a further £81 to come back and finish the game. It's just not worth it. There are other games I've played twice and enjoyed both times, but this won't be one of them. 

It wasn't funny. We didn't find it very clever. It just felt like a lot of time was wasted, and this felt intentional by design; Grand Escape wants to have the hardest room in Birmingham, which I think is a respectable goal to have, but to do it by wasting people's time does not provide value for money or fun. It was just frustrating. Taking the handles off draws, so you don't know which are draws and which are props, is not fun. It's a wind up.

We're also accustomed to setting things aside once we've used them, but in this room there's one item that has to be used at least 3 times. This meant we were finding and tackling puzzles before we had all the information or all the tools or access to complete them. This wasted a huge majority of our time. Watching us do this, I would expect a Games Master to step in and say leave that alone for now. They allowed us to wander off on huge tangents, which shouldn't even be possible if the room is supposed to be linear. There were very few surprises and no jumps. Very little to get excited about. We were too bogged down with the paperwork. Off the top of my head I recall at least 9 laminated sheets, making it feel like a print out and do-at-home mystery.

The room and puzzles were strongly story-driven, which is a huge plus, but it felt like CSI without the CSI. It was only intense in the sense that we were up against the clock, but nothing about the story or atmosphere imposed a sense of doom or need to rush. There was nothing epic or magical about this room. It was just rather lackluster, so if you're a traditionalist, maybe this is the room for you.

Everything worked, to our knowledge, so that's a big plus point, but you could see it was dated, with wall paper peeling away and padlocks hard to read because the numbers were worn off. This, plus the dim light in the room, made entering codes very difficult. 

On the whole we found the room and story logical, but frustrating. I like when a puzzle opens something or reveals something; there's an immediate payoff to your genius and encourages you forward. I don't like completing the puzzle and then figuring out where the code goes. We’d figure out a combination and then have to go around the room trying it on multiple locks until we found the right lock. The frustration supersedes the buzz of completing the puzzle, so you never feel the payoff or enjoyment of achieving anything. It just wasn't the room for me. It wasn't very fun. More of a grind. 

A very clever room in its design. Some puzzles in this room I’ve never seen before which it exciting from start to finish. 

You may think this is a horror room by the name of it, however it’s more creepy than scary. 2 jump scares ensued for me but I laughed straight after, so these were executed very well. 

Some clues felt a little ambiguous and there were plenty of red herrings. My hat being said, this has to be one of my favourite rooms I’ve played  due to the way the puzzles are executed