Deadlocked: The Reading Witch (Reading)

A small taste of European horror games, in the UK

Join a team of TV investigators to explore the ominous woods where the mysterious Reading Witch is said to have resided. Unusual noises and ritualistic chanting has been heard nearby yet no-one has ever returned from the cabin. Can you debunk the rumours or will you fall foul to the witch yourselves?

It has been literally years since we’d last played a physical Deadlocked game In Reading and we’d been itching to play something new from the team ever since we played The Time Machine pre-lockdown in 2020. Although we did play The Magic of New Orleans at their Loughborough branch in 2021 which helped a little. Deadlocked’s wonderful online games also helped us get through lockdown – shout out to Cyphstress and The Insiders, but they just didn’t scratch that itch for a physical game.

So, imagine our happiness when just a few short weeks before Halloween we managed to arrange a visit to Reading to play their latest game, The Reading Witch – a 2 hour horror game.

When our game was booked we received an email that contained all the information that we needed for our visit, but it also included a video to give us the story behind The Reading Witch. If there’s one thing you’ll take away from this review, it’s that this game is more than just puzzles. The immersion starts from the moment you arrive and the GM remains in character throughout.

When we arrived we were greeted by our GM, and AD (assistant director) for Frightseers, James. James welcomed us, briefed us, and set us on our way in a seamless way that we haven’t seen anywhere else – it was flawless.

James gave us our tac vests – an essential bit of kit so the producers could see and hear everything we could, and help us to ensure this was the best episode of Frightseers to date. Then we were on our own… or were we…?

IMMERSION/ROOM DESIGN

One of the charms of the Deadlocked rooms that we’ve played in the past was their homemade feel. That’s not a negative; it shows the love and attention that Deadlocked put into all of their games, and shows you don’t need a big budget to make something fun. The Reading Witch felt like the next step up for Deadlocked, combining their reputation for great puzzles with quality set design, and the next level of immersion.

Having played previous games at this Deadlocked venue we had a rough idea of the space they were working with. Yet somehow they managed to reinvent things enough that we weren’t exactly sure how much more we had to explore or where we were going next, and they managed to use their unique space perfectly.

Immersion is an odd word as it means different things to different people, but we felt immersed in this very creepy alternate Reading history that they’ve created. The sights, the sounds, and even the smells pulled together to bring us into their world.

The use of tech helped to create that creepy feeling of things happening, was it the wind? Was it a spirit? Was it Liz farting? That’s just one of life’s mysteries. And when you think you’re safe, there’s a good chance you’re not.

In a horror themed game it’s often hard to see and difficulty by darkness becomes a puzzles in itself. Lighting design however seemed to have been another consideration here. The darkness was utilised perfectly to help drive the narrative, while still managing to avoid any frustrations.

You will need to crawl for one section of this game (although the floor is nicely padded) and one team member will need to be comfortable with tight spaces.

PUZZLES

I mentioned it earlier, but Deadlocked are known for their puzzle making abilities. I don’t know how many puzzle books he’s authored now, but James is prolific with these. But team Deadlocked (both James and Charlie) combine wonderfully to create original, thought provoking, and sometimes exceedingly frustrating puzzles (if you played The Insiders you’ll know what I mean).

We’ve played a number of horror experiences that are full-horror and puzzle-light, so we really hoped that they wouldn’t skimp on the puzzles, and they didn’t: communication, wordplay, decoding, teamwork, basic maths, logic, observation, light searching and following instructions – just good quality, solid traditional escape room puzzles with decent signposting.

There was a good balance of physical puzzles, and some that triggered tech or resulted in combinations for padlocks.

I also want to shout out to Deadlocked for including a bit of information on one instruction that made a puzzle solvable by someone who is colour blind. I can 100% say that it would have been impossible for me to complete it without this extra set of instructions, but instead we got it first time. I love accessibility like this, it doesn’t detract from the game for ‘normies’ but makes it possible for those of us with the colour vision of a dog.

GM/CLUE SYSTEM

One thing you should probably know about Deadlocked is that they’re also trained actors, and that comes through in their performance in The Reading Witch. Yes, this is a live actor experience, yes and yes, they probably want you to poo your pants (probably not literally… probably). The more you put in, the more you get out. Just make sure you do what you’re told.

Ok, big disclaimer here. Review the Room are partially involved in this game. How so you ask? Well Liz is also an actor so you may notice that she is your director and also feeds you helpful hints as/when you need them – or she may tell you to stop doing something stupid (that feels oddly familiar to me). Fortunately Liz has the memory of a goldfish so she didn’t remember anything about the game.

Ignoring the fact that Liz was the clue system, we loved it. The seed was set early on that the director could hear and see everything, so having clues coming directly from the director felt perfectly natural, and James timed our clues to perfection (three I believe, due to our own stupidity).

Interestingly this is one of those games where a simple and cheap walkie-talkie clue system would have worked well, but it was nice to see Deadlocked step it up a notch and go for something more bespoke and immersive.

ANYTHING ELSE

Deadlocked have upped their game and The Reading Witch had that feeling of horror games we’ve played in Athens and Amsterdam. Ok, the space is much smaller but they used it well and the live action element takes it to the next level.

I can’t say that this is the scariest horror game in the UK, but is it the best horror escape room in the UK? Possibly.

I should add an extra disclaimer here just to say that since we got into escape rooms, and actually since lockdown we have become good friends with James and Charlie at Deadlocked. If anything this has probably made us more critical of their games as we want to avoid any bias, and it certainly hasn’t affected this review.

Success / Failure

Final Rating:

Team: Two investigators – escaped in 1hr 26mins

Address: 122 Castle Hill, Reading RG1 7RG

Website: https://deadlockedrooms.com

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