INNY Wymiar 1871 Escape Room: Niepokój

Of the 35 games I played on this trip, Niepokój (Anxiety) was the one most designed as a fear game, and needs a big warning label. Many of the Polish games had us enter the room blindfolded; several used restraints at the game start, and a couple of them didn't include a quick release mechanism. In Anxiety the period for which you're restrained is significantly longer, and there's no emergency way out without help from a host. Anxiety was a game of three parts. The opening act involving escape from our restraints was a clever sequence of physical puzzles. The game's conclusion was imaginative, dramatic, and done with style. The larger section in between was less enjoyable, with a lot of searching around in a dark and somewhat dirty area, where several of the puzzles were on the simple side (such as, each digit for a lock is written in a separate location), with a couple of ghost puzzles where clues in the room no longer related to anything useful. With no particularly nervous players on our team the fear elements of the game had only a muted effect, but if you're specifically looking for scary games you might find it worth a try. They did however provide the single best post-game photo of the trip.