Mary Shelley’s House of Frankenstein: Victor’s Lair | Review

Victor’s Lair Review | Welcome to Victor Frankenstein’s miserable attic quarters strewn with insane equations, strange artefacts and miscellaneous body parts. Victor is close to unlocking the mysteries of life and requires just a few key components to fulfil his maniacal quest. Having coerced you into his quarters with promises of “riches beyond your wildest dreams”, it’s actually your vital organs he’s after. You have just one hour to unlock the ramblings of an unhinged mind, and more critically, your way out to freedom.

Date Played: March 2024
Time Taken: ~40 minutes
Number of Players: 6
Difficulty: Medium

The third of the three rooms we tackled on our big day at Mary Shelley’s House of Frankenstein was Victor’s Lair. Well if we’re being technical, this was actually the first room we played – shortly before The Body in the Suitcase, followed by The Shallows.

With that concludes *almost* all the puzzley experiences the museum has to offer… Which for a museum is pretty impressive! A full day’s worth of puzzles, and free entry into the museum. Addtionally, its also next door to Thirsty Meeples, one of the best board game cafes in Bath so if after a full day’s puzzling you’d like a little something extra, then it couldn’t be more convenient. As for us, we had a train home to catch. But there’s always next time!

Photo by Mary Shelley House of Frankenstein

About Victor’s Lair and House of Frankenstein

Victor’s Lair is the very first escape room the team at Mary Shelley’s House of Frankenstein released and is located at the very top of the narrow building. Being the first, I believe the team have improved with their later experiences –   The Body in the Suitcase, and The Shallows, but they do regularly come back and make updates to Victor’s Lair. After all, this is the only room in the museum which has a permanent place and more traditional, permanent puzzles involving electronics and set design.

On arrival at the front desk, a message was sent up and our rather sinister, in-character host came down to greet us. Our GM never once broke character and whilst I didn’t catch their name (either in-character, or real name), they played the part excellently. A creepy, wild scientist type who seemed a little too keen to get us into the room and seal us into our fate. But after we’d had our briefing we were off to a flying start.

Puzzling our way out

We played as a team of 6, which is the maximum number of players possible for this room. Between us, we had a mix of more and less experienced players. Mostly, this game worked well for this team size. It was large enough to accomodate all of us in each space. Although, there were a few puzzles which could be solved with just one or two players, and so there wasn’t always enough for everyone to do. As such, I’d probably recommend it for between 3 – 4 experienced players for the best time.

In terms of what those puzzles were, players can expect a mix of more traditional locks, and a few maglock triggered moments. There were a good mix of puzzles in there that flexed different parts of our brain, including searching, logical thinking, maths, some physical puzzles, and puzzles that involved taking a new perspective.

Exploring the Scientist’s Lair

In terms of visuals, Victor’s Lair is a good accompanyment to The Shallows. Whereas The Shallows is located in the dark and stone-walled basement, Victor’s Lair is in the attic. The theming of the room is steampunk meets Victorian horror. As you walk in the walls are dark and covered in an old, faded wallpaper pattern and there in the centre of the room is a large body laid bare with various parts missing.

There are some really interesting architectural features which come from using an old historical building as the setting of an escape room. Personally, I enjoyed sticking my head into the fireplace and being able to look right up into the chimney. Not a puzzle, I promise, just me being silly.

This room has a fairly linear flow, and takes place over a few different physical spaces. Some you can see from the beginning, others are discovered as you go through the room – but no spoilers here! All of the rooms were well themed. I like to use the word “vibes”, because there really is no better way to describe the combination of atmospheric music, sound, visuals and smells all combining to create a sense of presence.

And yes, when I say smells – I mean it! Mary Shelley’s House of Frankenstein has this cool, authentic smell permeating the whole environment. Each room in the house has it’s own scent and it really works.

Photo of another room in Mary Shelley’s House of Frankenstein museum by the museum

Accessibility and Content Notes

Unfortunately, as with a lot of old examples of Bath architecture, Mary Shelley’s House of Frankenstein’s escape rooms are not wheelchair accessible. It’s located at the top of several flights of stairs, and even once inside there’s a deal of squeezing through spaces and ducking down low.

In terms of puzzles, one puzzle involved colours and much of the room is low lit. Either may not be suitable for folks with sight issues, or struggling with colourblindness. However there were no audio-puzzles, and I do believe the team would be able to help if you raise any accessibility issues with the team beforehand.

As for the theme, it errs on the side of scary. Mostly it’s the faux-body part gore that from experience I’ve found kids love more than adults. But there are a few audio-focused jump scares, and in the centre of the room is a large mannequin which doesn’t move throughout the game but is a part of a jump scare. So depending on your scare tolerance, I’d caution Victor’s Lair as “scary”.

Victor’s Lair | The Verdict

All in all, Victor’s Lair was a solid escape room experience. It had immersive set design, good hosting, and satisfying puzzles to boot. As Mary Shelley’s House of Frankenstein’s first and immovable room, it has a sense of permanence but I appreciate that the team make efforts to improve it regularly. It didn’t take any big risks nor break the mould in terms of escape room design, but if you want something reliably good then it’s well worth checking out.

Between our team, and between the three experiences we played, some of our team said it was their favourite of the three. For me, my favourite was probably The Body in the Suitcase for how much fun it was, or The Shallows for the coolest “entrance” ever, but the three sit very well together as a complete experience.

If you’d like to play Victor’s Lair, you can check it out on Mary Shelley’s House of Frankenstein here.

Note: We weren’t charged for our experience, but we have not let this affect the contents of this review.