For the rather reasonable escape room price of £17.50 we weren’t expecting a great deal at Escape Asylum Leicester. A venue that is promoted as one of the scariest escape rooms in the country. After coming out of the King Richard themed room it’s safe to say it wasn’t scary but actually a rather dull affair.The best thing about Escape Asylum in Leicester is the Spirits Bar. The escape room is underneath one of the coolest horror bars I’ve ever seen!
Riiitual Room
The room itself was bare, boring and drab. The puzzles made you think a little and a very cool shield mechanical puzzle was certainly a highlight. Other than that there was bits falling off here there and everywhere and it all felt a bit tacky rather than scary.
The hint system was our room operator talking in a posh British accent which was quite funny actually. He teased us throughout which I found rather entertaining.Sadly even that amusement eventually wore thin when playing such a bland room. We had about 5 minutes left on the clock to escape but all the enthusiasm had been sucked out of us and I couldn’t even be bothered to race to finish the final puzzle.
I was happy to admit defeat, get my coat and go back to the bar and drink the last 60 minutes of my life out of existence.
Compare Escape Asylum to the likes of any horror room in Nottingham (if you know you know) and even a brand new venue like Paralysis Escape Rooms blows them out of the water in terms of set design and immersion. Horror specific escape rooms shouldn’t have rooms aimed at kids. Either dive in and go full horror or don’t bother at all.
A silver lining for me is that they have a new escape experience coming this November called Buried. A game that involves you being locked inside a coffin and you’re up against 9 other players. Now THAT sounds more up my street!
