This room is definitely one of the easiest room of this company – which is not a bad thing given that most players that visit an escape room company have never played ERs before. Therefore it’s usually a good sign when a company offers a variety of difficulties in rooms since it means they understand how to cater to beginners and enthusiasts alike.
This is well done in the Mafia room. The riddles are quite straight forward yet still very imaginative. It is definitely one of those rooms that give you a lot of “eureka”-moments. On top of that, it includes one classical logic problem that especially math enthusiasts will appreciate a lot and it will make people who randomly start trying things despair.
The only critique we could think of after the room is that the theme of Mafia really seems out of place. There is not much of a Mafia atmosphere going on inside except for one little part of the story. Apart from that, it’s a really nice room that’s well suited for beginners.
“Let me out.” Literally what I said, for far too long. At “Das GefĂ€ngnis”.
The prison starts off as you’d expect it from this environment: Handcuffed and in seperate cells. Cooperation is key at this point of the game and also where we messed up quite a bit. I managed to do something during the first part that basically made it impossible for Enric, who was in the other cell, to escape. Unfortunately, this lead to him being stuck in his cell for the first 20 minutes of the game while our friend and me were starting to solve the rest of the room.
Eventually, the GM realized what was happening and managed to help us out in a subtle but very effective way, by providing a spare part. Enric freed himself and we were able to continue the room normally.
Naturally, this was a bit of a frustrating experience for him. Apart from that, the room was really nice. Well done small riddles that all fit together in the end. We also saw something that we had never seen in another escape room before: One riddle made use of the outside world of the Escape Room… beyond the walls… but let’s keep it at that.
So all in all, this was one of the nicer done and better prison rooms we’ve played – and not only because it literally kept one of our players locked in.
You’ll get to play with many actual scientific devices, but worry not: safety equipment will be provided. A lot to do, 4 players recommended. If you are fewer than that, make sure it’s a team of experienced players. A bit dry compared to their other rooms, but lots of things to solve. Can’t complain on immersiveness because it literally could be a lab.
I personally found this their hardest room due to its non-linearity. An example on how a harder room does not always make it better. I’d appreciate if a couple of the riddles were streamlined. In the end, for instance, you’ll need many bits of outside knowledge that – hopefully – is common knowledge. It’s quite common, but I could imagine a group being unfamiliar with it.
Dominique already played this room before this day, how come she’s on the picture? The owners allowed her to watch us from within the room (and help us with translations) and were kind enough to only charge us the 2 players rate.
This room claims it is not only an escape room but also a museum, and it delivered. You’ll follow, as the name suggest, Houdini’s footsteps. It unfolds in two acts, first on Houdini’s wife’s bedroom, and the second one you’ll have to find out by yourself. Needless to say, the second one brings the reveal, the “wow moment” (which I love so much) and what makes this room stand out.
The hint system is one of the most originally integrated we ever encountered. From secret codes to real magical props used in magician’s stages, you’ll encounter way more than the photo reveals. Let yourself be amazed.
This is their signature room. If you can only play one room, play this one. The owner is a magician and you can see the amount of research and love to detail that went into this room. We were very fortunate to have the owner Dominic, a magician by trade, perform a couple of magic tricks for us and leave us even more astonished.
There’s really a lot to do with two players, and you’ll need to search well. The reason Houdini could unlock himself from water tanks while being almost naked was that he could hide the lockpicks very well.
Who plays Escape Rooms on a Wednesday from 9pm to 11pm? In Switzerland? Well, it’s been long that I wanted to play a game with our great friend from Inside Breakout (check our review for his game The Ticking Heart) and spontaneity led us here. Unfortunately, the other petals of the Black Rose weren’t able to make it, but they’ll surely play these rooms! What a Mastermind our friend is though, and what a great player. It was my first time playing with an experienced GM and what I noticed is how clean he plays, after having seen groups both fail and succeed. He sees what we have, what we don’t have, what’s next. It made it so the rooms almost played themselves. But now, enough personal backstory, back to the review.
The break-in / Der Einbruch 6.5/10
This company is in the middle of nowhere, which means lower competition. Despite that, this game well exceeded my expectations. Generous space has been used and it’s a game that keeps on giving. The decoration is humble and, after playing both games, one can really see this was their first one. On the other hand, a game that truly makes you feel at home. The Riddles and tasks are very original and the progression is clear. An unexpected story twist at the very end took me by surprise though, not least if all since I did not understand it.
Funnily enough, last weekend we mentioned we had seen something for the first time in an escape room: Using the outside world (The Prison – Houdini’s Quest). And today I saw it again. Furthermore, the owner explained how they made some improvements to the room, to make it more durable.
Overall, not a room that will blow your mind, but one of those cozy escape rooms to play if you are in the area. It has good flow and a very home-made feel. Recommended for beginners.
Escape time: 42min (first 2player group to escape with no hints!)
Players: 2-6
Languages: English, German
Rating: 6.5/10
The Psycho / Der Psycho 8/10
This room could be very scary with just a couple of adjustments. This is a room that calls for an acted intro instead of a 1 minute intro video. An actor could (and should!) be added at some key moments to accentuate horror but there’s none. It’s for 16+, and although it doesn’t involve jump scares it feels creepy, but not too much to distract you from the game. It’s dark but light sources are generously provided, and highly luminescent camping lamps. Tip: Carry the lamp with you at all times). You may or may not encounter bloody props (ehem.., what’s in the bag in the photo?).
A room that keeps on giving. Puzzles that have you physically cooperate, a couple of harder riddles that will keep you thinking – but everything’s solvable and makes sense. There’s a lot to do both physically and mentally, and it gives you an all around cozy home-made feeling. On the flip side, some props/print-outs have a bit of a low-budget feel. I’d recommend 4 players minimum. Unfortunately, a physical part broke (shit happens) which made us physically unable to use a mechanical device, but the GM quickly gave us a useful workaround. Finally, there is a worthy ending, although the last door opens ridiculously slowly for the extra dramatic effect.
It’s hard. Very recommended experience for people who’ve already played 3+ escape rooms, and absolutely not recommended for first timers. A word of warning: ~10-20% escape rate and only 3% of groups have escaped without any hints in the year and a half that it’s been open.
The long awaited visited finally became reality. We booked Houdini’s Quest and it was as full of escapism as we expected. The great trick they pulled was to have us end up playing 5 rooms when we only initially booked 3!
WARNING: Only one room is fully playable in English (Lab), and one is playable with paste-ons (Houdini). The rest is playable if one of the players understands German.
First of all, what do all (or most) of their rooms have in common? They hide some coins that grant you additional time, making 60min long rooms last almost +10min. No matter which rooms you book you’ll probably have a good time. But, in our opinion, some are better than others – keep reading for more.
Duration: 60min
Rooms: 5 open, 4 more incoming
Players: 2-5
Price: 98-150chf
Location: Frauenfeld, 40 minutes by car from ZĂŒrich
“Let me out.” Literally what I said, for far too long.
Escape time: 50/60 min.
The prison starts off as you’d expect it from this environment: Handcuffed and in separate cells. Cooperation is key at this point of the game and also where we messed up quite a bit. I managed to do something during the first part that basically made it impossible for Enric, who was in the other cell, to escape. Unfortunately, this lead to him being stuck in his cell for the first 20 minutes of the game while our friend and me were starting to solve the rest of the room.
Eventually, the GM realized what was happening and managed to help us out in a subtle but very effective way, by providing a spare part. Enric freed himself and we were able to continue the room normally.
Naturally, this was a bit of a frustrating experience for him. Apart from that, the room was really nice. Well done small riddles that all fit together in the end. We also saw something that we had never seen in another escape room before: One riddle made use of the outside world of the Escape Room… beyond the walls… but let’s keep it at that.
So all in all, this was one of the nicer done and better prison rooms we’ve played – and not only because it literally kept one of our players locked in.
The lab – Das Labor 8/10
Escape time: 65min. (coins unlock extra time!)
You’ll get to play with many actual scientific devices, but worry not: safety equipment will be provided. A lot to do, 4 players recommended. If you are fewer than that, make sure it’s a team of experienced players. A bit dry compared to their other rooms, but lots of things to solve. Can’t complain on immersiveness because it literally could be a lab.
I personally found this their hardest room due to its non-linearity. An example on how a harder room does not always make it better. I’d appreciate if a couple of the riddles were streamlined. In the end, for instance, you’ll need many bits of outside knowledge that – hopefully – is common knowledge. It’s quite common, but I could imagine a group being unfamiliar with it.
Mafia on the North Sea – Mafia an der Nordsee 7/10
Escape time: 30/60 min.
This room is definitely one of the easiest room of this company – which is not a bad thing given that most players that visit an escape room company have never played ERs before. Therefore it’s usually a good sign when a company offers a variety of difficulties in rooms since it means they understand how to cater to beginners and enthusiasts alike.
This is well done in the Mafia room. The riddles are quite straight forward yet still very imaginative. It is definitely one of those rooms that give you a lot of “eureka”-moments. On top of that, it includes one classical logic problem that especially math enthusiasts will appreciate a lot and it will make people who randomly start trying things despair.
The only critique we could think of after the room is that the theme of Mafia really seems out of place. There is not much of a Mafia atmosphere going on inside except for one little part of the story. Apart from that, it’s a really nice room that’s well suited for beginners.
Houdini’s footsteps – Auf Houdini’s Spuren 8.5/10
Escape time: 61/67 min. (coins unlock extra time!)
Dominique already played this room before this day, how come she’s on the picture? The owners allowed her to watch us from within the room (and help us with translations) and were kind enough to only charge us the 2 players rate.
This room claims it is not only an escape room but also a museum, and it delivered. You’ll follow, as the name suggest, Houdini’s footsteps. It unfolds in two acts, first on Houdini’s wife’s bedroom, and the second one you’ll have to find out by yourself. Needless to say, the second one brings the reveal, the “wow moment” (which I love so much) and what makes this room stand out.
The hint system is one of the most originally integrated we ever encountered. From secret codes to real magical props used in magician’s stages, you’ll encounter way more than the photo reveals. Let yourself be amazed.
This is their signature room. If you can only play one room, play this one. The owner is a magician and you can see the amount of research and love to detail that went into this room. We were very fortunate to have the owner Dominic, a magician by trade, perform a couple of magic tricks for us and leave us even more astonished.
There’s really a lot to do with two players, and you’ll need to search well. The reason Houdini could unlock himself from water tanks while being almost naked was that he could hide the lockpicks very well.
The mysterious library – Die geheimnisvolle Bibliothek 6.5/10
Escape time: 36/60 min.
Same as before, Dominique joined us purely for translations and watched us play, although this time much closer to 30 than 60min.
“It was the first time I watched other people play a room I had previously played and it was a very interesting experience. On top of that, it had been quite a long time since I played the room ( about 1.5 years ago) and I did not remember all of the riddles perfectly or at all. If you ever get the chance to watch your friends play, I’d highly recommend it. I could clearly see strengths and weaknesses that I might not have noticed had I been a part of the group. Also, I realized that sitting quietly and watching the events unfold often led me to make connections and see things I probably would not have seen had I been actively trying to solve the riddles. What I take from this experience is that sometimes it might be worth to take a step back and look at what’s in front of you calmly, simply observing what your teammates are doing.”
-Dominique
Fun fact: At one point, Team Black Rose was #1 in the ranking (D+C+K) but that score was beaten by escaperoomers.de and later dethroned by Team Squared (S2+the guys). It’s great to see that more experienced international groups come to play in Switzerland!
This game takes you to the “Forbidden City” in the workers’ district in Baden where unauthorized people were not allowed to enter back in the early 1900s. The atmosphere in the room makes you forget that you are playing an escape room and the props are just superbly done. They told us they carefully hand-picked very specific pieces in vintage shops. A personal small touch they customized for our group (ohhh <3) made us feel very welcome early on in the room. Don’t be jealous, you will also get it! On top of outstanding decoration, you get to experience the magic of the room without almost seeing any of the tech behind it.
We also really enjoyed the puzzles, repeatedly failing only on the dexterity part (our nemesis). They will have your team cooperating, and this room will test the limits of your team’s communication. You will face the mighty “Wall Of Easy Riddlesâą”, although they probably got more complicated than they initially planned for. Advice for all rooms, but specifically for this one: communicate clearly and accurately. Eventually, we managed and escaped with 17,5 minutes to spare.
From beginning to end: This is how escape rooms should be done. You can see how the creators have a vast knowledge about the subject matter and how they don’t shy away from going the extra mile for making it an unforgettable experience. Definitely go and play the room as soon as you can. Bonus points if you spot the duck in each of their rooms! The room is clearly designed with German as the main language and fully playable in English, although they had to keep some untranslated words, but you don’t need to be able to understand.
The negative side? They don’t have a third room yet.
– Dominique & Enric
The Forbidden City 1901 / Die verbotene Stadt 1901
On Saturday 18th of January the full Team Black Rose got together again (yay!) to play one of our long awaited rooms: The new one from Time Maze. We saw Adventure Rooms also has a couple of rooms in the area so hey, why not!
The forbidden city 1901 – Time Maze 9/10
Die Verbotene Stadt 1901 Time Maze Baden
Time Maze’s second room follows in the first room’s footsteps in terms of immersion, hard work and massive love to detail. We had been looking forward to playing this room for a while and did not get disappointed! So much magic going on, and all invisible to the player. This was like the bottle of wine that we were saving waiting for it to be opened at the right time. đ·
Oh boy, another Sherlock room. Let’s see. This Sherlock is set in the modern times. A classical start that leaves you handcuffed for no reason. Technically, you are being convicted for a crime you didn’t commit – but you’ll have to prove it! Fine. The experience makes you walk through quite a bunch of distinct settings starting in a metro station. Personally, I found that cool, the sets are clearly distinct and don’t overstay their welcome. That being said, some are better polished than others. Our group had mixed feelings about the room, thus the not-so-good final score.
Lost Circus – Adventure Rooms 5/10
Clowning around
You start locked in a prison that has an open lock, for safety regulations. You are told to imagine it’s locked and to get out when you get the key. Well, when you get the key it doesn’t even match the lock so you can start making that imagination work. This already starts me with the wrong foot. If you don’t have a better workaround for being locked, please find an alternative start… The problem is we had to keep our imagination going. The first 2 meter long dexterity puzzle was pre-solved because it was broken. “Don’t worry we solved it for you because it doesn’t work”.
This room has many aspects of it to be improved and it has a decent narrative and a memorable ending. Maybe if you play it far in the future, the issues are fixed.
Turns out you didnât book an escape room, you booked a stay in the room where the very Aunt Hilda used to stay. This escape room begins with a warm welcome in the Grand Trip Trap Hotel by a polite doorman, that tells you a story very similar to the following blurb.
Nobody knows Aunt Hilda’s real name. Everyone at the Grand Trip Trap Hotel has always called her so. And it is “Aunt Hilda”, that she wrote on the register in 1837. First resident of the Grand Trip Trap Hotel, it is there that she has imagined her most beautiful tales, turning her room into a wonderful world inhabited with marvelous characters.
Lay back and relax, because the intro takes a while and you are about to experience one of those wow moments you wonât easily forget.
Legends say that Aunt Hilda always told a new story to the ones willing to listen. As the blurb suggests, if you pay attention you will be brought into her world. Youâll get as immersed as you did when you vividly lived a story as kid when listening to adult storytellers. You are brought into a new world, with a stellar production and objects that belong in the era. No non-sense âwalkie-talkiesâ nor unnecessary magnets.
Diegesis in its pure form, beautiful riddles at a comfortable pace will have you do tasks that not only fit the theme well, but with a slight suspension of disbelief from your side, you will undoubtedly feel like a character from the story.
The worst part? It ends. Had I had known we were so close to the end, we would have stalled, observed the set for minutes and waited until the very last moment. They donât do the best job at advertising it, thereâs no photo-finish, an odd name and no preview picture yet it seems to always be fully booked.
I was fortunate enough to be able to play 128 rooms in 2019 and, without a doubt, Aunt Hilda was my favorite room of the year. The craziest part? I played it on the 28th of December, barely making it into 2019. Recency bias? Perhaps. This room is a masterpiece. Congratulations to Trip Trap for making it to the top 31 TERPECA.
The swiss escape room scene in Switzerland is split between German and French speaking areas. This time, we stayed on the German side and we traveled one hour by train to the capital of Switzerland! Will it also take the title as the capital city of escape rooms in Switzerland? Keep reading to find out! This time, half of Black Rose (Dominique and Enric) played together with Ayah and Maxime from SwissKnife.
Games we played
Death chamber (Totenkammer) at Roomexit.ch
Game of Stones, theescape.ch
Tresor, Adventure Rooms
Virus, Adventure Rooms
Chernobyl (Tschernobyl), Adventure Rooms
Orient Express, Adventure Rooms
Roomexit.ch
Death Chamber 6/10
The death chamber is located right next to an actual cemetery. In keeping with the theme, the room transports you into an old burial ground, where a famous archaeologist disappeared some time ago. Following his tracks, we made our way through the room. The experience was a bit of a bumpy one since we did not find a necessary part of the puzzle early on and started half-solving the rest of the room before we were actually able to do so. Once we found the missing piece, we were able to progress quickly. All in all, the room has nice decorations but the puzzles are rather on the easy side.
Time: 44 minutes
The Escape Bern
Game of Stones 3/10
Why do we get in berserker mode as soon as we hold weapon replicas?
This room felt like a bag of chips. You hope to have it all but then you open it just to realize it’s mostly air. Out of all their rooms, we booked this one purely based on the theme and the website plot. It’s a very short game. It’s a storm of parallel riddles that require very little communication, and each of them is in a different corner of the room. My initial hype was crushed when entering the room as soon as I saw a coat of arms that looked like a children had drawn it. The coolest thing is the iron throne which sells well for a photo finish.
Time: 22 minutes
Adventure Rooms Bern
Tresor (Safe) 7/10
This room is advertised as “very hard” and only for experts. Hard? Sure. But more than anything long. Go here full stamina after a shot of espresso because it keeps on going. Classical defuse the bomb before it explodes in 1 hour. Think about cliche settings: office? a lab? locker room? You name it. The setting was a bit classic, yet it kept us busy and our brain burning all the time. Close to no downtime with a lot of things to do.
The GM waited for us in the end with her hands on her head, telling us that now 7 groups had escaped before us, a 1% escape rate so far, all with a handful of seconds left and… we had finished in 42 minutes! Cool, feeldgoodman, but this started the storm. Apparently she spread the news on the super-secret GM WhatsApp and from there on it was high expectations after high expectations. “Wow you will do this room in 10min!”. Really, we’re here to have fun together not to prove anything. On the plus side, on all the rooms we played after this, the GMs were very nice and friendly to us! Thanks Marina, Jasmin, Maya, aaand a last name we forgot (sorry!). Good job!
Time: 42 minutes (Record!)
Virus 5/10
Virus is a room that is situated inside the bowels of the Historical Museum in Bern. It seems, that its rooms were once part of an exhibition but were now re-purposed for the escape room experience – including many taxidermied animals following your every move. The room made use of some cool real-time technology and we were specifically amazed by one specific puzzle near the end that we hadn’t seen anywhere else. Apart form that, the difficulty level and immersion is quite on par with other AdventureRooms.
Time: 30 minutes
Chernobyl 7.5/10
AdventureRooms’ Bern latest room (Aug 2019). An intro that starts with a bit of a show. Awesome, our GM was very motivated and that already sets the right mood when going into a room. The room is very mathy, whereas it can be a turn on for me, it can be tedious to others. No need to add numbers in your head, but some elementary Leibnizian knowledge will be necessary. Highly specialized measuring devices, spray-painted props and a transition from more analytical puzzles to more hands-on and scientific measuring.
Time: 38 minutes
Orient Express 7/10
The first thing to mention about this room has to be its beautiful decoration. Once inside, one really gets the feeling of being in the old fashioned Orient Express. Out of all the rooms we played this day, this was probably the easiest when it comes to riddles but the one we wanted to stay in the longest. We got very stuck with searching – again – but otherwise progressed quickly and with ease. Nothing really out of the ordinary but still worth a visit.
We went on this trip before we started the blog. We don’t have reviews for all the rooms but you can see a quick Hamburg guide in case you travel there and want to play games! Scroll down to see the full list and our top recommendations!
We got da loot!
Hamburg escape room recommendations (shortlist)
Skurrilum (2): ernie hudson wailing lady + zoo
Hidden in Hamburg (2) Neptun’s curse + Master of time.
Adventure Team (2): Countdown to Meltdown + Time Doctor.
Team Breakout(1): 2141 the world’s future
TeamEscape (1): Sweet revenge.
Deadline escape (1): Gold mine.
Recommendations in depth
Skurrilum you can play all of them, but if you are tight on schedule the must plays are the two games from Ernie Hudson (crying lady + zoo of death). The second one is scary-themed but not horror. There’s an adult themed one that it’s fun if you like the theme and you have spare time, but not a great room.
Hidden in Hamburg has two locations, the ones we liked the most and would recommend are Neptun’s curse, Master of Time. In this order. The forbidden game is a horror game. If you really don’t like horror, skip it. Other games weren’t that great.
From Adventure team I really liked Countdown to Meltdown (was my 100th room!), it had some cool parts. Time Doctor was cool too, it’s “different” and has a good climatic ending if you like hectic moments.
From TeamEscape we liked Sweet Revenge because it was a bit of murder mystery on top of an escape rooms. Good if you like that. As an escape room, not a big deal.
Team Breakout‘s 2141 the world’s future / white mission was really cool, original idea. Inspired a lot of post-game chatting.
Gold mine from deadline escape was great. Their other games nothing super cool that I remember, but you may as well play since they are a bit far.
Other rooms that you can play but I wouldn’t recommend before the other ones: – Fluchtweg (Voyager may be ok, but hotel las vegas not so great) – Escapeventure: They felt like 3 very average games. If you like science/lab themed maybe Eisenbarth is fun. – TeamEscape retrospectively I wish we didn’t play all of them. Avoid the scary one, the smell/ventilation was really bad.
NOTE: This article is work in progress, we will update it with detailed reviews and more pics as soon as we can!
This was our first Enthusiast escape trip. Before that, in Barcelona we just happened to play some rooms, but this one we planned mainly to go play top escape rooms!
I think this is my favorite pic from the trip đ
We played a very humble 15 rooms, when playing more than 3 rooms per day was forbidden and this is the result of the combined rating.
NOTE: This article is work in progress, we will update it with detailed reviews and more pics as soon as we can! We played other rooms in BCN on separate trips, check them out on https://www.teamblackrose.com/played-rooms/
We need to write about this, this is how we got hooked! We went for some tourism holidays given that Enric grew up there, and we managed to sneak 2-3 escape rooms per day. Note that before this trip, we had played only 14 escape rooms! We effectively doubled!
It was meant to be upside down, but gravity makes no sense whatsoever.
We played the following games during Dec 28th and Dec 29th 2019. I was flying back from my Christmas stay in Barcelona, and quickly landed, went home and got again in a 3h train from ZĂŒrich to Geneva. Next thing I knew after I woke early in the morning (who books rooms at 9am!) is that I was playing the best escape room in Switzerland. Keep reading for more!
NOTE: THIS ARTICLE NEEDS TO BE FINISHED! Reviews for the following games will be added to this or separate pages.
Looking for rooms to play close to the city of ZĂŒrich, we stumbled across a new company in Kloten, that is currently only offering one room: Narcos- Operation Safehouse. After a very immersive and for Switzerland quite unique introduction, we entered a safehouse of Pablo Escobar with a clear mission: securing incriminating evidence for upcoming shady deals.
Solving riddles and collecting clues about potential suspects, we made our way deeper into the safehouse, eventually discovering stashes of drugs, money and weapons! Evidence that put the final nails in Pablo Escobars coffin.
The game was a lot of fun, and even a minor mistake the game master made while setting up the room for us did not take anything away from that â especially since we got offered a discount as an apology without even asking for it (their customer service really is on point!).
Playing Next Level Escape’s first room and talking to the owners made us very excited for the second one they are currently working on! True to their name, the company is trying to create a new level of escape experiences. Narcos is a room built by enthusiasts, with a lot of love for details and with elements that really improve on a standard escape game, especially in the beginning. For the second room however, they want go beyond that and are working with people that have a background in theater and special effects. We canât wait to come back!
Next Level Escape, Kloten, Switzerland
Switzerland based blog on escape rooms. www.teamblackrose.com
