The Panic Room Gravesend: Hell House

This is an example of a excellent and challenging game room that truly requires coordination and communication within the team. Quality puzzles, variety was mind blowing. No repetition, no cheap "now work it out 6 times more" manual labour. Brilliant. 

We really enjoyed this game but we felt that there were a few things that could be fixed or improved on to make this a five star game. 

When we went into the room (no fog for us, not sure why, I know it is normal to have it and when we played Riddled next door the team after us had fog) and one of the secret doors was already open and the GM had to come back in and wedge it shut. Later on when legit opening it the "switch" was very stiff - the door fits too tightly in the frame.

It's marketed as a horror room but it isn't scary, just ridiculously dark. One weak lantern between four people isn't enough. In the areas with lamps we ended up taking the lampshades off to give more light. A few more noises when opening doors and rooms could make this more intense. 

There is a lot of crawling. A lot. The flooring  in the crawl bit has cork chips and they do provide kneepads (which I really like) but there is a lot of crawling and it needs at least two people to do this.

There is a lot of reading - you're given a notebook with clues in which guide you at various places. The script used is very small and intentionally gothic - because the notebook is quite old and worn the font is very very hard to read, especially in the low light. 

There is a constant thumping noise which we thought was intended to create a creepy atmosphere but it's actually the axe throwing next door! At least it fitted thematically (not so much for the wizard school room, where the thumping is just annoying).

They make really good use of the space, this room works on lots of levels. Overall we really enjoyed this but with a little work it could be superb.

We came with high hopes for this room but sadly we were really dissapointed.  Found the GM'ing very poor quality and not usual panic rooms quality but he was obviously very new.

I thought it was a horror room but theres nothing even vaguely jumpy or horror about the room.  Theres more skeletons in an average aztec/jungle themed room and it really lacked the scare factor.  Dollshouse made us jump far more and the Happy Institute too!

There was broken tech in the game too which let us into an area too early and I think wasted quite a lot of time.

It is an expansive set but for me it was ruined by the new areas being very obvious where they were.  Its amazing when you are surprised by a new room or tunnel but here you could pretty much see where the next area would be coming from which was a shame. ie: from lights under the floorboards before you get in there showing there was going to be a downstairs area, etc.

Puzzles were ok but hard to do with a lack of lighting.  One lantern for a team in the first half of the game slows you down massively as you have to stay together or you cannot see anything.  Even with 3 novices and the single light it was a 62min escape so I think this is done to slow times down and fill the 75min slot as I cannot see any other reason for making it so dark and limiting lighting.

Panic rooms hosted me on some of my first ever games 5yrs or so ago but sadly they just dont seem to have moved on since then like everyone else has.  The GM/staff quality is lower and so is the game quality/building in my view.  Its a shame but I think they are overstretching and need to concentrate on doing what they do best with their old games that I enjoyed so much more than the recent ones.. 

Really enjoyable and challenging game. Kept two of us engaged from start to finish, however, for a horror room we didn’t encounter a single jump scare and didn’t find the game in the slightest bit scary. The set looked incredible and was very immersive 

It was only upon arrival, after being asked to read a letter inside my inventory bag (yes, you get an inventory bag for carrying around items you might need later... a genuinely great idea I am surprised hasn't been utilised much before) that I realised this was an Arkham themed Lovecraftian twisted insane horror house. Deep ones, curses, insanity, fear, Innsmouth, references to Miskatonic and Arkham lore. If you're a fan, this is amazing already. 

My friend and I weren't expecting much, but to our surprise the door opened to an incredibly realistic looking old wooden house upon a street. Fog rolls in as you read the letter explaining your mission, before you are allowed into the house itself. 

It's a great level of fear and darkness, with some decent jump scares and excellent sound design that will make you doubt if they're lying about not having a live actor. We are convinced we were being followed the entire time. Some clever chalkboard placements increased the tension and paranoia as well. 

Definitely not a room for those unable to crawl around. Expect to be on your knees a lot for one rather large portion of the room, but an incredibly immersive moment. 

It's a mistake to call this an escape room, as you're exploring an entire house with creepy living room with suspicious elements and a phone that will nudge you along with clues as this is not completely linear. There's a twisted corridor that is difficult to walk on. A dusty cellar, a dark attic and more rooms on top of that! This place feels huge and makes good use of each space. The inventory bag is a great touch and really adds to the immersion. 

The host was fantastic and the room genuinely blew us away with how well constructed it is. Everything is chunky and feels solid. I have over 100 rooms completed at the time of this review, including rooms in Hungary and Greece, and this goes straight into my Top 10!

The horror is a good level, some jump scares and a good feeling of tension throughout, but never over the top which is good because there are a lot of things to do! 5 stars. You won't find many better than this in the south east! 

One possible downside: if you're not a fan of reading cursive or lots of text in general, there is quite a lot to read, although a lot of this can be ignored if you don't care about the story. If it's cursive, you can probably ignore it if it's not your thing.