ESCAPE ROOM REVIEW – THE QUICK AND DIRTY
Play if… you are a science nerd or love your gadgets.
Avoid if… you don’t know the difference between alternating current and direct current.
THE BASICS
ExitGames – Escape Room Zagreb:
Address: Petrinjska ul. 7, 10000, Zagreb, Croatia (click address for Google Map)
Contact and Website: 011 (if dialing from outside Croatia), then 385 91 536 7376
http://www.exitgames.hr/en/
[email protected]
Room – Tesla’s Legacy:
Description (from the company website):
“Only one hour is left until a total world annihilation. Your team of experts is humanity’s only hope for survival. Will you have enough courage and cunning to save us all?”
Don’t worry, you are not alone. You have one of the greatest minds in history on your side, Nikola Tesla. Tesla’s legacy adventure offers a rich setting intertwined with specially designed puzzles submerging you into a wondrous world of fascinating mechanical devices. Strange noises and lights, weird contraptions and fun gadgets will both guide and distract you on your way to becoming a hero.
Choose this ExitGames adventure if you want to learn about one of history’s most fascinating minds and uncover some of his secrets that enabled him to invent machines light years ahead of his time and literally bring light to the world.
Difficulty: none given
Time Limit: 60 minutes
Cost: Cost: Cash only in Croatian kuna is accepted
350 kuna for 2-3 people, about $47.10 per group ($23.55 or $15.70 per person)
450 kuna for 4-5 people, about $60.56 per group ($15.14 or $12.11 per person)
500 kuna for 6-7 people, about $67.29 per group ($11.22 or $9.61 per person)
Languages: Offered both in Croatian and English
Identifier: R1
Party Size: 2–7 people
Staging Area: A very comfortable lobby with plenty of seating.
Metro Access/Parking: This location is directly in the city center, right near Ban Jelačić Square. Uber works well in Zagreb.
OUR EXPERIENCE
This is the video we took before we entered the room:
This is the video we took just after we completed the room:
Logistics:
Description of the room: A large laboratory with tons of gadgets, a huge bookcase, and what appears to be a bar (it’s not… no liquor) on the side of the room. There is also a very large door on one side of the room.
Understanding of the Mission: There is a meteor hurtling towards Earth, with enough mass to produce a force upon contact that will destroy the entire planet. All nations of the world have banded together to try and stop it, to no avail.
There is only one hope left. Nikola Tesla
Did We Escape: Yes… with some help
Time Remaining: Technically 0:00, but the meteor “slowed down” as it approached Earth, giving us some extra time to solve the last few puzzles (they gave us some extra time since it was just the two of us)
Our Suggested Party Size: 4-6 would be a good number for your team
Did the room challenge the entire team? Oh. My. God. YES!!
Members of our team (other than the ERG): Heather
Worth the time and money? Absolutely, yes!
Where to Eat/Drink Before/After: There are lots of places within walking distance, so we recommend you use Google or TripAdvisor (or ask for a recommendation!)
OUR SCORING:
| MIKE SAYS: |
|---|
| Overall Expectation (Summary) |
| Zagreb was the last stop on my vacation with Heather in Croatia. We didn’t have a lot planned in the city other than walking around, so we ended up doing one final room before we needed to pack for our return home.
We had looked up a number of escape room locations, and this one jumped out at us with this theme. Both of us being science nerds, we figured we’d give this one a go. When another owner at a different location told us how good the room was (and very difficult), that only increased our anticipation. |
| Story (Rating) |
| A large meteor is on a collision course with Earth, with an anticipated impact that will destroy life on the entire planet. The nations of the world have banded together to try and stop it, but everything done has failed so far.
There is only one hope left… When famed scientist Nikola Tesla died back in 1943, the government sealed his lab, hoping that one day one of his inventions might prove useful. So, I’ve done a few “world annihilation” rooms before, and even a few with meteors, but the story for this one takes a wholly unique spin and weaves in Tesla’s life in Croatia (he was a local boy) as part of the story. Rating: 10/10 |
| Mission (Rating) |
| Search Tesla’s sealed laboratory, figure out how his gadgets work, and see if you can find something that will destroy or repel the meteor.
So, I liked the mission here that wasn’t just “find the thing that stops the meteor” because you aren’t really told exactly WHAT thing stops the meteor. Plus, you get to play with a lot of different nifty gadgets. Rating: 9/10 |
| Puzzle Diversity (Rating) |
| This room was all gadget-based, and not one type was repeated throughout the process. There were a few combination locks, but they fit what I would assume an inventor (or the government after the inventor’s death) would do to secure the lab.
My god… there were a lot of puzzles in this room. You even had to solve a puzzle in order to get your pencil and paper to take notes (first time I’ve ever been in a room that did that). You had to solve puzzles by making gadgets work (and finding out how to do so), paying close attention to your surroundings, observing specific parts of the room while other things occurred, placing items in all the right spots, some simple (but time-consuming math), and being able to read a map/globe, or figuring out how to use the descriptions of certain items in an effort to see how they were all related and worked together for finding the solution. You also have to have at least two people in the room to solve the last puzzle, which was so fucking cool. Rating: 10/10 |
| Puzzle Complexity (Rating) |
| This room was TOUGH.
We were warned by another owner that the room was really involved and she expressed surprise when we told her that it was just going to be the two of us and not to expect to complete it in 60 minutes. She was correct. We got some extra time because there were only two of us, and there were many, many, many puzzles in this room. The funny thing is, though, that we didn’t really get stumped right away. One puzzle may have taken us a few minutes (working independently), but I solved one puzzle in less than 10 seconds in the room. The GM said that he barely got back to his monitor before we had already solved this one. We were working puzzles left and right, solving them one after another. There was a great mix of relatively simple to some really involved and complex (multi-point pieces) that took some time. There was a point where we got to the big door in the room… and when it opened we felt a bit dismayed because we knew we had a few more to solve. Once we got to that point, we ended up asking for three clues in quick succession because we knew that time was almost up, and wanted to see how the room ended. Rating: 10/10 |
| Flow/Cohesiveness/Uniqueness (Rating) |
| I can’t give a higher rating than what I did on this area. The room FELT like Tesla’s lab… the gadgets all fit and the decoration of the room made you believe that you were where he created some of the prototypes for his amazing inventions.
The room is definitely well rated for up to 7 people. There are many paths throughout the room that allows people or small groups to work independently. I believe that there were only 5 puzzles in the entire room that Heather and I actually worked on together to try and solve. The rest were solved independently and communicated to the other so we didn’t try and solve a puzzle that was already done. While a few of these may have been twists on puzzles I’ve seen elsewhere, MOST of the puzzles were completely unique to this room and fully fit the also-unique theme and mission. I also loved the time keeping method of the room (a disembodied voice plots the path of the meteor, but I’m not giving you any more than this). I can’t say much more. It was so well done, and with this last rating, this room – to this point – becomes my top-rated room. Well, well done, ExitGames! Rating: 10/10 |
| Fun/Amusement (Summary) |
| I. LOVED. THIS. ROOM!! Even though we were warned about its complexity and the fact that we were given some extra time to complete it, I had an absolute blast doing this room. There was not one point where I felt bored or was pulled out of the experience (thinking on what was going on outside the door). It was so challenging that we both gave sighs of relief once the last puzzle was solved and the victory was announced. |
| Game Master (Summary) |
| Our GM was great. We really didn’t hear from him too much unless it was to clarify that we had something done correctly to trigger the gadget. We did, however, on the second half of the room ask for our three clues in rapid succession so we could get to the end. |
| How Helpful Were Any Clues Given, if any (Summary) |
| The hints were great. We were given nudges as to what we had to do, but weren’t told exactly how to solve the puzzle… something like “oh, look a bit closer at this thing.” That got us through to the end. |
| ERG (pronounced URG, as in “we should have known better”) Score |
| I will give myself a few FacePalms here because there were things that may have taken me a few extra seconds to solve (after looking at it a different way) or an “ugh” once we got a hint.
Rating: |
ESCAPE ROOM GUYS’ OVERALL SCORING: 9.8/10
Final Thought: This has now become my top-rated room to date. I don’t think I’ve ever given so many 10s before, but they were well deserved. The room’s design and the puzzles and the locks and the decoration all worked together to provide an almost flawless experience that was completely immersive. I even felt the sense of urgency to save the world as the time started to wind down. I love the fact that ExitGames took a local theme/person/legend and worked it into their room, which makes it a unique experience to this location and among any other similarly themed rooms. If and when I find myself back in Zagreb, I will definitely be doing any and all rooms here. Fantastic job!