Forbidden Quest: The Collector (Belfast)

Can we mention the ‘T’ word?

When a powerful relic is stolen from a church in Eastern Europe the trail leads to an abandoned religious complex in Belfast city centre.

Closed in the late 90’s, the facility has lain unoccupied for years but has recently been acquired by a dealer of rare antiquities – known as ‘The Collector’. 

His intentions for the site remain unknown. 

Your team have been tasked with infiltrating the compound and retrieving the relic!

But beware – local news reports suggest a number of people have disappeared recently in that area. We are uncertain as to whether this is connected but strongly urge you remain vigilant!

This trip to Belfast was our first single night, overnight trip, and it was planned around playing Time to Float  at Forbidden Quest. Time to Float was a game that we’d been hearing a lot about, so as part of our 2026 plan to play more UK games, we booked a flight and prayed that their new game, The Collector would be open. They had told us they were hoping for February, so we booked the last weekend in Feb (28th Feb/1st March) and fortunately the gods were looking favourably on us as The Collector opened on the 28th Feb – phew! We don’t normally like to play games on the opening weekend, but needs must!

It’s worth pointing out that The Collector is in a different venue to their other games, closer to the city centre. It’s located in a non-descript building, but there’s no doubt that you’re in the right place as the door has very prominent ‘The Collector’ graphics on it. Like their other venue, The Collector is located on the first floor of the building, and ignoring the game play itself, I think just getting to the room would make this game not accessible if you struggle with stairs.

When we arrived, we rang the buzzer and shortly after the door opened and we ascended the stairs. When we got to the top of the stairs we found ourselves outside what looked like a little house, with a bench to sit on and a trunk to put our belongings in. Around the side of the house was a toilet that could be used before the game. If you’ve ever played games in Athens, then to me at least, this game had similar vibes at the start.

We never actually met our host when we arrived, there was simply a disembodied voice coming over the speaker system telling us to lock away our items and then to knock on the front door when we were all ready to begin. Once we were ready, we knocked and the show began with a bang!

IMMERSION/ROOM DESIGN

We played this game as a team of four, with our usual team which is Review the Room, plus James and Charlie, and after this game we had a big discussion about it, including how we would label it. The easiest label to give this game is ‘horror’, and to an extent it is. But this game felt much more than that, and horror can be subjective. 

There’s no doubt that this has a very dark story, and to some it could be quite triggering at times, but unlike some horror games where there is a menace actively chasing you, this game felt more like a thriller/suspense. If you don’t like horror at all, then you’ll likely find this very scary, but a lot of the fear is in the unknown, and the rules are very clear – follow them, and you’ll be ok.

Playing this game felt like the owners had been to Athens and decided to bring that style of game to the UK (they had). The set felt expansive and had live actors used in a way that we often see in Europe, and the story played out like we have seen in Montreal, where at times all we have to do is step back and watch what can best be described as a cut scene – all focus on the actors and the story.

The set design was great and at numerous times we said to ourselves ‘it just keeps going’. Ok, it doesn’t have the vaulted ceilings and height you would find in Athens, but it made up for that in the quantity of spaces. We played as a team of four and always had plenty to do, but I’m sure you could play in a bigger team and have no issues with space. As I mentioned earlier though, this game is not accessible, steps, climbing, and crawling are all needed.

Lighting was never an issue and darkness was used to enhance the experience but never to be an annoyance. Anything we needed to see was visible, and the usual rules apply – stay in the light.

If I had one gripe, and this could be a gripe that is only present because the game is new, or it could be a design choice, it would be that some of the ‘bloody’ items in the room were wet. So just be aware of things you touch and then what you touch next, as it can get a little messy.

PUZZLES

So often with ‘horror’ games, especially ones that have live actors involved, the puzzles can play second fiddle to the experience. We were very grateful that The Collector had plenty of puzzles to keep us occupied. That’s not to say they were the most challenging, but some of them were simple, others more complex, involving numerous steps to solve them.

Observation, bravery, audio, colours (to a small extent), smell, teamwork, memory, and searching made up the bulk of the puzzles. There’s something for everyone and our team found that everyone had a chance to shine. Most of the puzzles played out in a linear fashion, but there were odd occasions where we could work on different puzzle paths simultaneously. 

We did have issues with one puzzle where we knew what to do but for lack of a better word, the prop ‘failed’. The GM was watching though and was able to provide additional ‘tools’ to enable us to continue without any break in the immersion. I wouldn’t be surprised that as the game elovles and settles in, that this prop is tweaked slightly to stop this happening again. We did play on opening weekend, so things like this are to be expected.

The puzzles in the game culminated in either codes for padlocks or some form of tech triggered. The padlock use was fine, and because they were used sparingly we never had to guess which padlock the code went in. I would hazard a guess that a few things were manually triggered by the GM, but they were so attentive to our game that it was pretty much instantaneous when we solved it. 

GM/CLUE SYSTEM

Our host was the owner, Stephen, and not only was he hosting but he was also playing one of the key characters in the room. I don’t want to talk too much about the live actor(s) in this game, but suffice to say, any characters we met played their part to perfection. Even though we watched a lot of the story play out in front of us like a cut scene in a video game, there was a lot of theatrics involved and some really cool moments.

This isn’t the cheapest game to play, but that is likely down to the cost of running it, anytime you add live actors to a game you know the price has to increase to cover the extra wages. Is it worth it? Hell yes.

We never actively asked for any help in this game as we found that the puzzles were intuitive and fair. On the odd occasion where we did falter, a disembodied voice came over a hidden speaker system and was enough to get us back on track. We were never slowed down for long though, so our GM was clearly watching closely. 

ANYTHING ELSE

The fact that in writing this review I keep referring to Athens is testament to what Forbidden Quest has done here. This is an experience, the type of experience that is few and far between in the UK at the moment – only Time to Float and The Reading Witch would be the logical comparisons. 

It’s risky to use the T word when reviewing a new game (TERPECA). But I have a feeling that if enough players make it to Belfast and play this game, then it could be on the cards.

The Collector has a very dark theme, and as I mentioned, certain scenes with the actors could be quite triggering to people depending on their life experiences. We’re happy to give more detail if you wanted to message us on social media, or perhaps check directly with the venue.

Success / Failure

Final Rating:

Team: 4 players – mission completed in around 73 mins

Address: TOP SECRET (but different to their main venue)

Website: http://www.forbiddenquest.com/