Category Archives: International

Final Escape: Robot Paranoia

Berlin, Nov 2017

Robot Paranoia is a sci-fi game set in a future dystopia where humans have mostly been eliminated by robots, where you have an hour to get out of the robot-controlled area before you’re caught.

The decor is more Bladerunner than Star Trek, a crumbli… (more)

Caught in a storm on an island in the Caribbean, you seek shelter in an old hut… only to find that it’s haunted by the spirit of an old pirate, who will now keep you trapped forever unless you can find a way to escape. That’s the setup for the thir… (more)

Claustrophobia: Museum of Contemporary Art

Berlin, Nov 2017

Museum of Contemporary Art is a straightforward heist game, but one that uses its museum setting to build a series of puzzles around modern art pieces, most of which are lightly veiled versions of actual famous pieces. Some of the clues left for you … (more)

Claustrophobia: Vault 13

Berlin, Nov 2017

Anyone who’s spent enough time playing the right computer games will immediately recognise the name of this game as a reference to the Fallout series, and Vault 13 follows the original starting premise of those games: you survived a nuclear apocalyps… (more)

Skurrilum: Die Phantominsel (The Phantom Island)

Hamburg, Nov 2017

Fresh out of Skurrilum’s Malvini game, we plunged into the pirate-themed Phantom Island. A few eyebrows were raised when they handed out four head-mounted torches between five players, but fortunately it turned out to be decently lit throughout the g… (more)

Skurrilum: Malvinis Vermächtnis (Malvini’s Legacy)

Hamburg, Nov 2017

Skurrilum’s reputation precedes them, and we added on a side trip to Hamburg purely to try out their games. Frustratingly, only two of their five games are currently available in English, with the rest requiring fluent German, but we eagerly booked i… (more)

Twisted Rooms: Der Angriff (The Attack)

Hamburg, Nov 2017

Der Angriff, which translates to ‘The Attack’, is a bomb defusal game, or rather a missile defusal game. A nuclear missile is in flight and one hour away from impact in London, and you need to break into the command HQ and trigger its self-destruct m… (more)

Fluchtweg: Voyager 2076

Hamburg, Nov 2017

Sci-fi games often have particularly sophisticated sets. After all, if you’re going to build the interior of a spaceship or something equally futuristic, that’s an excuse to go all out, right? Not this game – here the decor is closer to a 60s low-bud… (more)

Porto Exit Games: Lost Memories

Porto, Nov 2017

Lost Memories was the second game we played at Porto Escape Game, and we were surprised to be ushered into the game without any briefing and without even depositing our belongings anywhere. That was because the briefing happened by video after we’d e… (more)

Porto Exit Games: Port Wine Sabotage

Porto, Nov 2017

The more escape games I play, the more I enjoy unusual, genre-breaking games that play with immersion or story-telling or unexpected twists, and I’ll usually prefer something ambitious but flawed over solid, standard game. Even so, quality can beat n… (more)