The Crystal Maze Live Experience - Review

7 friends stand in a room with childlike grins. A screen playing nostalgic snippets of Richard O’Brian’s sardonic humour feeds the excited anticipation of what’s to come. “Oh he was good” affirms one of the team as we nervously laugh at the misfortunes of contestants before us.

“Hello contestants” booms a joyful voice, commanding our attention, who turned out to our very own maze master. The absence of O’Brian’s eccentricity is made up by the warmth, confidence and charm of our guide who puts the team immediately at ease.

Safety formalities are covered first, each subsequent question adds a little extra memory of the TV show. “What’s your name and what strengths will you bring to the team?” Our eagerness turns to an unusual form of humility as we each replace overt confidence with self deprecating humour (perhaps an underpromise & overdeliver tactic). Who is your team captain? I am put forward and then, my first responsibility is choosing a team name. With one comrade unable to make the evening I semi-jokingly blurt “Team Missing Member” It sticks and we are ready.

The sound system springs to life, our ears are filled with the dramatic theme tune that makes you feel like you are actually in the show. The Maze Master Beckons “off to the Medieval Zone” and so it begins, we have entered The Crystal Maze Live Experience.

We semi-jog to our first zone, beaming, hooting and da-da-da…ing to the theme tune. On arrival, we are reminded that there are 4 types of games, Skill, Mental, Mystery and Physical, and that as team captain I am responsible for picking a contestant for each game. You soon realise that the evening is as much a test of how well you know your friends as it is playing the game, a great team-building exercise.

Our first crystal is won on the first game with the “mental challenge” being smashed and we are off to a good start, buying ourselves 5 seconds of time in the crystal dome finale. We proceed through each zone, from medieval to aztec to futuristic to industrial, solving puzzles, climbing walls, pulling pulleys, and hitting targets. The set design is on-point and really contributes to an immersive and realistic experience. The team surrounds each room, shouting instructions and supports whoever is inside, as we all come to terms with the fact that it all looked a lot easier from the comfort of your own armchair. Four zones and 16 games later we emerge with a respectable - and according to our Maze master - totally average score of 7 crystals and 0 people locked in a room,  buying us 35 seconds in the crystal dome. 

It’s the finale, the moment we have been building up to, the chance to collectively shine. The whistle blows and the familiar silver and gold bits of foil are flung into the air. 'Team Missing Member' frantically scurrys around the dome, plucking tickets out of the air - which is actually much harder than you would think - and there are more screams of excitement than a child’s soft play centre.

Team Missing Member emerges from the crystal dome victorious, with 132 tokens which we are told is totally average, yay team average. I’m not actually sure if there are many ways not to reign victorious in the Crystal Maze Live Experience, it’s 75 minutes of pure immersive, nostalgic, team-building fun and however many shiny tickets you manage to shove in a letterbox, it’s the taking part that counts (says the person who won 0 crystals).

Grab some friends, and go have some fun in The Crystal Maze. you won’t regret it.

The Crystal Maze Live Experience standard tickets start from £62 per person and can be purchased on their website https://the-crystal-maze.com

Address: 22 - 32 Shaftesbury Ave, London, W1D 7EU

Written by Rick Hartley

Photography courtesy of Crystal Maze