By Dave Massey twitter.com/BrumHour
Escape Hunt, Birmingham
It’s been a few years since I did my first escape room experience but they can wildy vary. I’ve been to Escape Hunt in central Birmingham twice in the past two months, firstly on a press invite, then on a group invite from the PRs. It’s above the Oasis Markets in The Square behind The Hammer And Anvil bar
Trying to blog post about experiences like this can be very challenging as you don’t want to reveal anything that might damage anyone’s experience of the venue, so I’m going to stick to broad outlines.
Booking an escape experience can be a tricky experience as you’ve got to get everyone to agree before making the booking and sometimes some of your group might be feeling less than enthused about being there. There’s six of us today and we all work as a group at least once a week which really should either help or hinder us.
For this experience we arrive 15 minutes early and find ourselves in a grey walled reception with a wooden floor, there’s tables of six around, mainly so you don’t have to sit with strangers. This is all about team building yes? There’s a photo spot for winners and those who may not have escaped within the time limit. For extra competitive groups you can book more than one room at the same time and maybe pit two teams of six against each other, like you are Sir Alan Sugar sending out some poor sods to compete in a team challenge that they are clearly are only half prepared for.
You are introduced to the games master who will look after your room and sometimes they put on a voice for their character. Previously I’ve completed the Pirate game called Blackbeard’s Treasure and our games master talked like a Brummie Pirate throughout our game! This time however its a spy game called Our Finest Hour.
Sent back to the Second World War it is our job to [Content redacted] and escape the room. Along the way there are codes to find, logic puzzles to solve and things to open. Unlike Blackbeard’s Treasure, Our Finest Hour uses a lot of things that would really have been utilised in War times so it doesn’t naturally feel as “escapist”. And it was indeed a challenge. Oh yes.. We didn’t get out!! We were locked in!
They change the games here a couple of times a year on a wider rotation so I’m expecting some games to be around longer than others. There’s even a Doctor Who game coming in 2019!
For a team building challenge or a party this is a great option especially for those who grew up with LazerQuest or loving The Crystal Maze.
Find out more about Escape Hunt here: escapehunt.com/uk/birmingham
This isn’t a sponsored post. #BrumHour was invited to bring a team of up to six people by Escape Hunt Birmingham via the PR.
