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Reviews

Reviews

The Lost Temple

The Lost Temple

Enigma Escape Room

  • Escape room
  • IRL
The venue and set design were attractive, and the game itself flowed solidly (our team set the new record, at 22 minutes) yet we left feeling quite unsatisfied, as if we hadn't really done much of anything at all. For all the effort put into the physical immersion, little attention was paid to the framing and supporting ambience - an aggressively artificial AI-generated video set things off on the wrong foot, and there was no background music throughout the experience itself. The gameplay was a patchwork of tired escape room tropes — multiple purchased mazes, multiple 4-digit locks with no lock mapping, a small journal functioning as a runbook — with almost no meaningful variation, required collaboration, or moments of delight. We could tell that this new company cares about what they're doing, but we'd love to see a little more substance, originality, and personality showing through. We were not the audience for this game, though I could see this serving as a smooth onramp to escape rooms for newer players.
Ensayo 2: Psicofonia [Stage 2: Psychophony]

Ensayo 2: Psicofonia [Stage 2: Psychophony]

Terror Stories by Experiencity - The Paranoia Saga

  • Escape room
  • IRL
A big step up from Ensayo 1 for me, though the execution and polish still wasn't fully there to support the more ambitious storytelling and unique flow. A few elements and inputs were broken or finicky during our playthrough, leaving us periodically confused whether we'd done the right thing. Nevertheless, there was a steady crescendo of psychological horror and some beautiful actor moments throughout. Ensayo 1 offers some half-decent narrative payoff in 2, but for me, it wouldn't be worth playing 1 just for that, whereas as 2 is still strongly worth playing despite some of its rough edges.
Ensayo 1: Paranoia Remastered [Essay 1: Paranoia Remastered]

Ensayo 1: Paranoia Remastered [Essay 1: Paranoia Remastered]

Terror Stories by Experiencity - The Paranoia Saga

  • Escape room
  • IRL
Ensayo 1 was quite a choppy experience for my team. Apart from a few enjoyably vivid scenes, including one particularly lovely non-evil character interaction that left a mark on us, Ensayo 1 had an overall generic mental hospital setting, deeply forgettable gameplay, and inconsistent lighting guidance (seemingly bending its own rules in moments.) It was one of the weakest horror experiences I've encountered in Spain. I found Ensayo 2 to be a far more innovative experience, and while there's some narrative payoff between the two, I ultimately think I'd have been happier skipping 1, at least in the form we experienced.
Londium

Londium

Londium Escape Room

  • Escape room
  • IRL
Absolutely stunning set - one of the best I've seen anywhere ⚙️ The experience itself was not nearly up to the level of the set design, and it felt like it really prioritized style over substance. The puzzles were decent enough, often too simplistic to be satisfying. The experience showed its hand way too early, leading to a rather anticlimactic finale that left us asking "is that it?" This was largely a function of just how beautiful and impressive the opening act was. It was also disappointing to see bits of rather mediocre AI art mixed into the otherwise stunning physical set build. When it comes down to it, bad art is bad art, and this constrasted with the incredibly high level of artistry throughout the game. This includes the logo, which feels glitchy and artificial. I liked Londium, but it left me feeling sad that such a spectacular environment was used for such a lackluster experience.
Are You Lost?

Are You Lost?

Your Escape

  • Escape room
  • IRL
A generally pretty set with some nice transitions, filled with offensively bad and needlessly repetitive gameplay. It's many steps beyond "not for puzzlers" or "non puzzle but narratively meaningful tasks." Each room was basically a single "do this boring and tedious thing, and then repeat it 8-10 times with absolutely no development or variation." There was also absolutely no good reason this experience needed to be 90 minutes or a 2-player game; those were both functions of deeply underdeveloped and misguided gameplay. I appreciated that Your Escape took a break from the dark and dingy, though! The atmosphere in Are You Lost was quite lovely and fantastical throughout, though the set was lacking in polish and upkeep upon closer inspection.
Galactic Beef: The Cosmic Adventures of Star Cow

Galactic Beef: The Cosmic Adventures of Star Cow

Doldrick's Escape Room

  • Escape room
  • IRL
Udderly brilliant! So much heart, soul, joy, and creativity shines through in this eccentric indie animated film presented through the escape medium. I can't remember when I've giggled and grinned this much in an escape room. The humor especially lands if you get the pop culture and stylistic references, though no outside info is necessary to enjoy the experience. Stellar gameplay - rather video game-y with an elegant logical tilt. Doldricks designed the puzzles to require fairly minimal reset, but even with fewer physical pieces to move around, the physical interfaces were unique and satisfyingly clicky. This game inevitably won't land the same for everyone, but it's phenomenal relative to the wonderfully idiosyncratic format it embraces.
A Challenge from the Crafting Genius

A Challenge from the Crafting Genius

REAL ESCAPE GAME CROSSING Asakusa

  • Escape room
  • IRL
So many of SCRAP's games feature clever, challenging, memorable puzzles, as was also the case in A Challenge from the Crafting Genius. This hall(ish) style game managed to transcend all that and design puzzles as art — an exquisite tribute to creation, creativity, and play. The puzzles are tactile, satisfying, layered, and overall quite approachable. As is typical in this style, things really ramp up in the final sequence... and oh gosh, they are so clever. The final step of this remarkable experience genuinely changed how I see the world. This is a challenging game with just 2 players — there's just a lot to physically do — so best played with 3-4.
Escape from The Runaway Train

Escape from The Runaway Train

Tokyo Mystery Circus

  • Escape room
  • IRL
I understand why Runaway Train, and the Nine Rooms series overall, can be quite polarizing for Western escape room players, but holy shit, this game is an absolute masterpiece of puzzle design. They've found some brilliant ways to turn narrative setup into puzzle setup, even if this experience isn't about an emotional story, special effects, or a jaw-dropping set (though the set was quite nice!) To fully experience this brilliance, though, you do need to properly experience the ending... which I think most international teams only get partway through. If at first you fail, think through what questions the situation is presented, go back through all the information you've been presented with, and you might just encounter a sequence of sublime ahas. In this style, there's truly no shame in taking the "revenge ticket" nor is that model intended to rip you off. It's setting you up to truly earn the win, and also have beautiful and meaningful failures along the way.
Escape from the Underwater Puzzle Challenge

Escape from the Underwater Puzzle Challenge

REAL ESCAPE GAME CROSSING Shibuya

  • Escape room
  • IRL
An absolutely delightful set of mini-puzzles scattered around the SCRAP facility. Don't expect a standard escape room, a story, or fancy sets - that's not what this game is about. Instead, this is truly a game for puzzle lovers, and perhaps those who like a bit of friendly competition. The experience ends with a 3-minute mini "escape room" but that description might even be a bit misleading... like in many Japanese-style games, it's essential to analyze the situation and think outside the box in order to succeed. The game is fully playable in English, though there's an entire extra set of puzzles available for Japanese speakers.
Escape from The NINE ROOMS

Escape from The NINE ROOMS

REAL ESCAPE GAME CROSSING Shibuya

  • Escape room
  • IRL
Absolutely loved the Nine Rooms format! This original Nine Rooms game felt the most like an IRL point-and-click escape room of perhaps any game I've played, and I mean that as a compliment. The puzzles were tricky yet fair. We enjoyed the rapid ahas, and each room was fairly self-contained. Since the game was pipelined, the occasional waiting to move onto the next room didn't disrupt our flow too terribly. The final room was absolutely a big step up in difficulty, but it's also a beautiful representation of the Japanese style of puzzle design, with a particularly clever final few steps. You might not succeed at first (though it's certainly possible to - we completed this in time without a revenge ticket) but when you earn that win, you'll really have earned it!
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