Chapter 1 – The Dark Secret of the Congressman

Well, as a 2nd generation escape game it was not that bad. I enjoyed playing it but it was really easy and we were done after around 30 minutes. It's difficult to compare such a game to modern 3rd/4th gen games.

My brother and I played this the day he landed in Vienna (very jetlagged) but the adrenaline kicked in and I think we nearly completed it! Our biggest problem, as it often is, was being slightly *too* gentle with props that actually were part of the puzzle... and sometimes failing to spot the obvious. For us, the finale gave everything a feeling of excitement, even though it also meant we didn't technically finish.

What to say. After playing Going Underground and having a fantastic time, we went to play all three games at Crime Runners other location. A focus on story telling is good and all, but I have never lost a 60 minutes escape room in 35 minutes before. I’m also pretty sure I paid for 60 minutes, so that is another annoyance. For some absurd, weird, bad reason, the owners of this place has the worst rule I have ever seen in a room: When you reach the last puzzle, the timer suddenly goes down to 5 minutes. That means that if that one puzzle is the one you get stuck on, then good luck. We lost the first room, and beat the other two, because the last puzzle was made easier, SINCE people where losing the first one so much. It makes sense to have this idea, but to not see it being the worst idea ever after years of running your business is mind boggling to me. The GM even said around 50% of all players lost the rooms, and many because of this rule. We were not pleased after the first game, and had to vent to the GM a bit to be able to enjoy the other two rooms. All in all, these three rooms are fine, and I would have reccomended them, if it hadn’t been for the horrible way they end their games. If you can look past that, then you’ll find three classic escape rooms, with the third one being the one I’d reccomend.