Locked In Glasgow: Bloodline | Review

Bloodline Review | You have received a strange letter. Your late great great grandfather’s lawyer has requested that you visit a Storage Unit facility at 93 Hope Street in order to fulfil the final wishes stated in his last will and testament. Enter the unit you’ve inherited and discover the family secrets he wished to pass on to you… But the truth is not for the faint of heart and will only reveal itself to the very best that the Bloodline has to offer…

Date Played: March 2024
Time Taken: ~30 minutes
Number of Players: 4
Difficulty: Medium

When I first moved to Scotland I was worried there wouldn’t be as many escape rooms within short train ride as I was used to. I’ve never been so glad to be wrong. Every single time I’ve popped over to Glasgow (which, by the way, is under an hour from Edinburgh – shorter than most commutes in London), I’ve discovered new escape rooms that easily make my UK Favourites list. Today, playing with team Escaping the Closet, was no different.

At Locked In Glasgow, we booked ourselves in for two rooms: Bloodline (this one), and Doll’s House.

On arrival, we all squeezed into a small lift which took us up to the same floor Locked In is on. It’s a strange sort of building, since you’ll pass lots of other businesses from offices to chiropractors and goodness knows what else. Locked In also isn’t that well signposted – or at least, not enough for our team, who walked past the door twice before realising where to go. But, once you do find the right place, you’ll be greeted very warmly by the team of Games Masters there into a large lobby space.

The large lobby area was immediately juxtaposed by probably one of the smallest ‘entry’ escape room spaces I’ve ever played. For this reason, it makes sense that the room takes a maximum of 4 players – smaller than the average escape room, but truly you wouldn’t want to try to squeeze any more into some parts of Bloodline. Thankfully (minor spoiler) the room doesn’t end there, and soon it opens up into a larger space before the main escape room experience really begins.

Photo by Locked In Glasgow

…And what a cool space it was too! One of my absolute favourite things about the experience was the set design. Absolutely no detail was spared, and if we weren’t so dead set on completing the room with a good escape time, I’d have loved to spend more time just looking over the wonderful shelves and bottles for hidden easter eggs.

It’s a little difficult to reveal exactly what the room is about without straying into spoiler territory – so lets just say the room was very well themed for what the escape room ended up being actually about. Coded, cryptic language yes, but the reveal will be worth the wait. That said, we did guess a little ahead of time what the room might be about. Small nudges here and there by subtle details in the environment served as foreshadowing for the terrible secrets we would discover later.

In terms of difficulty and puzzles, Bloodline is said to be the most difficult room available at Locked In Glasgow. We didn’t have too many issues with it, and managed to escape without asking for any clues. However, it definitely was a busy room. I’m not sure there was a single moment to pause and breathe, the four of us were constantly puzzle solving. An experienced team of two could probably complete it by using the full hour, but I’d recommend a team of 4 if you can wrangle it.

Photo by Locked In Glasgow

In terms of those puzzles, they unfold in a fairly linear way, but there was enough for all of us to be working on different things at once in the various nooks and crannies of the space. At a few key moments, one of us would exclaim, and the whole group would huddle round to experience a particular puzzle – by this I mean, some of the puzzles in Bloodline were some of the coolest and most unique we’ve ever played.

Our Games Master for the experience was Emma, and she did an excellent job setting up the spooky vibes and getting us started in the room. As I say, we didn’t request any hints, but she was on hand at all times if we needed her. After the game, for completing the room we were given a lollypop each – which oddly reminded me of going to the doctors, but served as a fun pick me up as we waited for our next room to begin.

Bloodline | The Verdict

Locked In Glasgows’ Bloodline is a must do escape room for folks visiting the city, and easily my favourite of all the ones I’ve played in Glasgow. So far, anyway. It has such a brilliant set design, and some of the most unique and fun puzzles I’ve encountered in a long time. The story flowed well, and we had a lot to do in the time given, that made for a satisfying all round experience. Would recommend!