@egtung's reviews on Morty

Gaya

Mindblow Escape

Escape room
IRL

While Gaya is billed as a hall game, the creators mean something different than what we tentatively assumed (based on the US and Japan) - they mean that the game is basically in one room and that puzzles, not spectacle, is the focus. That's not to say there's nothing going on - the set is thematic and spooky, and there's a full set that's great to look at and interact with. As one might expect from a puzzle-focused room, the puzzles were pretty good, made sense, and felt a little more interesting than typical escape room puzzles. It was sometimes unclear what could be worked on, but this wasn't really a huge issue. I'm torn about whether to give this game a like or a love, but I think I want a little more of a sense of adventure in my escape rooms (after all, puzzlehunts are a thing, and a purely puzzle focused escape room is unlikely to compete). The GM mentioned they're working on a sequel which should be larger, which sounds like it's what I want - Gaya did a good job whetting my appetite for more.

Sweneey Tott

Open Mind Room Escape

Escape room
IRL

Beautiful set, very thematic puzzles, and a nice cutscene performance. Of the 37 games we played on our Spain trip, Sweneey Tott was #8 for me. While other recent Spain games seem to have embraced AI art, this game is a breath of fresh air with its focus on human-centric content.

Katrina

Elements Escape Rooms [prev. Kenopsia Games]

Escape room
IRL

Katrina was an amazing game that was tarnished by (I think) the most technical issues I've ever seen in a game. Despite that, it still was one of my favorite games of our Spain trip at #3 of 37. Fantastic set, good puzzles and interactions, several wow moments, great actor performance. After the game, my group compared notes and came up with about 20 technical issues we encountered, include several maglocks failing, buttons not working, puzzle triggers being overly fiddly and firing very late, and several moments that should have been exciting being reduced to confusion because things weren't triggering. None of this was a showstopper, but it did detract from the experience. From talking to other groups who played around the same time, it was only our group who had problems, so hopefully you'll be luckier.

Еl Secreto de Jaipur [The Secret of Jaipur]

Kadabra Escape Room

Escape room
IRL

El Secreto de Jaipur was a fun game that kept us flowing through many easy but interesting puzzles in a world large enough to feel like we weren't stuck anywhere for too long. The set was nicely detailed, and puzzles were decent enough. The AI-generated audio/video was above my threshold of annoyance, but fortunately it was only at the beginning/end. I sort of get the video, but how hard would it have been to get someone to record audio? There was also some AI art throughout the game which registered to me as "ugh, but fine I guess" I thought Poison was fine, but definitely had more fun in Jaipur.

Sección Esotérica: El Exocirsta [The Exorcist]

Terror Stories By Experiencity

Escape room
IRL

The actors were the highlight of the show, with some surprising set moments as well. A house isn't the hardest set to build, but I liked some of the designers choices to make things interesting. Puzzles were fine. Lighting was pretty good for a horror game.

Dark City

Obscura Experiences

Escape room
IRL

We messed up our booking (we chose the previous month due to the site's UX) and didn't realize it until we were onsite, but the staff was very understanding and graciously allowed us to rebook. This is a fairly ambitious game that feels like it still has some wrinkles to iron out. There are some wow moments, and the set is large and feels immersive, but some puzzles didn't click with us. It felt like the designer was aiming for diegetic lighting (i.e. only light sources that actually exist in the built space like desk lamps or street signs), but I think they went too far and forgot about playability (i.e. it was too dark to see important details). And while the theme was post-apocalyptic, parts of the set felt like actual trash heaps rather than interestingly curated trash-like heaps.

Abduction 6: Tortugas

Abduction 5 Badalona

Escape room
IRL

Tortugas was one of the top games on our Spain trip, landing around #4 (of 37) for me. Astonishingly large set with lots of great details (though admittedly not the hardest theme). Great solid thematic puzzles, great sense of exploration, and a memorable ending. Good nods to the source material as well. I didn't love some of the (what I assume is) AI-generated art on screens - it felt out of place.

Intracorpus

Vortex Escape Room

Escape room
IRL

Fantastic set and very thematic puzzles. The start is a little slow, but once you get to the main event, there was a constant dopamine hit of solving puzzles and getting to new fascinating areas. There's AI video, but it kind of fit the theme and didn't bother me too much.

𓆜𓋘𓄁 𓊛𓇙𓋸𓌤𓌥 𓌦 𓅐𓆢 𓆣 𓀉𓆤 𓆥 𓅑𓆘 𓆙 𓅒𓄙 𓄚 𓄛 𓅓𓃺 𓃻 𓅔 𓅕 𓃕 𓃖 𓃗 𓎷 𓄁𓎸𓅖 𓅽 𓅾 𓅿𓅗 𓅘 𓇆 𓇇𓅙 𓅚 𓁵 𓁶𓂵 𓂶𓃝𓋲 𓋳𓀬 𓅛𓁃 𓂺𓅜 �𓅝𓃄 �𓄁𓅞𓂙 𓅟𓂿 𓆜𓋘𓄁 𓊛𓇙𓋸𓌤𓌥 𓌦 𓅐𓆢 𓆣 𓀉𓆤 𓆥 𓅑𓆘 𓆙 𓅒𓄙 𓄚 𓄛 𓅓𓃺 𓃻 𓅔 𓅕 𓃕 𓃖 𓃗 𓎷 𓄁𓎸𓅖 𓅽 𓅾 𓅿𓅗 𓅘 𓇆 𓇇𓅙 𓅚 𓁵 𓁶𓂵 𓂶𓃝𓋲 𓋳𓀬 𓅛𓁃 𓂺𓅜 𓂨𓅝𓃄 𓄁𓅞𓂙 𓅟𓂿

La Casa [The House]

Insomnia Corporation

Escape room
IRL

The main draw of the game is the setting - an actual abandoned rural farmhouse - though gameplay itself feels standard (though I suppose when it opened, it might have been novel). While we had to play during the day due to scheduling (i.e. Krugger's Secret later that day), it was easy to imagine the impact that approaching during the dark would add. Horror isn't my favorite genre, and other than the setting (which is unusual), the game didn't feel unique. I thought it was worth playing if you have time and are coming out for Krugger's anyway, but maybe not worth the trip by itself.

K.O.N.G. Protocol

Escape Barcelona 2 3

Escape room
IRL

Good (and relatively large) set, reasonable puzzles, and some memorable interactions. Lighting was dimmer than I prefer, though I don't recall any problems actually reading things when I needed to. I think the notes about a branching structure are way oversold (just like in CyberCity) - sure, your actions in the game affect what ending you get, but for most of them you don't have any information to make an informed decision - it's pretty much random fortune. At least in this game, one of the branches depends on something you're incentivized to do, so there's a little bit of correlation, I guess?

Abduction 3: The Exam

Abduction 2-3-4-Radio Escape Room Badalona

Escape room
IRL

This is more physical and challenge arcade-y than most escape rooms - not quite as much as Abduction 5, but 3 has a little more sense of exploration. I don't think I want all escape rooms to be like this, but it's nice to change things up every now and then.

Abduction 4: Enterprises

Abduction 2-3-4-Radio Escape Room Badalona

Escape room
IRL

This is more physical and challenge arcade-y than most escape rooms. It's a bit like a larger version of Abduction 3, but with interesting set elements (and thus a sense of place and progression) and a little more puzzles (though physicality is still an important component). Not quite as physical as 5.

La Posesion [The Possession]

Arcanum Escape Room - La Posesión

Escape room
IRL

As a disclaimer, I don't generally love horror. Having said that, I thought La Posesion was very polished and one of the types of horror that I do like - more spectacle/theatrical/ominous rather than chasing. The use of lighting to guide us, snappy reactivity to our actions, and actor performance was pretty much perfect. This was a modest game done very well. While I generally find horror games to be too dim, I thought this game did a good job of making things legible when called for. Sound levels were generally good except for the end, though I get what they were trying to do and am not too upset about that part.

NightShift

NightShift - CruPont Legacy [Prev. Unreal Room Escape]

Escape room
IRL

As a disclaimer, I don't generally like horror. Even so, NightShift was fantastic, though it's difficult to say why without spoiling things. Good set, spooky vibes, decent puzzles. As with many horror games, lighting was sometimes dimmer than I would have preferred.

Willy El Tuerto

Saga Escape Rooms

Escape room
IRL

Beautiful set and some interesting/surprising interactions, but puzzles felt uneven and badly clued. That's not to say all the puzzles were bad - some were totally fine, but it felt like the game hadn't been playtested. The game got off to a slightly slow start because the designer assumed that players would be big fans of The Goonies. As someone who watched it once a long time ago, my level of knowledge wasn't enough, and we had to awkwardly look up the necessary information (at the GM's prompting) to unblock ourselves. Other examples of problematic puzzles was accidentally skipping over a puzzle because the obvious thing to do was the right answer, not understanding where we needed to interact because it wasn't signposted well, and the presence of a red herring that didn't seem like had any good reason for existing.

Magic Universe

Mad Land

Escape room
IRL

Unbelievable set, amazing actor performance and interactions, satisfying puzzles. It's easy to see why people like Magic Universe; it was my favorite of the 37 games we played on our Spain trip and one of my top games ever. Our Valazar(?) had some of the funniest and memorable improv skills I've seen, making her roles much more impactful than the script would suggest. That's not to say the game is perfect. I thought the ending was underwhelming, and would have loved another actor scene or two. Some puzzles didn't feel like the lived up to the grandeur of the set they inhabited. Having now played all of Magnifico, Magic Universe, and Monster Mashers, I think Magic Universe stands out for the best set and actor interactions. I still personally prefer Magnifico because I thought it had a better story, but all are very strong.

Una Aventura De Leyenda [A Legendary Adventure]

Mayto Kingdom

Escape room
IRL

𓆜𓋘𓄁 𓊛𓇙𓋸𓌤𓌥 𓌦 𓅐𓆢 𓆣 𓀉𓆤 𓆥 𓅑𓆘 𓆙 𓅒𓄙 𓄚 𓄛 𓅓𓃺 𓃻 𓅔 𓅕 𓃕 𓃖 𓃗 𓎷 𓄁𓎸𓅖 𓅽 𓅾 𓅿𓅗 𓅘 𓇆 𓇇𓅙 𓅚 𓁵 𓁶𓂵 𓂶𓃝𓋲 𓋳𓀬 𓅛𓁃 𓂺𓅜 �𓅝𓃄 �𓄁𓅞𓂙 𓅟𓂿 𓆜𓋘𓄁 𓊛𓇙𓋸𓌤𓌥 𓌦 𓅐𓆢 𓆣 𓀉𓆤 𓆥 𓅑𓆘 𓆙 𓅒𓄙 𓄚 𓄛 𓅓𓃺 𓃻 𓅔 𓅕 𓃕 𓃖 𓃗 𓎷 𓄁𓎸𓅖 𓅽 𓅾 𓅿𓅗 𓅘 𓇆 𓇇𓅙 𓅚 𓁵 𓁶𓂵 𓂶𓃝𓋲 𓋳𓀬 𓅛𓁃 𓂺𓅜 𓂨𓅝𓃄 𓄁𓅞𓂙 𓅟𓂿