Zadar, Apr 2024
For me this room will be more memorable than most, because it was the first one I booked into solo. On my own in Zadar for a few days, that was the only way to play it; the venue seemed a little bemused by my request but happy enough to let me try.
ClueGo is currently the only escape company in Zadar; the company also runs a site in Zagreb and an outdoor game in Split. Of the two rooms here I went for Morana mainly because it was a 75 minute game. The story follows fairy tale tradition with the curse of an angry fairy, though the theming would equally have worked as an evil witch.
My host delivered the story with gusto then handed me a couple of electric candles, which made my heart sink a little; playing solo in the dark didn’t seem ideal. But the darkness isn’t for the entire game, and in fact would have been for a rather shorter period if I’d been focusing on the right things first.
Once visible, it turned out to be an attractive set; or maybe more accurately, a set filled with many attractive things. I particularly liked the tactile authenticity of some of the items used.
My biggest stumbling point in solving the room was due to thinking a certain set of items went together when they were two different puzzles; arguably the signposting there was confusing but it’d be at least as fair to put that down to me overthinking it. More generally the puzzles were fair and well designed, and nicely fitted the witchy theme. Moments of greater physicality and drama added to the gameplay.
Escape rooms are, of course, more fun in company. But that wasn’t an option on this occasion, and Morana was an attractive game that gave me no reasons to regret booking in for it. 