Escape Hunt Manchester: Worlds Collide

We came to this room for a birthday treat for a Doctor Who fan’s birthday, and sadly, it thoroughly disappointed. To start with, we were waiting nearly half an hour after our booking time to go in. We were told that there was some broken tech in the room, but not to worry as the game was fixed and was now in full working order! Also, that we wouldn’t be penalised for time and would still get our full time. Well, thank goodness for that!! We were greeted at the door by Scott, who was lovely, upbeat and really got us in the mood. And we got into the room and our immediate impression was good - it was quite a good looking room and we set to trying to solve puzzles. Unfortunately, from this point our experience just went from bad to worse. At all sorts of points either the tech didn’t work properly, or bits of the game were missing completely, or our host was not paying attention to our gameplay and had failed to notice exactly where we were in the game (at more than one point a puzzle had been solved for about 5 minutes, before suddenly “the game” caught up!); often the problem was a combination of these. After muddling through with all sorts of ongoing issues and things not triggering or working properly, we eventually reached a point near the end of the game where we needed an item that we were *repeatedly* saying was not where it should be. At which point the host told us on the audio that this malfunction often happened and to just play on without the object. As we tried to complete the final set piece, though, we were repeatedly prompted to use this missing object and were sent round and round in circles for ages, trying to solve the final puzzle without it. It was increasingly frustrating and actually made a couple of us rather cross as we always like to try and beat a leaderboard time, and time was ticking away. This should never have been allowed to happen. Eventually the end of the game triggered, and we were able to exit, in a very anticlimactic way, to be met by a different host - Hannah, who was I think the one who had taken us through the game itself. I think, without us being rude (I actually apologised for having got a bit annoyed inside the room towards the end!), we made obvious that we had not had a good time. Now, maybe she was having an off day; but, instead of an apology, and an attempt to make up to us our wasted time and money, she just seemed uninterested and said that the broken things “happen all the time”. When a venue has just taken over £130 from team for an hour’s play you really don’t expect such poor service. We have also yet to receive our team photo. This room was such an incredible disappointment, with only one star awarded for the set dressing and theming of the room, and another half for Scott enthusiasm at the start. It really was scraping the bottom of the barrel though and I wouldn’t go back to this Manchester venue of Escape Hunt, however well their other games are rated. Definitely avoid. 

This room was filled with red herrings and broken tech. Out of the 5 main puzzles, 1 was completely correct but wasn't accepted until the second go, 1 was designed so that the actual puzzle didn't work and the item just fell out, 1 was discovered on accident, 1 was made out to be much more difficult and then had an anti-climactic solution when the item needed was just found elsewhere. Also for a Doctor Who themed escape room, they really didn't include as many references as I was hoping.

Doctor, Who…Designed This Terrible Room

I had a Virgin Experience voucher and so brought a team of four…regretfully. This room is pants!

Story

Seal a tear in the fabric of space/time before the Cybermen break through it and take over the world.

Puzzles

The puzzles made little sense, and there was a least two occasions we’d completed a challenge without even realising. The steps required for the final ‘action’ were janky.

Mise en scene

Having never watched an episode of Doctor Who, my grasp of the few references scattered about must mean they lacked depth. I was expecting an immersive, high-tech, sci-fi adventure, but what we got was little more than a generic, uninspired half study/half laboratory mishmash.

Final Comments

The posters advertising this room make it look exciting, but Worlds Collide needs to be closed and re-thought.

I was super excited to finally play this room being a big Doctor Who fan but unfortunately left sorely disappointed. On entry, the room looked worn out and you could see signs of quick fixes which diminished quality. Throughout the game, we found puzzles didn’t make much sense or flow to each other, often needing to ask for a clue to point us in the right direction. A couple of puzzles had issues including the final step, which due to being broken meant be failed the room!

Considering it’s a licensed BBC game, I had hoped that the standard of the room quality would’ve at least been kept high but clearly not. Definitely draws people in on the premise and then fails to deliver. 

On a side note, the hosts were both lovely and the venue is nice, just not the room for me!