The Padlock: Safe – The Secret of Jack Daniel

This game unquestionably should be getting a higher rating than I’m giving it. Safe, or The Secret of Jack Daniel, is an impressive game even by Prague’s high standards, and I can easily understand why many visiting enthusiasts consider it the best in the city. And yet…

Stepping into the room instantly puts you in the setting. That setting is somewhere deep in rural Tennessee, outside a wooden shack that might hold a secret or a treasure, hidden inside a safe that once belonged to Jack Daniel of whiskey-making fame. And my initial impression was that it was gorgeously convincing, a set that looks and sounds and smells the part. It even managed to immobilise items that aren’t needed for the game in a way that seemed natural.

So top marks for immersion; but immersion can go too far. On our visit the set also featured not just a bit of mud and some very authentic cobwebs, but also rotten fruit, stagnant water and an infestation of little flies. These all fitted the theme, and I’m not completely sure how much was intentional theming and how much due to neglect. But for us at least it definitely crossed the line from building a convincing world to simply gross, and it increasingly got in the way of our ability to enjoy the game.

I don’t think I can entirely blame that for why we struggled so much in the middle section of the game; it was probably one factor, but also we just didn’t click with the logic. After enough games you tend to have a good idea when something can be used straightaway and when something should be saved for later, but here we repeatedly got that wrong. I didn’t feel that there were any logic flaws as such, but there were certainly opportunities to grasp the wrong end of the stick, and we took most of them. (There was also one point where a mechanism froze up, though maybe we’d pushed the button to activate it a bit too much…)

If that all sounds like we had a terrible time, that’s not the case – or at least, the less fun moments were countered by a good many cool moments and effects. There were several reveals that I didn’t see coming at all, and some sequences that were really delightful. With a less unkempt set, the whole end section would have been a great high-energy conclusion to the experience too, with an expected but welcome payoff.

This room design is officially licensed by Jack Daniel’s, and credit to the company for approving the hillbilly stylings here. I’m doubtful that the company would be as happy with the room in the state that we saw it though. Don’t get me wrong; there’s still a first-rate escape room here, and for those who are more relaxed about bugs and rot, or who welcome it as adding to the immersion, I’d still say rush to play it. For anyone else, I guess have a think about how much that might interfere with your enjoyment of the game.