Nominee (2023)

Nominee (2022)

Nominee (2021)

Nominee (2020)

A famous prison where guards are renowned for their unorthodox methods of maintaining order among the prisoners. There is an atmosphere of fear and even terror in the prison. Prisoners having the misfortune to enter only desire one thing, to escape as quickly as possible.
Sometimes you have to face your fears in prison. Accept that you will need to overcome your fears if you wish to escape. Keep control of your nerves. Stay alert. Dare to make the guard room your playground. After all, what does an inmate have to lose?

Questions to ask yourself ......
Are you able to dive into the darkness in an entire prison?
Have you ever faced guards in a place where you shouldn't be?

Prison Experience Barcelona

La Toma De Control [The Takeover]

Escape room

A good example of how a good game can be spoiled by a bad GM.

I'm not talking about the eat-shit-and-kiss-my-boot treatment that the actors practice from the moment you get there to make you feel like you're in a prison full of corrupt guards (although I did get the feeling that the GM is channeling more than just acting skills in that regard). No, that aspect I enjoyed. I'm talking about Javi. Javi is the guy who calls you on the cellphone you find in your cell. He's your hintline. Except, you don't know if he's calling to give you a hint, or a critical piece of information. It must be the latter, right? I mean, he's calling so often after all! We barely have time to take in the new things we found, and there's Javi calling us again! Well, wrong! Javi is just the GM being impatient and spoiling the puzzles! 😡

The room itself is pretty cool. You get ushered to a delapidated cell but soon discover that you can feel a keypad through the slot of a backdoor. It's off to find the code! Like in most prison games, you have to assemble a rod to reach out-of-reach things. This one is made from the steps of a ladder, which I thought was pretty clever. Before you can get the code, however, one of the guards gives you a surprise golden shower from a water gun 🔫  (don't worry, it's just water!)

The second room is pretty cool too. It is the guard quarters and the centerpiece puzzle is matching the faces of all the facility's guards with their names which will give you codes to various lockers to initiate... the takeover. This is, unfortunately, the bit where Javi was the most nosy and although some of the hints we got were warranted (matching the card to the football shirt by their colors is very difficult for example), most of the interventions were unnecessary since we ended up finishing with plenty of time to spare.

In the third and fourth room, we were spared of Javi's calls and we enjoyed them much more as a result. The third room is a pretty straightforward electrical room. The final room is great. It is pitch dark and you find a flashlight. There are notes on the wall detailing what seem to be murders of a serial killer. And then you see him... it seems you've ended up in the solitary confinement block, and the killer is here, in the dark, past a reinforced glass door, waving the keys that you need to escape. To complete the takeover, you have to release the worst of the inmates. You have to assemble the code to his cell from details of his murders and pray he won't just kill you when you set him free. You've escaped the prison, but at what cost?

This is by no means an easy room, but it's the easiest of the ones at this business. We hope to play the others when we're in Barcelona again. Then, when Javi calls me the next time, I will answer the phone and say 

"Who do you think you're talking to right now? Who is it you think you see? Hm? Do you know how many escape rooms I play a year? I mean, even if I told you, you wouldn't believe it. Do you know what would happen if I decided to stop playing escape rooms tomorrow? An industry big enough that it powers tourism around the world goes belly up. Disappears! It ceases to exist without me. No, you clearly don't know who you're talking to, so let me give you a *hint*. I am NOT in need of rescue, Javi. I AM THE RESCUE. A guy gets thrown in jail for a series of international murders and needs his cell unlocked, and you think that of ME? No. I AM THE ONE WHO UNLOCKS!"

Excluding one very big part of the game not being locked when it should have, this was a great experience. Very immersive and some great acting. Clever and original puzzles.

La Toma De Control [The Takeover]

Prison Experience Barcelona

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BravePiglet

DaniRose