Clue HQ – Sacrifice

You wake up, blindfolded and disorientated, with no recollection of how you came to be here. You quickly learn that in order to escape you must compete for your life. Every human must face this test at some point in their lifetime, to seek out the survivors and eliminate the unworthy. In this race against time and your friends, will you be willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for your own survival? You have one hour to prove yourself; it’s them… or you.

The Sacrifice room at Brentwood based escape room company Clue HQ sees up to 8 people (Separated into two teams of 4) dropped blindfolded into a room. It then quickly becomes clear that there is a dark presence at play, a dark presence with a real passion for padlocks and iPads.

The teams are given an hour to escape or find themselves “sacrificed”. Then it becomes a challenge to solve various clues in order to find a full set of creepy code words to receive the final clue to escape. The puzzles themselves shouldn’t pose too much of a problem to even a less experienced escapist, but there’s a good mix of puzzle variety from padlocks and riddles to music boxes. Your common sense, logical thinking and music knowledge will all be put to the test.

You’re monitored visually and audibly throughout the experience and your hosts will use television sets in the corner of the room to communicate hints to the group if they are struggling. However, our host tended to be a little over-generous with clues, meaning that we lost the satisfaction of solving one or two of the puzzles for ourselves.

When it comes to scares, the experience is more akin to a Scary Movie 3 level of fear as oppose to a Blair witch fright fest, the horror serving fun more than it does fear. There are a few surprising and gruesome props coupled with a spooky ambiance, but the absence of live actors makes it unlikely that anyone will be leaving in tears.

This is a good room for small groups regardless of experience in escape rooms, particularly for families with children over 13, but real horror hunting thrill seekers will find themselves underwhelmed with the fear factor of this attraction.

Clue HQ’s sacrifice room is ideal for anyone looking to escape a room in an hour and have a good time doing it, but for a truly immersive horror experience, Horror Hunters recommends searching elsewhere.