Tulleys Escape Rooms & Games: Nethercott Manor

There is so much hype about this game, I just don't understand how our experience was so terrible.

After our amazing experience  playing 'Dodge' we then hit an all time low. 

We spent over 20 minutes in the dark with 2 torches between 4 of us. After asking for help and for more torches numerous times and not receiving any response, one of our team members left the room to get our GMs attention. He wasn't anywhere to be found. Another GM in Reception told us they would pass on the message to our GM.

After a few more minutes we received a clue instructing us to pull something more firmly  (trying to give no spoilers). As enthusiasts, we are conditioned into thinking nothing requires any force, well this did! As did other things in the room.

25 minutes in, morale was low. The second half of the game passed by very slowly. Some of the puzzles just seemed illogically difficult for the sake of it. One team member was left to spend 20 minutes on a 'puzzle', when we came out we were told we didn't need to do it.

Another team member had to leave the room during the second half of the game to get the GMs attention again as there was no response when waving and calling out to the cameras.

At the end of the game, we asked the GM about 2 specific puzzles and how to solve them, he couldn't tell us as he didn't know.

It was an absolute farce. I have tried to contact Tulleys twice to give them personal  feedback but haven't received a response.

Maybe an attentive and helpful GM would have made for a better experience. 

An amazing room.  A couple of the items were a bit worse for wear when we played and broke during play which stops this getting the full 5*.  I also wish there wasn't quite so much content in the room.  Although we did escape, we had to parallelise a lot in order to do so and it meant there were large chunks of the room I never saw!

Challenging, as there is a lot to do! 

Really hard to know how to review this game: as a couple I would say we had quite different experiences of the game. Pretty similar theme  and look to playing a Mystery Case Files computer game. I got to do more of the smaller puzzles individually while the other half of the duo concentrated on some more physical skill puzzles. The game - if it had worked and had been well hosted - would have been absolutely great, I am sure. 

The good: it is HUGE and there is plenty to do. We apparently had one room to go at the end and hadn't quite finished the room we were in. There are some fun puzzles. The set looks fantastic - one of the best I have seen. There were some great a-ha moments and some mild jump scares. 

The bad: ultimately a frustrating experience - more so for Mr B who got stuck with a broken puzzle having been trying to do it for at least 10 minutes. We had 3 separate occurrences in the rooms where drawers or doors should have opened having put in the correct solution where nothing happened. I am not sure if this was down to mechanical issues with the puzzles or a failure to pay attention to manual release moments on the part of the GM  - but compounded by failing to get a response from the GM when asking for help or to confirm that the solution entered was correct on multiple occasions, it felt like we wasted a lot of time standing around not understanding why nothing had happened and why we couldn't progress. Given these faults, being ceremoniously shepherded out of the room exactly on the 60:00 mark - when we had starting playing around 10 minutes in advance of our listed game time - meant that we felt like we had not really got the full experience, and I can't say that the GM was particularly bothered about it. A real shame, given the potential the room clearly has to be one of the best in the UK. 

Update: we did return in Nov 21, and completed it this time. No issues with broken tech this time around, and the hosting was significantly better. Finished in 75 minutes, recalling very little of what we saw the first time. It is a beautifully designed set, but something about this game just doesn't spark joy in me - definitely prefer some of the other Tulley's games over this one. It is still a very good game though, just competing against some other very high quality games. Agree it works better as a 90 minute game as a 2 player so it's nice they have made that change.