A ‘fun’ level of horror
The Possession of Tabitha Rose
Tabitha was a sickly child. Her mother would do anything to protect her, anything to save her but the deal she made did not work out as planned and now she is lost.
Seance, by Enigma Wakefield is one of those games that keeps on getting spoken of in enthusiast groups when someone inevitably asks ‘what’s the scariest game you’ve played in the UK?’. We’ve played some world class horror games in Europe so we wanted to see what the fuss was about in Wakefield and see how scary it really was.
On this trip, we had already played a couple of games at Enigma Wakefield as a team of two (Murder Motel and Escape from Wonderland, but we had now returned to Enigma with a couple of teammates, Amy and Ian from Brit of an Escape Habit.
We arrived at the venue and climbed the stairs to the lobby, where we were greeted by our host, Kieran, and ushered into a secondary small and darkened waiting area. The darkness and general vibe of this area really set the tone for what was to come and already put us on edge. We put away our belongings in the lockers provided, used the bathrooms and then tried to mentally prepare for what was to come.
We received our rather thorough briefings and then it was down to business. If you are a person who scares easily, or finds things triggering then perhaps you should check out the disclaimer on the Enigma website…
This game includes genuine arcane artifacts, religious and demonic symbols and rituals. Players should expect jump scares, short periods of darkness and flashing lights. This game includes a live actor! 18+ rating!!
IMMERSION/ROOM DESIGN
So the cat is out of the bag with this one, Enigma are upfront about it in their description – this game contains a live actor. As soon as you add a live actor to a horror experience it seems that players lose their sh*t. As soon as there is someone, or something in the room with you, the whole vibe changes and you’re never sure what, or who, is around the corner. I’ll talk about the live aspect later, but as it felt like a key part of this experience, I thought it should be mentioned early on.
We walked down a darkened corridor and entered the room, which was also darkened, actually, darkness was the key vibe with Seance – probably what you’d expect. It was never too dark to see what we needed, or rather when we needed, but instead darkness was used in a way to enable the live actor to maximise the fear. Add the darkness to the ambient noises, and you have the perfect recipe for creepiness.
The set itself was fine, like a Victorian living room type of vibe. Nothing particularly felt out of place, and the sense of exploration was still present, even though the space itself wasn’t massive. Considering when we played this game it had already been around for a few years, it didn’t feel particularly worn out or dated – but then again, darkness hides all manner of sins.
PUZZLES
We’ve often found that in horror games, especially ones with a live actor, that puzzles tend to be on the simpler side. After all, it’s hard to focus on even a simple task when you think that something may be creeping up on you. Sidenote: we once played a horror game in LA where all you had to do was play ‘twinkle, twinkle little star’ on the piano, something Liz has done for years. But while being scared sh*tless, she suddenly couldn’t play it. ‘Fear dumbness’ is real!
I’m not saying the puzzles in Seance were easy, far from it, what I’m saying is that they were adjusted perfectly to be solvable under pressure. Searching, observation, decoding, logic, and one or two tests of bravery made for a nice variety of puzzle types.
Solving the puzzles seemed to give us codes for locks, or some ‘ghostly’ tech triggered in the room. I believe this game played out in a mostly linear way, which makes sense as I can’t imagine too many teams would want to split up and work on things independently. Safety in numbers and all that!
GM/CLUE SYSTEM
The star of the show with any live actor game is always the live actor, and Kieran did a great job – both of greeting us as a host, and terrorising us as the live actor, with plenty of jump scares and live actor interactions to boot.. Because we were a very experienced team of four, we didn’t need any help, so he could just focus on terrorising us. If we had needed any help, clues would have come through a TV screen in the room.
Seance also didn’t have a visual timer, instead we relied on a clock ‘bonging’ every ten minutes to give us an indication as to how long had passed.
ANYTHING ELSE
I can see why people find Seance to be a scary experience. With a live-actor running around you, it certainly keeps you on edge. I’m not sure if it deserves the tag as being one of the scariest escape rooms in the UK, but I guess that’s all relative.
Ignoring the scare aspect, Seance had some decent puzzles, a nice set, and we enjoyed our time being tormented.
Success/Failed
Final Rating:
Operation Puzzles Room Design GM/Clues Excitement
Team: Team of 4
Address: 8-10 Teall St, Wakefield WF1 1PT
Website: https://enigmarooms.co.uk/escape-rooms-wakefield
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