Clue HQ Birmingham: The Legend of Miyalock: Forbidden Magic

My wife and I played this as a two and really enjoyed it.

Theme - magic theme is a common one, but this room has an immersive story and the story is well integrated.

Puzzles - lots to do in an hour - especially the 2nd half builds tension nicely. Nice variety of styles. We had a tendency to overthink a few puzzles!

Tech - I think this is a good example of how to integrate tech into a room. You could see the dedication to the design with the way the lighting worked with the story.  We had one small puzzle that malfunctioned but this was released externally and didn’t upset the game flow.

Age - you could take kids and they would have things to do. Some nice crawling and other hidden spaces.  There’s PG level mild peril but nothing outright scary. The only thing I would say is they keep the volume of the dramatic music and general sound effects high, this might be a bit much for some children ( and adults!).

GM - Lauryn GMd for us. She is super enthusiastic and did a fantastic job. She knew when to let us stew and when to give us more direct clues to get us back on track. The clues come written on a screen and were timed really well for us.

Overall I thought this room was excellent and probably in the top 10 of the 50 or so We’ve done. Highly recommended.

This room honestly blew my socks off. The theming and puzzles really shine, I was giddy with excitement and impressed the whole way through. One of my favourites so far.

Our host set the scene well. Great atmosphere and very immersive. Unfortunately though the dim lighting made it hard to see some puzzles, the speech we listened to was very unclear & the sound effects were a bit overwhelming for this autistic player. I absolutely loved some of the clever reveals and had good fun. Thank you.

The best room that Clue HQ have. Play this. The set is amazing, the puzzles are solid and challenging, and the storyline is good.

An incredibly immersive game, bound to get your blood pumping in the second half.

All but one of the puzzles I found to be entirely logical, with the other requiring you to look somewhere which didn't really make sense to me. It can also be a bit dark at times so make sure you have at least one person on your team who has decent vision.

There is also a small issue where if you are colourblind (as I am) one of the puzzles is impossible to complete without teammates that aren't. This won't generally be a problem though so it doesn't affect my rating.

Our host was fantastic, giving us suitable clues to keep the pace of the game on course without resorting to hand holding.

The tech is pretty great, a step up from other games I have played and always implemented without it being intrusive.

Probably the best of the admittedly few escape rooms I have played, and I would highly recommend it to people debating on a room to play in Birmingham.

Such a phenomenal  game. Great use of story telling, theming and game play was all incredible.

The only down side and this is  in my opinion, CLUE HQ tends to over do the story videos, to the point where you're bored. 

#50

Our 50th room has gone straight to the top of our list! The whole experience of this was brilliant. Our host Ryan was very attentive and interacted with us just the right amount, little nudges if we needed it without giving too much away. The decoration is on a par with Copplestones and Viking. Really fun interaction with some of the puzzles, and the whole experience seemed to just keep going and going! Also the story was brilliant and incredibly immersive, something very original considering magic is a common theme. From the first puzzle you can tell that it is going to be a great experience. 

There was no clue in particular that was ridiculously hard, just quite a bit to do, and if you forget about something very important (no spoilers!) then you’ll definitely add on a couple of minutes! Don’t miss this, it was a knockout.

Updated top 5:

1. The Legend of Miyalock: Forbidden Magic - Clue HQ Birmingham

2. Viking - Extremescape

3. Mr Copplestone’s Curiosity Shoppe - Escape Quest

4.  UI-55 - Compendium

5. The Legend of Foole’s Gold - Clockwork Escapes

The game itself was great once we got in, however, getting into the escape room proved more challenging than getting out.

Upon arrival at 10:40am we were told that a GM hadn't attended work so there was no one to run our game. The options presented were to have one person run two games at once which might mean things were slower and the experience hampered, come back later, or take a refund and come back another day.

We opted to come back later at 2:00pm and upon re-arrival there was still no one to run our game, we were half way through the safety briefing and our game GM showed up. We finally got into the game, the game itself was very good technically, the amount of clues given felt slightly too many, but are optional if you don't look at the screen. I think we were presented 8 clues, but only actually read 2 or 3. The room layouts and use of space and tech were good and flowed well and the set theming coming into the item storage area were a nice touch. It wasn't always clear when to proceed into next room however. 

A full refund was offered however for the inconvenience and the rescheduling of the day. 

Absolutely loved this game! This has to be my favourite room ever! Went as group of 2 enthusiasts, just on a whim and were blown away. Not your run of the mill “magic school” room. Some surprise elements I’ve not seen in a room before which will be loved by both adults and kids alike! It’s a must play with a beautiful flow, great theming and storytelling!

One of if not my favourite game I've ever played. Actually did it alone as it was due to close and my teammate was unavailable. The host was superb, there's a never ending sequence of surprises and the story telling is just wonderful.

Well our host Ryan was amazing and really  added to the experience. It was a real thrill and everything had its place. The finale section was wow on effects. I personally found that the sound was fine in the room and didn’t interfere with our communication. Sometimes it was a little funny with placement of items but that was due to fact it was tech orientated. Must play. 

I have mixed feelings about this - it is almost a great game, but wasn't quite there for me. Good points: beautiful set and videos, really enjoyed the interactive equipment you need for the game. Some good puzzles although nothing too individually challenging. Progress is linear for the most part. 

Bad points: the audio is loud to the point of damaging your hearing. I couldn't hear my partner even when we were shouting at each other at close range. This was very off putting, detracted from the experience and meant we had absolutely no way of solving an audio puzzle which we were then stuck on for some time (but also couldn't really attract the attention of the GM, again as so loud). It becomes very linear later on so I spent quite some time doing nothing due to the small spaces things were located in - again this may have been better if we'd been able to communicate, but volume precluded this. It's a shame about these issues as we ended up not enjoying a game that I think is probably better than our experience. 

A beautiful game with a good use of the space. For once it was impossible for me to forget the story and mission! Clever use of tech to create the magic and plenty of puzzles to keep us busy throughout. 

It is clear that so much effort has been put into creating  this room so am really glad we played before it has to be taken down. Hope it can return again in future.

Fantastic room. Definitely in our top 5. Such good fun

Intense game, very immersive, was frustrating to have to keep going back to the first room for clues.

Really nice room with something a little different! 

Fantatstic tech and engaging puzzles!

Set was impressive. Host Sophie was really lovely. However a bit too much tech for me but that’s a personal preference. Find it frustrating when you are stood around watching tech/videos before you can move on with another puzzle. 

What a game!  We had so much fun during the second part of this room. This is definitely a top 10 game for us so far!

A wonderful set but some of the puzzles were a tad proceedural for an enthusiasts.  I think this would be an excellent room for newbies and families though.

Still one of my favourite games - They really managed to capture the magic here. So original and great puzzles. 

A really beautiful and well designed room with a lot of high tech puzzles - I do prefer there to be more physical locks but the tech worked perfectly with some nice physical elements and was very impressive! Some really fun and surprising elements which I’ve never seen before too, and I really enjoyed the theme. It was a little dark in places with no torches to help which was sometimes a hindrance but we could cope. Hosting was great too!

New to reviewing, but played a while ago with the wife and figured it was worth noting. Some of the other games at Clue HQ are hit and miss but this one is definitely a hit!

Great puzzles, lovely effects in the room. Magic theme done differently and very well. This game has  lot of charm.

The latest game to be launched at Clue HQ and it’s safe to say it’s brilliant. 

This has quickly become my fav game at CLUE HQ. 

With some clever technology, great story and a few things I’ve not seen before, this room adds to a great lineup of games. 

There is a lot to do in this room so don’t be fooled by the starting space. It was frantic and we left sweating. Although fairly linear, there seemed to be something for everyone to do and I don’t feel anyone was standing around.

Fantastic game