ICYMI, I recently did a escape room day featuring three rooms in Birmingham! Our first room was The Hellevator by Clue HQ, which had a cool theme but unfortunately a few technical issues affected our enjoyment of the room overall.
Luckily, our second room, also at Clue HQ, definitely put the spring back into our step, or should I say the yo back into our ho!
Captain Riddle’s Forgotten Fortune
Captain Riddle was one notorious pirate. Famous for pillaging from land and sea and holding his bounty within a hidden cove. The story has become legend over the years and no one is sure if the treasure even exists anymore. You and your scallywag crew have commandeered his old ship and are now sailing in search for the gold. Paranoid that others would attempt to follow in his footsteps, he locked everything up, and is said to have not written down the route to the loot. Riddle’s ship is protected, so you won’t have long after you set sail until the company come after you.
~ Captain Riddle’s Forgotten Fortune, Clue HQ Birmingham
Theming
From the door made up of mismatch slats of wood, to the screen showing a view out over the ocean that changed with our actions, the theme was baked into this room from the start. The room was full of plenty to look at, and everything was part of a puzzle, sooner or later!
I’m a big fan of pirate themes, so this setting particularly appealed to me. The room found interesting ways to incorporate many of the piratical classics – cannon balls, the helm, rum and even a parrot! I also think that whoever came up with the cluey puns for people and place names must have had a lot of fun.
The space itself is fine for three players but would probably be on the smaller side if you went up to their maximum of six. Unfortunately since our bags were in the room with us taking up space, we almost missed our opportunity to explore further – luckily, our host Emma clued us in.
Puzzles
Another “classic” escape room that relied on plenty of locks, but with interesting and varied puzzles throughout to solve. Some required teamwork, while others relied on one person’s focused attention.
One area to commend this room on was the signposting – literally! Each lock had a small icon next to it telling you which puzzle would open it. The room also felt pleasingly logical to work through, with smaller elements building up to bigger pieces of the puzzle.
The room branched significantly and there were definitely puzzles at the end that my team mates had solved completely without me. We really hit our stride in this room and managed to crack through the puzzles in very good time, but if you’re newer to escape rooms you may appreciate a slightly bigger group of four or five.
Part of the room’s conceit is getting away with as much treasure as possible, and honestly I was a little disappointed with how easy it was for three players to make it out with all the gold – although there was some added time pressure that made the end of the game extra exciting. Also, one puzzle had a laborious input that was pretty unforgiving if your hand slipped, and another audio clue was a little on the quiet side. However this really is picking faults with an overall fantastic room.
Summary
A fun room with lots of clever puzzles and excellent signposting throughout. And even better – we set a record for the room!
Theme: 4.5/5 | Puzzles: 4.5/5 | Difficulty: 3/5
Clue system: in-room screen
Success: yes, 26:59 remaining (all-time record)
