I tried Walsall's new escape room and had so much fun I can't wait to try the other challenges

Taking over former shopping units in Crown Wharf Retail Park, it’s clear that as the nation’s high streets struggle, there’s a clear appetite for vibrant experience-based centres.

Tenpin, the UK’s leading bowling and entertainment brand, has taken over the former Mothercare and Peacock stores in Walsall town centre.

But this isn’t just any old bowling alley. The £3 million development is an oasis for entertainment and family fun.

As well as 20 lanes for bowling, there’s an arcade with games including Hungry Hungry Hippo, a karaoke room, laser tag, and three escape rooms.

With activities that are rarely seen in or near the Black Country, I knew this was something I had to try out for myself, and set out to test the centre’s laser tag and escape room facilities.

Escape Rooms

Tenpin has partnered with Houdini’s Escape Rooms, rated the number one escape room provider in the world, for some puzzle-based fun at its centres.

As an avid lover of quizzes, games, and anything theatrical, I was desperate to have a go at one of Tenpin’s three rooms in Walsall, and took my mom and boyfriend along to help me out.

There are three different rooms on offer: Creepy Carnival, Room 13, and Escape from Alcatraz. While each has a different theme and scenario, they all play on the same primal emotion: fear.

In each room, there is a simmering sense of horror, and you must fight your way through the rooms to get to the bottom of the mystery and avoid impending peril.

Room 13 finds you in a hotel lobby, after your car breaks down on a deserted road. The only light you can see for miles is the hotel – very Rocky Horror.

You check into the last vacant room, but the manager insists you must promise not to enter Room 13.

As you settle in for the night, you think you hear the distant sound of a woman calling for help. You attempt to leave your room but find it locked shut.

Can you escape your room and discover the location of the mystery voice? Room 13 has the best success rate in Walsall, meaning if you’re new to escape rooms and want a slightly easier ride, this may be your room of choice.

There’s also Escape From Alcatraz, the most challenging room of the three for any puzzle-fiends, with a success rate of only 23 per cent.

Its premise is intriguing: you have been framed for a crime you didn’t commit and must find a way to prove your innocence.

The year is 1952 and you have been convicted of multiple murders that you claim you’re innocent of. With only an hour to go before your execution, surely it’s too late for your brother to finally prove your innocence and save your life?

​Can you escape your prison cell in the infamous Alcatraz before the guards come to take you to the electric chair?

And finally, there’s Creepy Carnival, where you must play detective after two children go missing in a fairground.

Exploring the now abandoned carnival, it is your job to find out what happened to the children and escape alive.

We let the centre pick the escape room we attempted, and they chose Creepy Carnival - quite apt on the run-up to Halloween.

This is an incredibly atmospheric experience, similar to immersive theatre. You work through dark derelict rooms in an attempt to find clues that will progress you on your journey. Words are scrawled on walls in ‘blood’, mysterious being bang on walls, and a clown walks through the rooms when you least expect it - causing me to emit a blood-curdling scream.

The rooms are incredibly detailed, and without ruining too many surprises, the game keeps you on your toes. I’ve done a Shakespeare-themed escape room in Stratford-upon-Avon, so thought I’d have the upper hand and know what to expect. I was wrong.

Every item in the room could be a clue, or it could just be a red herring. Any turn of phrase said to you by the caretaker of the game could be a handy hint.

This was an incredible amount of fun, especially as a team, and I can’t wait to head back another time to test out Room 13 or Escape from Alcatraz.

Laser Tag

While escape rooms are about solving puzzles as a team, laser tag is about taking those same people you love and shooting them in the back.

The laser tag facilities at Tenpin mean you can either play as solo participants, hoping to climb the ranks of the leader board to the top, or as a team.

We played against each other, upping the personal stakes and making it both more exciting and frustrating.

The official scenario you are put in is that you’re fighting aliens, and while the laser tag room is very futuristic and resembles the spaceship interiors you see on Star Wars and Star Trek, there are no other references to this environment.

There are plenty of walls to hide behind, lurking until you can shoot one of your family members. Unfortunately, this can also mean being shot by your loved ones.

I hadn’t played laser tag since I was a teenager, but again, this was brilliant fun, and we left the experience exhilarated and dripping with sweat.

If you thought you knew bowling alleys, Tenpin is working hard to challenge your expectations and provide all manner of different fun.

There are also deals for cheaper games of bowling throughout October and on Tuesdays throughout the year.

For more information, go to tenpin.co.uk/our-locations/walsall/.