Category Archives: International

The Room: Go West

Berlin, Nov 2017

We played the three games at The Room in the order in which they were created, starting with their oldest, in which your goal is to escape from Cold War era East Berlin through to the freedom of the West. That’s a theme that could mean a gritty, seri… (more)

House of Tales: Columbus

Berlin, Nov 2017

House of Tales’ popup game imagines a world in which Christopher Columbus gave up his ambitions to sail the seas, and instead became a carpenter specialising in boxes. (Okay, there’s a story about it being the storage hold on his sea voyages or somet… (more)

House of Tales: The Executioner

Berlin, Nov 2017

The Executioner is a horror game, but while it follows some of the usual tropes of the genre – a start involving separation and imprisonment, plenty of rather grisly props – it’s not the usual serial killer story. Instead, you’ve been captured by a m… (more)

House of Tales: The Secret of the Pharaohs

Berlin, Nov 2017

House of Tales’ take on an Egyptian game had perhaps the longest intro story I remember in any game. Very abbreviated, it went something like this: there’s a cursed vase that you bought and attempted to return in a case of supernaturally-induced buye… (more)

House of Tales: Kowloon – Walled City

Berlin, Nov 2017

Kowloon is an 18-rated escape game, and although the website description of the story doesn’t entirely spell it out, the plot is that you’re Triad gang members, breaking into a rival gang’s premises to swipe their loot. The premises in question happe… (more)

Escape Zone: The Dictator

Berlin, Nov 2017

“The most terrible dictator of his time is about to be overthrown” – don’t jump to conclusions though, this is an entirely fictional dictator in a modern setting not a WW2 game. This dictator has left a city-levelling bomb as a parting gift, and it’s… (more)

Illuminati Escape: Cyber Attack

Berlin, Nov 2017

Looking for an extra Berlin game to last-minute squeeze into our schedule, Illuminati Escape appealed partly because, as a recently opened venue, it was one of the few with any availability remaining; but also because of its concept. They have four g… (more)

Exit: Huxley

Berlin, Nov 2017

Huxley is only the second virtual reality escape game I’ve played, and so it remains a challenge to write a fair review. The aim is to assess the game, but with such a new format it’s far from straightforward to tease out what’s impressive about the … (more)

Final Escape: The Steampunk Puppeteer

Berlin, Nov 2017

The curious backstory for this game involves a puppeteer who finds a magical talking wooden puppet, who helps him make his fortune, but then one night runs off with all the money. To which the puppeteer’s response is to make a replacement puppet… f… (more)

Final Escape: Prison Break

Berlin, Nov 2017

There is a limit to how many ways one can plausibly break out of prison. More than pretty much any of the other common escape game scenarios, it’s constrained in the types of object and furniture that can plausibly be used for puzzles without looking… (more)