LOCATION: Winterthur, Switzerland
Photo above is property of Geheimgang 188
Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers
📝 ETR DECODER
🔑 GAME: The Alchemist's Legacy
📅 DATE PLAYED: May 30, 2024
🎬 GENRE: Fantasy
🧠 DIFFICULTY (Based on 3 ppl): 6/10
👥 TOTAL # OF PLAYERS: 2-6 ppl
🕒 LENGTH OF TIME: 60 Mins.
💰 PRICE: CHF 40-60
☎️ BOOKING TYPE: Private
🔓 ESCAPED/ COMPLETED?: Yes [34:20]
📖 THE STORY
Together with your traveling companions, you are sent back to the year 1920 to explore the abandoned town of Rabenfurt. Your mission is clear: stop the notorious apothecary Gregory Libavius, known for his nefarious alchemical machinations and his cooperation with the dreaded "Cult of the Cobra". Your task is to unravel his mysterious plan and thwart his sinister scheme. But beware, the cult is infamous for its ruthless and dangerous ways.
🎯 HIT THE BULLSEYE
Geheimgang 188 is located in a now-abandoned underground emergency WW2 hospital. Many of the site's original features, such as large industrial-sized equipment, turbines, and generators, remain intact today. These elements seamlessly integrate with the company’s aesthetic and game theming, enhancing the immersive experience of their escape rooms, including this one.
Geheimgang is crafting its own paranormal universe, which could be described as a blend between Harry Potter and The Umbrella Academy. This currently includes two real-life escape rooms, with a third one recently beginning construction, and a point-and-click online game called The Crystals of Hope. While there's no required order to play these games, players will enjoy the subtle plot points and connections that weave the entire narrative together.
The Alchemist’s Legacy is their newest creation, and like those before it, the quality of the construction and theming has continued to rise. The game offers multiple rooms to explore, each with its own distinct identity. The use of props is balanced and proportionate to the room’s identity, being enough to ensure a good level of immersion, but not so many that they become distracting. We appreciated the transition from the warehouse to the secret forge the best, which was particularly creative.
A quite unusual aspect of the game was the inclusion of radio play, something I know is quite common in Hamburg, Germany, but not something I have seen before in Switzerland.
For those unfamiliar; this is where a narrator accompanies you through the story with (prerecorded) audio updates to provide context and guidance, much like if you were listening to a story being read on the radio. We enjoyed it, finding it both flavorful and helpful.
The puzzles are linear for the majority of the game, although there are moments when different tasks can be undertaken simultaneously. We found them to all be creative and thematic, particularly towards the end when we are trying to forge the Crystals of Hope; although the crystals themselves were rather underwhelming to behold.
There is a nice interaction with the game master as the game begins. He did a good job setting up the story with a couple of minutes of acting.
🧩 MISSED THE MARK
Although there wasn’t anything wrong with the puzzles’ theming or logic, we would have liked to have seen more depth or complexity as the radio play and some other notes within the room make it feel a little like ‘hand holding’ at times. However, for newer teams, this makes the room far more accessible.
🏹 TAKE A SHOT?
This was our favorite of the four games currently on offer at Geheimgang 188 and certainly worth a play. The complexity is simple, so experienced teams should consider this when booking, perhaps playing as a two or three. We are excited to see how the third installment of this saga turns out and we’ll definitely be returning to play!
ℹ️ ADDITIONAL INFO
There is a car park opposite the escape room which has to be paid for.
There is a lobby area with comfortable seating and drinks available for purchase. They also sell some EXIT games.
Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers
(If you do decide to try this game, give us a shoutout or tag us on social media so we know you heard it from "ESCAPETHEROOMers"!)
Disclosure: We thank Geheimgang 188 for providing a media discount on the tickets for this game. Although discounted admission was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion of the review whatsoever.
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