Athens, Apr 2023
Ancient China plus cooking – Mister.E wins points straightaway for originality. The story is that you’re unwillingly auditioning to replace the Emperor’s deceased chef, in an interview process where failure is fatal; and just for an extra challenge the Emperor has locked away most of the things you might need behind a series of puzzles.
In many respects this is quite a traditional escape room: use the clues to find a code to open a padlock that releases new clues, rinse and repeat. What’s unusual is the ‘cooking’. You’re not producing actual edible food, but you do need to complete and deliver three dishes by assembling the correct sets of prop ingredients in the correct configurations. With each dish you have a mini-countdown in which to assemble and deliver the dish; the countdown only starts when you have everything you need for it, but – and here’s the terrifying catch – you may not realise you have those things. For us, each time this clock started, it triggered a frenzied, despairing flurry of activity as we scrambled to find and do everything we needed to deliver the dish.
It’s hard to make mid-game countdowns work, because the penalty can’t really be an instant loss until players are right at the end anyhow. Masterchef manages it by making the countdowns important without involving instant death; it is in a sense a variable score game with just three chances to gain points.
The Emperor turned out to be quite relaxed about presentation, which was a relief given the way we desperately threw together some of our creations in a last-second panic. Even so, this structure made it a rollercoaster ride of adrenaline, from the briefing right through to the moment our host confirmed we’d passed and won.
Taking just the main thread of puzzles, this would have been a nicely themed but unexceptional escape room primarily built around padlock codes. Instead, it was a memorably different challenge that – once our shredded nerves settled down – we both agreed had been great fun.
Playing as a two was stressful but worked well. Four ought to be fine despite the mostly linear structure, as long as the players coordinate well. At 60 minutes it’s bite-sized by local standards, and unlike many of the top-rated Athens venues, Mister.E has a prime spot right by Monastiraki Square – which all makes this game a nice extra to squeeze into your schedule when visiting Athens. 
