Warsaw, Mar 2017
Poland has a very established directory / rating site for escape rooms, and (at time of writing) Tomb of the Dragon holds the coveted number one spot in their list. For that reason we made the journey out to play it, even though it’s quite a long way out of town.
The plot involves a plane crash in the jungle and rumours of a beast lurking in the undergrowth – no prizes for guessing what that beast might be!
This is a hugely atmospheric room. I need to be careful not to give the wrong impression there – one wall is decorated primarily by being wallpapered with a jungle picture, and most of the rocks are styrofoam. But still it works beautifully, and they’ve invested the care and budget on the right parts of the room, including a gorgeous centrepiece; plus some excellent little touches such as using electric candles and artificial wicker torches for extra lighting. (Those could have been brighter or more numerous, mind you.)
Enthusing about this game in detail is tricky without giving spoilers. A particular central group of puzzles followed a familiar trope, but was executed in an unusually pleasing way. Lighting is used to give feedback so as to neatly avoid what could have been frustrating ambiguity as to whether we were on the right path. There’s a clear narrative path to your progress, culminating in a story-based finish that’s much more satisfying than simply turning a key in the exit door.
Overall it’s a jungle romp full of memorable moments, sufficiently well designed to avoid unnecessary sticking points, fun in a way that left one of our team wanting a harmonica so he could pretend to be Richard O’Brien in the Aztec Zone. 
Agreed on the general gist of the above; a note that there is a bit of physicality in this room, which is great except they should cover a couple of areas where I managed to bang my head quite hard. With a plethora of great rooms available in Central Warsaw, this is a great one to do just before / after the airport; otherwise it’s a good 20 minutes by taxi each way, which might not on its own be worth the journey. 
