Escape Room

I've been wanting to do this for some time and had found finding a wheelchair accessible venue exteremely difficult.

After only one email to this company, the reply from Stephen was extremely positive and promising and instilled me with confidence that they would do their best to make this work.

With a few extra bits of info including wheelchair measurements I was all set and ready to escape from my room. 👍

Good ramp up to the main door, large reception area, very friendly and helpful staff. The only room currently wheelchair accessible is the prison break room, but there are plans to make at least one more room accessible.

Despite not getting out of the room, it was a fun hour and I along with my friends will be back again when other rooms are accessible. 5* rating for helpfulness, disability awareness and going above and beyond in checking access.

Stephen, you made our day extra special :)
So made an account just to write this review!
This was without doubt an absolutely amazing experience! If you're looking for a fun day out for everyone to equally enjoy, this is it! We went as a group of five to Escape Room in Manchester, one person having done one of the rooms before. It was a typical day in Manchester, when the sun decieves you and you forget to take that coat with the hood - we were all drenched when we reached the place. So pre-Escape Room was like the beginning of a Lemony Snicket book but it was all rainbows and unicorns when we got inside and met Stephen and the crew. We had a very warm welcome with smiles - I'd compare it to the feeling when you visit your grandma after aages (that is, if you have a nice Grandma lol). So the staff got us in a good mood and it was time for Room 13. We had no idea at all of what it was going to be. We were briefed by the staff and entered the room. It's hard to express how it was like without giving anything away- in a nutshell, it's very realistic, a good kind of challenging and refreshing! It gets everyone in their Sherlock Holmes shoes. There's a bell you can ring if you want a clue - a member of staff will come to your rescue and give you hints, it is recommended to use one clue per game but let's say we made the most of it, Stephen was the 6th member of our group by the end of it. The way in which they give you the clues, they don't just tell you what to do or make it really obvious, but they lead you to taking the right move so that, it's you, your team, who cracks the mini challenges in the end, making it thoroughly enjoyable even if you're hopeless. We didn't escape within the 60 minutes, but Stephen very kind to give us extra time, joining our group as the 6th member, giving us hints and we managed to escape in 20 minutes time. The day ended with us having a free photoshoot session by Stephen. Had an amazing day! Will definately be back!

offered us a free photoshoot session with stephen

Good fun! And great staff! Room was a little easy but we do work on problem solving at work. So we will just do harder room next time. Worth it though!

I'm afraid to say I wish I hadn't booked!

We picked slaughter house - I'd say the escape room was very amateur. It wasnt immersive at all. The props in the rooms were like kids toys.

One of the numbers/symbols on the props which you need to be able to read was half rubbed off so we spent a long time misled by what looked like a symbol but was supposed to be a number 9.

We were told that one of the padlocks on a safe was stiff before we started. We actually spent 15 minutes trying to open it - we thought we had the wrong code.

Both of the things above have been apparently mentioned to members of staff a few times by other groups as well. I'm not sure why they havent changed it already if it's been consistently fedback ..

Just generally poor quality.

Plus note - the young lady working there was nice and clearly managing a lot herself

Disclaimer #1: have played over 15 exit games in teams of 2 or 4 people, success rate 75%
Disclaimer #2: we played this game in a team of two and failed to make it out in 60 minutes.
Disclaimer #3: have failed to escape from games in the past that were still thoroughly enjoyed and would highly recommend to people. So this is not coming from being a sore loser.

We played Room 13 at Escape Room Manchester, and it is the worst exit game that I've ever played. And the problem is not so much this specific game, but the general experience at Escape Room Manchester. Here is a list of problems we had:

1) Before we started the game, our Game Master went through the usual rules with us. Pretty standard, especially we made it known that this is not our first time playing an exit game. She proceeded to tell us how to solve the first puzzle, 'You will need to do xyz and figure out the code and do the other specific thing to get to the next part' Wait why would she tell us how to solve the first puzzle?! Obviously I'm not going into details here in this review. But I shudder to think that if we were newbies, how much info she would've given us. Isn't the point for us to figure out the puzzles ourselves?!

2) Then the Game Master proceeded to tell us how to solve the last puzzle to get out of the room. Um, what?!

3) They have a policy of no intercom/microphone/walkie talkie/computer screens. During the game, only way for us to contact our Game Master was to press a doorbell-like button near the room entrance, which summons her to come to the room to help us. That is just the most inconvenient and inefficient gamemastering policy ever. If we had any problems during the game or needed hints, because we were told there was no microphone in the room, the Game Master has no audio clue that we run into trouble or not. Any help or hint from the Game Master would require her to show up in the room. And if the Game Master is summoned, our clock doesn't stop ticking, which ends wasting time. In any other exit game that I've done, a clue can be given by walkie talkie or computer screen and we could pick up our pace right away. Not these guys. Every time we needed our Game Master, at least a minute or two is wasted. Our Game Master told us that they wanted to 'give a more personal experiencesomething somethingcustomize the help you get during the game that's why the Game Master shows up in person' (paraphrasing). Um yeah right. How about you just get some walkie talkies.

Now you can say that we can choose to not ask for hints, which bring onto my next complaint:

4) The first puzzle was ruined for us. The previous people who played this game had written the solution on the puzzle. Now there were no pens/paper/writing apparatus provided for this game, which is not a problem because we assumed we didn't need any. Well the previous players obviously thought otherwise, because they brought and used they own pens. Game Master FAIL for not making the game policies clear to those players.

5) In continuation of point (4), Game Master FAIL again for failing to notice the puzzle was defaced with the solution when sweeping the room after the previous game.

6) In continuation of point (4), Game Master FAIL again for not noticing that players were writing on the puzzles during the room. Get some microphones or better cameras or something. Or you know, maybe you need to explain your game rules better prior to start.

7) In continuation of point (4), because we had to summon our Game Master to show her whoa excuse me what on earth why is there a solution on this puzzle is this a red herring, and after being assured that this was not our fault, we realised that the whole ordeal wasted us a precious couple of minutes because the clock didn't stop ticking. We subsequently needed two hints later in the game, and this summoning-waiting-giving-us a-hint-in-person thing cost us probably five minutes in total. In any other exit game we would get the hint in 30 seconds and be able to move on right away.

8) Just this whole first-puzzle-ruined/solved-by previous players left a really bad first impression on us. This was the very first puzzle in the room.

9) Game specific complaint: the concept of Room 13 is very good. The puzzles and effects in the first half of the game were excellent and dazzled us. The second half of the game was lame in comparison.

10) Minor complaint but one of the locks was very stuck. Maybe needs to be replaced/oiled, not a big deal but might as well make this a ten point rant.

I would give 0/5 stars because of the stupid and shoddy Game Mastering, but there were some cool and different stuff in the first half of the game, which redeems this experience to 1/5 star.

I've done a lot of escape rooms in the North West, starting with Breakout Manchester and also venturing to Clue HQ in Warrington (a must try!). I can't fault the theming at The Escape Room, and I like the room stories. I've done three there now, but I've not enjoyed it as much as I have at other places. The Secret Lab was difficult, with puzzles that just weren't fun and left you with nothing to do. If you do go here, try Room 13 - a lot of fun and a very interestingly themed room.

My biggest issue with this place is the staff. At every game centre you go to, you get one host assigned to your game, who gets a lot of fun from watching you try to escape and giving you clues. Here, the staff don't seem to take as much interest - when we escaped Room 13, they didn't even realise! On another occasion, when we ran out of time in the Secret Lab, we were left in the room for a few minutes, waiting to be let out.

If you're looking to try an escape game in Manchester, try Breakout instead. The theming isn't as good, but it's more fun and the staff are a lot friendlier and clearly have a real passion for it.

After rang a half an hour for a clue, when someone finally decided to come, it was useless to continue. The locks didn't open precisley, you can't tell where are the marks on them because of the poor lighting. The entire concept is poor, in 2 small rooms you just unlock some lockers and that's what are you paying. I was especting something else for sure for this money.
If you have money to spend on this, try some pubs, they're great in Manchester.

We were hugely enthusiastic about going after a great experience elsewhere but unfortunately this just wasn't for us.
The venue is smart and the staff welcoming and helpful. But we chose the Slaughter House room and can't honestly say we enjoyed it.
Essentially, you're in near pitch black, with a tiny UV torch. So looking for minute symbols, written in black on the side of dark objects is just plain difficult rather than fun. And without a hint, we'd probably never have even made a start let alone progressed. Clues confused us rather than guided and it just led to frustration.
The last time we went to an Escape Room, there were many relatively straight forward clues, that seemed to flow logically. By contrast, this had far fewer, that were much more challenging and toward the end we just sat on the floor not really caring if we got out or not, because the fun had worn off. It's not necessarily about getting out, it's about having fun along the way and enjoying a sense of progress or achievement, which we simply didn't feel on this occasion. Maybe us, but I guess we're glad it wasn't our first experience or we probably wouldn't have done another.
That's not to say that we wouldn't try the other rooms here, because it did strike us as a professional outfit. But we can't recommend that room.

The rooms are amazing we went into the secret lab and it was defiantly worth the money and we will defiantly go again

Took a group of six friends and family to try to escape the room.
We played the slaughter house room and managed to escape.
The venue is finished to a great standard and had a great freely to it. All the staff were very enthusiastic aswell as pleasant and made us all feel welcome to ask any questions before and after the game. All of our group said they enjoyed it and look forward to trying a different room in the future.