The Great Escape Game Leeds: No Hope In Hell

Never have I been so disappointed with an escape room

For a start if you have played Devil's Playground then you are in for a nasty surprise. While it's advertised as a sequel and some nods to the original can be expected the set is a carbon copy (without a lick of paint), the flow of the game the same, some of the old puzzles are still written on the wall but no longer relevant and the first puzzle is identical with the same answer.

We got out with 15 minutes to spare but spent 10 minutes fighting broken tech on the last puzzle to be told "thats never happened before", well the same thing happened to me on the same tech on the original game 7 years ago so either I'm very unlucky, incapable of placing blocks or that's not quite true.

Puzzles had vital signposting missing and one were just subtly wrong, so subtle you weren't sure if you were missing something or the puzzle was wrong.

It was a busy corporate night and the host was very pleasant and professional but was clearly watching several rooms or just not watching as clues were generic or things we had already done.

I have fond memories of the original, not ground breaking but fun and felt a labour of love, this feels the opposite

SO immersive! I love the storyline to this one especially the set up in the beginning!

Maybe needs a prompt for when you 'arrive', so you know when it's time to open the door and get started.  

We were also left wishing there was more to explore... One more area, just to elevate the ending as it ends on a flat note I feel. 

I think I hyped up that incredible set piece as 'leading you' into a final room.. In light of this, the room felt a little small. 

That said, theming was PHENOMINAL. Like out of Universal theme parks. Story was so immersive. Puzzles were great. Host was exceptional. It's WELL worth the trip and the care and effort in the theming alone makes me want to play more at this venue. 

Worst escape room I’ve ever played. I’m not even going to take the time to formulate the negatives into a comprehensive review. 

Here’s the bullet points and if that doesn’t tell you to turn and run then good luck to you: 

Started late by 30 mins. 

Host not watching game.

Host running multiple games. 

Host also making drinks and food while running games. 

Door to main room was half open (just told not to look in until it’s fully open) 

Snapped key, clearly a broken puzzle just left in there. 

Gate to 3rd room was unlocked and wide open. 

The “secret” exit door was wide open.

Told us we’d find a 2nd torch, and if we didn’t we should just use phone torch. (There was no 2nd torch)

Props falling apart. 

Tatty puzzles with some missing pieces. 

Tatty Props stuck to wall with tape. 

Wires hanging down from ceiling. 

Awkward non-creepy screaming sounds effects. 

So much reading in the dark. 

Very confusing introduction. 

TV in lift not working. 

There was writing and puzzles on the wall half covered over by other props. 

(My friend played this game when it was an older version of this game and they said all the stuff which was half covered were leftover puzzles for the 1st version which they couldn’t be bothered to fully cover up) 

Certain puzzles just weren’t turned on. So when we solved them nothing happened. 

We were told by the GM there would be a live actor, there was not. 

Although someone did wander into the room and immediately leave (maybe someone looking for toilet) 

After 30 minutes they radioed to tell us our time was up and to leave the room. (Obviously forgot they started us 30 mins late.)

The flow didn’t make any sense but that could be because half the puzzles weren’t turned on or already open. 

The final puzzle apparently we did correctly but the item didn’t drop, so was told to put our arm up the tube (up to the shoulder) to try and reach the final item and pull it out ourselves.  

Cupboards that opened but didn’t have anything inside. 

We “finished” in under an hour and he had the audacity to tell us that he gave us extra time. 

Im sorry, I have played some bad games, this had the potential to be fantastic, great space, nice centrepiece. But oh dear.

We started out 30 minutes late, which we said was fine, it was super busy and we understand that things can happen. 15 minutes into the game, we received a walkie talkie message saying we had 15 minutes left. When said 15 minutes was up, he spoke to us saying our time was up. Obviously we explained why that was wrong, and we carried on.

I had played the original version of this room, and you can see where they have poorly covered old puzzles. The exit door was open, locks were open, cupboards were empty that should have something in them, and puzzles just didn't work. After explaining to the guy that we had done it correctly as per the instructions, he just gave us the reward.

We were told bot to touch the live actor, there was no live actor. Someone did mistakenly open our door and closed it. Items were falling off walls, and props were breaking or getting stuck.

Like I said, the potential is there, however this time, it has gone into the top 3 of worst rooms played.

Our main complaint was that this room was literally too dark - our torches weren’t great and we spent a lot of time peering at things 😅 there were some great touches, we enjoyed being given outfits at the start, and the use of the space. We were a little unsure of some of the logic for the puzzles and struggled with the lack of visibility (for example if something happened elsewhere in the room). It was fun but there was room for improvement. 

The puzzles were a little illogical but pretty much made sense once we were given needed clues, the problem was we couldn't actually see the puzzles and they came with incredibly small text to try and read.

Some of the tech was a bit janky and didn't work first time.

They commited a bit of a pet peeve of mine where there are multiple puzzles that are presented inside the room and are on show, but you havent' been given an order in which to input the solution. Imagine you see three different versions of "A = 3, B = 6, C = 1", the solution is BCA (613) but the "BCA" is locked away, so you're trying to solve puzzles with incomplete information. Very frustrating.

This led to us not solving a puzzle for 20 mins, then solving 5 puzzles in 5 minutes because we got into a chain of unlocking the final 10% of the puzzle content to actually reach a solution. Pacing was terrible in this room.

But, it looked and sounded great. So there's that