"Subject11"

Subject11
Of some 30 or so rooms I've done this has to be in the bottom 1-3.
The first clues you get apply to a puzzle 3 puzzles away, but look very much they apply to the first puzzle.
There's puzzles partially behind electronic locks that are intentionally accessible immediately, but look like the locks are just broken. The only reason we knew they were there was from experience with a previous room that was in the same space.
The primary puzzle in the first room implies a rule that is not true, leading to much misdirection. We spent 15 minutes on this and gave up and asked for a clue.
There's a puzzle involving pictures that very much suggests you need to find 6 pictures, but there is no 6th picture. You just use the numbers from the 5 you have.
There's QR codes in the room that I dislike on principle, but one of them did not even work; it linked to an online QR code service where the registered QR code had expired.
The second room (for a total of just 2) had a very trivial linear set of 3 puzzles. It took us less than 10 minutes to complete.
Second room had low-lighting for no reason, requiring use of phone lights. The light was not a puzzle.

We were a team of 3. The room is listed as doing up to 5 but every single puzzle except 1 was linear in nature; there was no attempt to parallelise the puzzles so multiple people can solve independently.

Not even close to being worth the £80 I paid. We were out in 40 minutes even after the 15 minutes of being stuck on the first puzzle. Record time was 44 minutes.

I'm so irritated I registered on TrustPilot just to write this.

"Shockingly terrible"

Cliche but I would genuinely leave no stars if possible.

Let's call this what it is: A shoddy low effort cash grab using a damp & grotty shipping container at the bottom of a field to cash in on actual Escape Room experiences whilst putting in ZERO effort.

The staff had no idea what was going on. Didn't introduce the room at all. Couldn't even confirm the number of "rooms" there were in The Runner without confirming with eachother. Completely uninterested in the customer experience at all.

"The Runner" theme is a rip off of The Maze Runner yet had no story to speak of. The walkie-talkies, unsurprisingly, don't work well when you put them in a metal box. We kept getting cross-talk to the group in the "s**t stranger things" room, their words. The "puzzles" were non-sensicle and mostly the same and not in keeping with the theme. When asking for hints the game-runners had to ask what lock we were on. The iPad integration gave the impression of a modicum of effort being put in but that is about it.

The fastest time is 57 minutes for The Runner. The room isn't difficult or long. It's a heavily linear experience on a rail with the fire door wide open and the smell of urine wofting into the final room. If you ask for a hint you're excluded from the leaderboard artificially making the room seem harder online.

The cherry on the cake is that there is genuinely a prop for the photos of "Personally I thought it was A-MAZE-ING". The absolute nerve. I suppose an inside joke for the owners?

"COULDN’T RUN A BATH LET ALONE A COMPANY"

After 3 weeks of trying to get a refund I am then told I need to contact a company that these clowns work with to find out where it is. What an absolute shambles of a company avoid these at all costs.

"Absolutely awful experience from…"

Absolutely awful experience from Swindon escape rooms!!!
Had a booking for a work leaving do nearly 2 weeks ago, received a call from them whilst we were on our way, 30 mins before our booking, to tell use the excuse that our room is unavailable due to a power cut (which wasn’t the case after contacting the events office). We were offered the option of a later time or to rebook, however this activity was booked for a work leaving do and due to members moving away it was not suitable to rebook. We also had a table booked for a meal afterward leaving the later time option not possible either!
We were advised by a staff member over the phone to email the enquires to request a full refund, after doing so 3 working days later we still hadn’t received any contact back. We have called the support number on the booking confirmation numerous times with them telling me it will take around 3-5 working days! It has nearly been 2 weeks since!!!
This is completely unacceptable, I am out of pocket with a large amount of money not earning interest in my account!

I will never recommend City Mazes to anyone with the service we have received! I would also like the know the real reason in which our room was cancelled for! And I will continue to be in contact until I receive my full refund!

"ABSOLUTELY UNBELIEVEABLY UNPROFESSIONAL"

ABSOLUTELY UNBELIEVEABLE. We booked a room at the Swindon branch for yesterday (6th March) and were travelling up from Southampton to do this room as we are escape room enthusiasts, to find absolutely NOONE at the branch, another family were there pacing up and down and had been there for over half hour waiting. They had 'FINALLY' got through to someone at the Bristol branch. After this family had spoken on the phone, they kindly passed the phone over to me to discuss my booking and they whispered 'its not good'

CHRIS, who had zero empathy for our sitaution, was so matter afact that it makes me believe this has happened before. 'Sorry but the member of staff hasnt turned up for work this morning so I can only offer you the room at 2:45 (our booking was for 12:30) We have just travelled an hour specifically for this room, and are now being told SORRY BUT YOU HAVE TO WAIT 2 HOURS!!!!!
I spoke with our group and we all mutually agreed to leave it, after all, if the Escape room itself was to be any reflection on the experience we had already recieved, it was going to disappoint!!!! Plus if they cant keep to their origanal booking time whose to say that after waiting over 2 hours that someone will actually turn up for that......
I made sure once again that Chris understood that we had travelled up from Southampton just for this room and his comment was - well we do have rooms in Oxford London and Cardiff. ARE YOU FOR REAL????????
You have sent us a confirmation email CONFIRMING the booking, we travel up to find no one there, it takes half hour to get through to someone who was simply MATTER OF FACT with no sincere apology. When I confirmed that we are not happy to wait (plus we had one other escape room in Swindon to get to) I confirmed we would like a refund, AS IF THE WHOLE THING HADN'T BEEN BAD ENOUGH, I am then told "you will have to email in and request that' ARE YOU JOKING?????
I am stood outside the shop waiting for my appointment that YOU HAVENT KEPT TO and now "I" have to inconvience myself AGAIN and email in to request a refund?????
As I said earlier we are Escape Room Enthusiasts and with all the rooms we have done NEVER EVER have we experienced anything like it.
Stay Clear, unprofessional, waste of money, zero customer Service!!!!!!!!

"Team Building Work Day Out"

25 of us visited City Mazes in Bristol for a fun day out of the office. The games really made us think and it actually made us all work as a team. Great fun and really got us thinking. Looking forward to visiting the Oxford branch!