by The Crystal Maze Manchester (website)
Lower Byrom Street, M3 4FP
1-32 players
60 minutes
Overall rating
based on ratings from 40 users
combined with 7 pro reviews
Your review
Player reviews
Great theming and true to the game show. The format limits the amount you get to play and the cost is pretty steep unfortunately!
It's worth every penny. I've been twice, every time with a new actor/host leading you through the different areas. It's perfect for a large number of players in comparison to traditional escape rooms. A blast!
Oh my gosh this is so much fun! We went along as a group of 6 and were put into a team with 2 other people. From the very beginning every single team member at the venue (right from lovely Glynn in the foyer, through Isaac - or shall we call you Mumsie?! - to our wonderful Gamemaster Eve) did an incredible job, making sure that our team gelled properly and got really jazzed up and involved. The whole experience was such a brilliant recreation of the TV show (as it used to be in the 90s), complete with the pumping theme music, the running down corridors and up and down stairs, crawling, sliding and jumping to get from one beautifully themed zone to the next. The games were varied and all well-realised, with no obvious corners cut. In fact, it felt as if we could have been playing on the actual set of the TV show! There was a good variety of types of game and difficulties, and every person’s needs and preferences were taken into account by the hosts. There were always ways to avoid the physical parts of the experience if you were unable to manage them. Even though not everyone plays every game, we all felt thoroughly involved and integral to the team and experience and we got to the famous Crystal Dome with adrenaline pumping and blood rushing. The dome itself was great fun - although, and this is our only tiny criticism, we felt there were not enough tokens inside for us to have a chance of getting a good score. But this didn’t detract at all from our fantastic experience, which we felt was well worth the money and we were glad we’d travelled to experience it. Thanks to everyone involved in making our day great - especially for the special victory medal for the birthday boy! We will be back!!
For fans of the show this is a must do experience. Our maze guide would've fit in perfectly with the TV show and interjected the same kind of weird humour throughout our time in the maze. Most of the challenges are adapted from the show (expect to see all the classics without the water ones). We got to play 18 games so 3 each and won 12 crystals + 170 tokens in the final dome. I think for what you get to do and individual game play time that the experience is quite expensive (£50+ each), however the set design and immersion do warrant something. I was a little annoyed to not get a free team photo at the end like more traditional escape room style businesses but I can tell this is being marketed very differently.