Tallinn, Jul 2017
With a couple of hours spare before leaving Tallinn, naturally we squeezed in one final escape game, and the only venue who could provide a game in the narrow time window we had available was Escape Room, who we’d visited on a previous trip. The only game available that we hadn’t already done was their ancient Egyptian game.
In one sense the decor in The Mummy is the most striking of the four games I’ve seen at this venue. A game set in an ancient pyramid demands more investment in the look and feel than one where the story takes place in a modern office. What effect it achieves though is only temporarily impressive, and relies on a low light level. On closer inspection it uses cheap modern materials, many laminated paper clues and padlocks, and some perfunctory hieroglyphics.
The puzzles also failed to inspire. The worst of these was open to several interpretations; we could see the most likely approach but the clues didn’t seem to work properly, and to give unclear answers. Asking for a hint verified that we were doing the right thing and that was enough to guess our way to the answer.
The rest of the puzzles were solid enough but relied heavily on paper clues, making little use of the room itself. The Egyptian theme was pasted on and the anachronisms were shameless. It was short on content and ended with an anti-climax. And of course we were given fewer torches than we had players.
We went in not expecting much from the game and weren’t disappointed. It’s the escape room equivalent of daytime TV: simple, forgettable, passes the time pleasantly enough. If you give this one a go and do it with suitably low expectations then it’s enjoyable for what it is, but I can’t recommend that you do so – there are better games at this venue, and much much better games in the city.