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.
Céline and Kevin of Team Black Rose (who are we?) already had played 4 rooms, and Dominique played 2 with them. That meant that before their very recent release of Mafia there was no chance of us going all together. Well, we pulled in an extra brain, a good friend who went from having 4 played rooms to almost 13 in the last few months.
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 Zürich
“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 Riddles™”, 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
Turns out you didn’t 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 won’t 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. You’ll 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 “walkie-talkies” 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 don’t do the best job at advertising it, there’s 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.
Looking for rooms to play close to the city of Zürich, 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 – 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 can’t wait to come back!
So we’ve spent the weekend in and around Geneva, Switzerland, playing Escape Rooms. One of those days, we played most of the rooms at Trapgame, one of them being Vice Versa. It might not be their best or most innovative room, but it was fun to hang around the ceiling for a bit. The riddles are mostly straight forward except for one that we took ages to solve even though we had figured out the solution a long time ago.
One thing we learned is that if you want to play the rooms of Trapgame in English, make sure to book quite some days in advance. We booked 4 days before our trip and for some of the rooms, our GMs were not able to speak English. If you book with enough time, they try to make sure though that you get a GM that speaks English. Even though that was not possible for us, they all made a big effort and in the end, communication was not a big problem.
Escape Quest Luzern welcomed us again filling our VIP card with our 18th sticker! We played the Warlock’s dinner and then Circus. The Warlock was by comparison much weaker, trying but not quite succeeding at creating an eerie atmosphere. Few riddles and a bit shallow. An ending with potential but awkwardly executed. We escaped in 28mins. On the other hand, Circus is their newest room full of surprises and cleverly used props, letting the team work on multiple riddles at the same time. A must play, original theme and beautiful execution. We set a new record at 39min!
Escape Quest, we’ll be back as soon as you open more rooms!
While we are travelling to a boardgame convention in Essen, Germany, we of course could not pass on the opportunity to play some escape rooms as well.
Today we played the Dark Sherlock, the Magic School and the Ghost Ship at Enigmania in Duisburg. We had so much fun! The decorations are superb, not only inside the room but in the welcoming area as well. Also a shout out to our great GMs! Thanks for making us feel so welcome!
What a truly epic small finale it was! Congratulations to Team Malm for beating us with 15 seconds to spare! You made us sweat a lot during the last few minutes! We had such a good time participating in this championship and meeting amazing people along the way. Thanks for organising and hopefully see you all again soon!
Yesterday, we got to play the quarter finals of the escapetogether.ch championship. We went in knowing it could go either way but escaped within 26.04 minutes, securing us a place in the semi finals and breaking the room-record!
This was to no small portion thanks to the amazing room by Time Maze. Beutezug 1847 is simply stellar. From the first moment on, you can tell that the owners of the company are enthusiasts themselves and that they put their heart, souls and a lot of hard work and attention to detail into this room.
The riddles are well polished and logical while taking nothing away from a cool storyline that is present throughout the whole room. If anything, we were sad we had to rush this room due to the championship but we will for sure be back once their second room opens!
We are very happy and excited to have made it to the final rounds of the escapetogether.ch Championship! We’ll be looking forward to the next round and also congratulations to the 7 other teams!
Usually, escape rooms are there to exercise your mind and your wit but this particular room does more than that. Not only your brain cells will start sweating but your body might get out of breath pretty soon as well. And how much fun that is!
Without spoiling too much of what is inside the room: You will laugh, you will pant and you will have moments of thinking “wait, we’re actually meant to do that???” This room has definitely gone up and beyond of what escape rooms can do to you physically and it has done it very well.
The only criticism we could think of is the naming of this company. There have to be better names than Abduction 1, 2, 3 and 4 for your rooms? But anyways, in the end, the name doesn’t really matter and the only thing you will remember is who gets to take the shirt home.
We are taking part in the escapetogether.ch Championship and had such a great time so far. However, one thing we noticed is that the rooms that are participating are of a very varying quality, which of course makes sense given all the different styles and topics that the companies offer.
The best room that we’ve played for the championship so far has definitely been The Ticking Heart by Inside Breakout. It’s so refreshing when everything just works, the gming is amazing and the room is fun yet still very challenging.
Unfortunately, we had a few occasions where things didn’t work as intended in other rooms such as electronics malfunctioning or a GM not paying attention to what we were doing but nothing of the like happened go us at Inside Breakout. This is how escape rooms should be done! Even if you don’t participate in the Championship, go try out their rooms. We are very excited to go back some day and play the other room they offer.
A beautiful story that reveals itself through the solving of puzzles, highly narrative oriented. This is the perfect room to get started with escape rooms.
This picture is quite dark but that is actually very fitting. Because the room Oscuridad by Maximum Escape is played in complete and absolute darkness. That fact alone makes for a very unique experience.
Inside the room, you have nothing but your sense of touch and hearing to guide you. And even though this room is not a scary one, the fact that you’re unable to see creates quite a strong feeling of unease.
However, the designers have put their all into it to guide you through the room safely and make you have lots of fun on the way. Therefore: Take courage and venture forth into the darkness!
The unique things about the three rooms ‘The dark secret of the congressman’ (chap. 1), ‘Crime Scene: Back alley’ (chap. 2) and ‘Patient Zero’ (chap. 3) is that they are all part of the same story.
Chapter 1 starts out in the mansion of a missing congressman, and your mission is to find out all you can about the shady business he was involved with. The clues you find take you into a back alley, where a murder has taken place (chapter 2). Here you find out about a mysterious laboratory, where it all started, and where you will go during chapter 3 to end the terrible threat to mankind that has arisen from there…
All three rooms can be played separately and in any order, but the story probably is best experienced if you start with chapter 1 and end with chapter 3. All rooms are really done well thematically, with ‘Patient Zero’ standing out specifically. Cool riddles, unique usage of recordings to tell a story and progress advancement in the rooms as well as a lot of love for details make all rooms really special and enjoyable. We definitely recommend visiting these rooms if you visit Vienna / live here and enjoy escape rooms!
Chapter 1: The dark secret of the congressman Theme: 6.5/10 Puzzles: 6.5/10 Scary: 1.5/10 Score: 7.5/10
Powerful and shocking room where there is one! Save the world from an asteroid named after the God of Chaos from wiping humanity- cliche, but wait! A start in a yet-another-office (our nemesis!) ramps up at the speed of light, each step and riddle gets better. I love when rooms have unique creative ideas and this one… does! The room quickly accelerates from an average beginning to become one of my favorite ones!
The GM was very friendly, doing us a walkthrough of how things work internally. Even a behind-the-scenes look that left us wowed and made us appreciate the amount of work behind this. One of the few GM’s in BCN I’ve heard comfortably speak catalan to us. Marc and Pol have put tremendous effort doing everything themselves – and not only can they build sound mechanisms and mouth-watering riddles but have a cohesive progression through the room.
Must visit in Barcelona! Hopefully they have time to finish (or let us test :p) the next one next summer when we visit again!
Have you ever wondered what it is like to be in a coffin? Well, Catalepsia lets you experience just that. The whole “room” happens inside a coffin. You have 30 minutes to figure out how to escape your certain death by working together with your partner who is also in a coffin.
It is an experience unlike any other. Fortunately for us, even though the theme looks scary, the room is not a horror room at all. However, if you suffer from severe claustrophobia, it is maybe not recommended that you try out this room. For everyone else: Definitely give it a try when you’re in Barcelona. The customization options before the room are simply insane. You won’t regret it. Rest in peace.
Have you ever not booked a room because you were worried that the theme is too scary or because you don’t like jump scares but still you’re intrigued by eerie and creepy themes? Well then this room is for you. While the theme is quite creepy – a possessed little girl terrorizing a house – the room itself is not very scary whilst still keeping in tune with an uncanny and sinister atmosphere.
We enjoyed it a lot – had there not been the last riddle which had us quite frustrated and frankly killed the immersion and flow for our group. Nonetheless, its a cool room to check out with some unique elements we hadn’t seen before.
The police in Hamburg has been trying for years to expose the shady business of the notorious Moretta clan, so far unsuccessfully. Now it is up to your team to break into the family’s mansion to find key evidence that will put the mafia gang behind bars once and for all. However, as you could have expected the Moretta family is very cautious about their dubious activities. Their secrets are well hidden, and you will need all your investigative talents to collect enough clues in time.
The thematically fitting decoration and the overall vibe of the room creates a very immersive experience. However, if you are an experienced player, the riddles might be a bit too easy for you.
