Deadlocked Escape Rooms Reading: The Reading Witch

I’ve wanted to play this game since I’d been told about it. I love immersive games, especially horror and The Reading Witch does not disappoint. 

You can see from the moment you step foot into the room, the attention to detail that has gone into every single thing. The owners have a passion for this, and that is shown in the end product.

The game itself is story driven from the very start, and completely immersive. The scares are terrifying, to a point where I, even though I knew this was a game, did not want to be on my own in a room.

I played this with my wife who is not a horror fan and was apprehensive about doing it to begin with because of that, but at the end she was saying she was glad she had done it. 

This is a premium game, at two hours long you certainly get your moneys worth! 

Very stoked to have an escape room so close to home that offers up multiple actors. Something we have come to love in Europe so pleased to see it influence here. 

The actors were great and interacted well with the room. We love to get stuck in and happy to play along.

What surprised me the most was the number of puzzles. Most of the time it is more of an experience but this still has all the puzzles of an escape room. 

I hope many more of these pop up. 

In my 2024 analysis of the Escape Room industry (www.linktr.ee/roguecolonel) I thought we would start to see a shift in game design to echo what was being done in broader Europe.  I didn't expect to see it this quickly.  This game have been in development for a long time, when I visited 18 months ago to play Time Machine, James was telling me then of his plans for this room and it sounded intriguing then.

I don't know if the historical basis is true but it feels like it combines elements of "The Woman in Black" with other classical ghost stories.  You are taking part in a TV show investigating the fore mentioned Witch and from the off things don't go as you might think.

There's an awful lot to like in this room, from the environment, to some fabulous touches of theatricality, some genuine jumps and so much more.  I hope that this is the start of the  paradigm shift the UK ER scene is looking for but if not then it is absolutely showing the way and I hope provides inspiration for others.

The game is creepy but not overly scary but has great signposting as even though it was a 120 minute game, I don't think we stood around at any point wondering what to do next.  James and Charlie have done a great job here and its well worth your time.