The Escaporium: The Haligonian (Halifax)

A fun night at the museum

Mr. P. Saul has been around a long time, happily creating his own private museum in tribute to his home town of Halifax.  However, he was made to leave when The Piece Hall was renovated, and when he returned, he was a changed man!  It’s not just his demeanour that has changed either – he has started stealing items for his museum too!

One such item is the irreplaceable, original ceremonial key to The Piece Hall’s gates!  Can you and your team work your way through the mad museum and get the key back before Mr. P. Saul returns? You have 60 minutes to find out if you can!

In the escape room community one often hears about certain companies a lot. Escaporium is one of those companies so it was long overdue for us to head up north to play (all) their games.

I didn’t actually know anything about Halifax other than the bank. But when I spoke to a friend and told him I was heading to Halifax he said we must visit The Piece Hall. As it turns out, the first venue we visited of Escaporium’s was actually in The Piece Hall! Definitely a place worth visiting regardless of playing escape rooms.

We ventured up north and met up with some of our blogging friends, Amy and Ian from Brit of an Escape Habit. It was a leisurely long weekend with only 14 escape rooms booked. We had all four booked at Escaporium, starting with The Haligonian, then Crux Codicillus, Christmas Advent-ure, and Area 51.5.

I knew less than nothing about any of these games other than their reputation. The first thing I learned (from asking Amy and Ian) was that apparently a Haligonian is the name for people from Halifax – that was lesson one and I learned much more than that from this game.

After navigating our way around The Piece Hall we found our way up to the venue. When we arrived we were greeted by the team (Angela, Sam, and Darrian). In their comfortable reception area Sam proceeded to explain our mission (as well as the health and safety briefing) and then we were shown through the door to Mr P Saul’s museum (P Saul. Piece Hall. I get it now).

IMMERSION/ROOM DESIGN

In my childhood I felt like I was always in and out of museums, but in later life we seemed to have replaced them with escape rooms. Saying that, Mr P Saul’s museum felt rather authentic and I feel bad that I didn’t spend as much time looking at the items and their descriptions as I should have.

Fear not though. Those of you who don’t like museums will be pleased to know that this particular museum was rammed full of puzzles that felt like they were beautifully woven into the story, and the history of the town. Did you know Cat’s-eyes were invited by a Percy Shaw from Halifax? Or that Quality Street is manufactured in Halifax? Nope, nor did I.

The museum was lovely and clean, with enjoyable background music being played to help us sync into a nice puzzle solving rhythm. I must admit, normally I like my museums to be full of dinosaurs, but I’ll make an exception for The Haligonian.

PUZZLES

On first entering The Haligonian you can’t help but notice all the museum exhibits dotted around the place, then obviously the customary padlocks locking various things away. Once you look a bit deeper however, you then start to see where there are puzzles to be solved.

We love games where the puzzles fit seamlessly into the design and theme of the room, and that is exactly what happened here. I actually feel kinda guilty that I was so focussed on solving puzzles that I didn’t actually take the time to check out all of the exhibits in the room.

Part of the joy of this game was that it was very open and mostly non-linear so we were able to split up and explore the game independently. All of the puzzles we discovered were clever, clear, and logical – I hate to say it, but I even learned a thing or two about Halifax (yes, it’s famous for more than just the bank).

With excellent signposting we always had a good idea of what went where. The puzzles generally revolved around; searching, observation, perception, communication, teamwork, and logic. Many of the puzzles were relatively quick wins but we did find two puzzles took a little longer to solve. Once solved, puzzles generally resulted in a key or a combination for a padlock.

GM/CLUE SYSTEM

One thing we noticed in all of our games at Escaporium was how good the GMs were. For the Haligonian, our gamesmaster was Sam. Sam seemed to genuinely enjoy his job, and he was good at it. His briefings were entertaining, fun, and enthusiastic (a good start).

In the game, clues were delivered via a TV screen above the door. This screen also displayed a countdown timer so we knew how long we had left before Mr P Saul returned to his museum.

Frustration in an escape room is a dangerous thing and once players reach that stage it can be hard to pull them back from it. Sam read the room perfectly and when he sensed that our team had missed something (generally observation wise), he chimed in to give us a little help to get us back on track, far before any frustrations set in.

Another little thing that makes a big difference. When we finished the final puzzle, our hosts were outside the door ready to greet us and tell us how amazing we were (we love praise, even if it’s not true).

ANYTHING ELSE

Yes, there’s more to Halifax than just the bank and the Haligonian is the perfect place to learn about it while having a great time solving puzzles!

Angela mentioned that when she was in school it was a right of passage for all kids finishing school in the area to go on a tour of the Quality Street factory. I gather that no longer happens, but I’d propose it should now be replaced with a mandatory game of The Haligonian to see all the great things that have come from the town.

Success/Failed

Final Rating:

Team: 4 players – escaped in 35:54

Address: The Piece Hall, Colonnade Level, East Wall, The Piece Hall, Halifax, HX1 1RE

Website: https://www.theescaporium.com/

*Disclaimer: we weren’t charged for this experience, but this has not influenced our review