Houdini’s Escape Room Experience Birmingham: Temple Raider

Let's start with the positives... the theming in here was great! They really made an effort to make it feel like a jungle, and there are no padlocks in here, regardless of what you may see (I'll explain later). It is also very a physical room (which there was no prior warning about), thankfully our team quite enjoyed all of the crawling and climbing. 

However... other than those slight positives, this room was a disaster. The GM seemed completely uninterested and unenthusiastic. Before entering the room there was no brief whatsoever. No health and safety (which there really should have been considering the room), no story set up, just a quick 'here's your room, here's your walkie for the hints, it's dark so you can use a phone torch'. Which with 2 complete beginners in our group was not a great start. The GM also starts the game in the first room with you! This was not only unnecessary as he did nothing, but was very offputting having him just standing in the corner. The game started by him telling us exactly where the find the first clue: we didn't ask for a clue and tbh didn't even know if the timer had started or if that was just some story set up. When we solved the first puzzle, the solution didn't match the clue in the journal, so we carried on trying, and eventually, we spotted the open door, the GM told us it had been open for ages and then left.

There are also a lot of GM-activated elements in here, so having a GM who didn't really care, ruined it at times and make some things more confusing then it needed to be. Now for the kicker - there are a lot of broken puzzles! We even had the GM come into the room mid-game at one point because we had opened a panel and moved something that had an unlocked padlock attached to it thinking another team member had done it (turns out that lock wasn't for us).  

Unfortunately, I left the room feeling very disappointed. The newbies of the group still enjoyed themselves but to an enthusiast, I'd say give it a miss.

(Also, not sure why etr has this as a 90 minute room as it is only 60 minutes.)

Aesthetically, this is one of the best rooms in Birmingham. It's beautiful. Everything worked, which is always a sticking point with me! My only criticism would be that it requires Game Master intervention, so whether you get a decent GM could make or break this game. We got Ellie, and she was fantastic. All 3 women we met today were lovely, helpful and enthusiastic. This is a padlock free game, (depending on your definition!) so the puzzles worked well with the theme. It is only a 60 minute game, as correctly stated on their website. I'm not sure why Escape The Review has it listed as a 90 minute game. It's also a max 7 players, but personally, I would recommend a smaller team.

It was very exciting, with some good jump scares. India Jon's Raiders will be back for more!

Loved this room. Tackled it as a team of two and loved how immersive the theming and puzzles were. Not a padlock in site and some very clever tricks to keep you on your toes. There are a couple of sections where you have to crawl or climb and we noticed at least one puzzle that was broken but it didn't detract from our enjoyment at all. The game host we had was very attentive and could tell they enjoyed running the game for us which made it even better.

I don’t want to be too harsh but it really didn’t deliver the experience we were after. Especially having played a similar room elsewhere, it paled in comparison. The game master didn’t really care or engage. The room was very basic when it came to puzzles. The look was good but very dark, especially with only two torches but 4 of us. Some of sets in the room were damaged. We escape with 20 minutes to spare. I would look to give this a miss and play one of other rooms instead. 

An immersive experience that utilised the space really cleverly and had a wide range of puzzles combining more mental tasks with a good dollop of jungle-based physical and skill too.

Theming was incredible and really took you on an adventure. It’s not often in an escape room you’re encouraged to climb, but what sort of temple raider would you be if you didn’t. 

Transitions between certain rooms was really clever and there was an element that gave real panic (when you realise the room is considerably smaller than when you entered soon gives you a push

The only draw backs were there were a fair few GM activated props, however they seemed to be on the ball 

Visually, this is a decent game, we liked the theming. However, we felt the puzzles let it down slightly, and there weren't that many. At one point, you need to climb a ladder, in a fairly dark room, to a raised area - I suspect some players will struggle with this, particularly when descending - this aspect is questionable from a health and safety point of view.

Pretty horrible experience. Cannot recommend. Missing puzzle parts, difficulty by darkness, the worst GMing I've ever experienced and the bizarre choice of a steep set of steps with no handrail just waiting for someone to fall off it.. no wonder they are so keen for you sign a waiver.