Escape Hunt Cheltenham: Aladdin

Looked really cool when first walked in but there really wasn’t much to this room. Only a few puzzles, some didn’t make sense even when we did it still no idea how that was the answer. Lots of wires sticking out and set and props falling apart, very underwhelming end, really disappointed with this one from escape hunt 

This is a very convincingly-made cave, although the scenery doesn't reach all the way to the ceiling which does break the immersion.

This room had lots of good tactile puzzles, with the elements being fairly in keeping with the theme and environment, which was good.  We did find that it was hard to tell what had caused the unlocking sometimes, especially with a larger group and people doing things in parallel.  This was slightly compounded by one puzzle unlocking even though I'm convinced we didn't finish it if what I was trying to do was right (the gemstone puzzle).

We found all the puzzles very straightforward, but we it was the only game they had available when we booked and was a lower difficulty rating than we'd have chosen had we been less last minute.  It's a nice touch that if you do get out super quickly, they'll offer you a free drink to make up for the reduced amount of time that you've been entertained for.  Which is good because we were expecting there to be a whole extra stage at a certain point and it was a bit disappointing to open the door and be out on the corridor!

Ok but one of the weaker rooms I’ve played in terms of puzzles

 Beautiful room….so much potential.

There are a lot of skill based puzzles that seem to rely on the host watching and pressing a button in this room - which is highly frustrating. 

Some broken props led to us walking around with something we absolutely shouldn't have had hold off but it was lying around looking important - turns out it had just broken! 

On a positive the set design was great - so it has potential but sadly not a good game for us. 

I have mixed feelings about this one. The room itself is really beautiful and makes the setting quite immersive, however it really needs a lot of TLC. Two things broke when we were in the room, one skill puzzle didn't deliver a piece we needed for another task, and then a bigger thing didn't work as it was supposed to requiring us to leave the room while they fixed it. I think the former was probably the most irritating thing as we were a bit confused looking for something that we should have had but was obviously stuck inside. We were given free drinks afterwards to make up for our trouble. 

Two puzzles I was also not sure if we'd actually completed successfully as we didn't seem to have done what we were supposed to do when the actions were triggered. For example one thing we had to search for four things and put them in place, we only found three but the door opened anyway. I always feel slightly cheated when things like that happen as I don't feel like I've fully achieved what I needed to. 

I can't imagine this is a good game for bigger groups. Much of the early time was just spend looking for a few things, and after that it was quite linear and didn't really require a lot of extra input. A team of 6 would either spend a lot of time just waiting for something to do, or find the parts so quick that the game would be over in no time. 

After saying all that, I did think it was quite a nice room. I haven't done an Aladdin theme before so it felt quite different, and the overall look of the room had clearly been built with a lot of love. I think now it just needs an overhaul with some newer puzzles and a bit of tlc to just add some sparkle. 

Puzzles were generally pretty easy. Nothing seems automated and all puzzles seemed to be the kind that required the GM to be constantly watching and waiting to see if you’d completed the action you needed to complete.