It’s October, 2025, and that means it’s time for escape room trips! We usually go for non-summer times, considering the heat scares me. Manpans is also writing a competing blog, so if you want to see an alternative view with more detail, you should check it out. It also has tourist things in it, unlike me who is a degenerate and chooses only to do escape rooms in countries I’ve never been.

Pre-Trip

The ER Discord #Greece channel, as well as TERPECA was used as our base for this years trip. Here’s our spreadsheet again. We had 24 rooms booked for this trip now.

  • I only brought €250 and relying on my Wise card for other expenses. There are a number of rooms which were cash only. I probably should have brought more money.
  • I bought an e-sim this time. Used Kolet because I had an 8 hour layover in Zurich, and I need internet.
  • Our escape rooms were booked in advance. Some of the rooms were challenging to get a hold of.

We arrived in Spain on the Friday. I was fortunately because my sister was able to book Business class by using points. I’ve never been in Business Class before, and the ability to lie down during a flight is amazing!

Escape rooms weren’t starting until the next day, though. I don’t trust flights not being delayed and I need at least a 12-hour period to get used to the time change.

We had six on our team this trip! Myself, Leezet, Myra, Margaux, Manpans, and Philip! Philip was originally part of our online escape room group, and we’ve known him for three years, but this was the first time meeting him IRL!

Okay! On to escapes!

Thoughts on Spain

  • Smoking is more prevalent than I’m used to. Albeit, it’s not that bad and was easily avoidable.
  • Cream is not readily available for coffee. They do give a lot of sugar though.
  • Even though we tried to utilize the Metro more, it was difficult for rooms outside of Barcelona, especially when there were 10am starts.
  • Taxis are challenging to book. Even though there’s an app, we had a hard time booking one at night. Calling them directly was far more successful.
  • Taxis outside of the city are expensive. Also depends if it’s night. If you get a taxi far away from the city, they will charge for their time to you and back.
  • We did get the WhatsApp number for one taxi, who became our main transport for early morning pickups. They did tend to pick us up earlier than time stated.
  • If you walk, expect a lot of hills.
  • Cars stop for pedestrians, which is nice. We were still tentative.
  • All bathrooms I’ve been in have been clean! However, there isn’t anything to dry my hands with. Paper towels are rare.
  • One final thing. In the Metro, what are these? They are everywhere, with different patterns:

Regional Escape Room Things

There were a few things we noticed in our games:

  • Rooms tend to be cold opens with no concept of sitting in a lobby. Payment was done afterwards.
  • If payment was done at the beginning of the game, it was usually done within character.
  • Storefronts are easy to find. Only one was a little challenging.
  • They want you to be on time! And I don’t mean 30-minutes-Errol early. At our first game we were about 10 minutes early. We were ringing the doorbell, but then we saw a sign that said we needed all of our players at the exact start time.
  • All rooms had boxes or lockers to lock your phones. We locked all our money and phones in the lockers.
  • There are a lot of ‘action scenes’ where weapons were used. This was great for Myra, the American. I would have put a ‘weapon count’ for each game, but I don’t want to spoil anything.
    • I also know that weapons are more of a triggering issue with Americans. Since they are not a threat where I live, I honestly see them as props and toys. However, I know this is not the case for my neighbours to the South. Be forewarned on the number of guns you will find in an escape room. I think there were only two times where a host was ‘armed’ with a gun.
  • Games tend to require physicality: a lot of crawling and ladder climbing.
  • Many games are loosely based on movie or game IPs.
  • I don’t know if this is an erroneous take of this region, but it feels there is more searching in rooms.
  • At the end, when they asked us if we had any questions, they phrased it as “Do you have any doubts?” I always answered “Just my sister.” I don’t think they found it funny.
  • Note that we had six people in our team, however, most of these rooms could have been done by two or three people.
  • In three different games, the Macarena came up. I did a lot of dancing.

Note: We did no horror rooms on this trip. However, my sister is very jumpy, and there are minor jump scares. I am keeping a scream count.

Day 1

Our first room was not until 4pm, which gave us plenty of time to relax and get there. A few people did some nature thing at a park. I did go to the Sagrada Familia because I found out they got a ticket for my wife (who was not doing escape rooms with us), and I should hang out with her at least at some point in this trip.

This was also the first day I tried the bidet in the room. It was amazing. I want one.

Oh, and if you want to read Manpans thoughts, check out her Barcelona Day 1 blog.

Game 1 — Jurásico, Golden Pop

About the facility

  • It was only a 20 minute walk from the Sagrada.
  • Storefront wasn’t hard to find.
  • This was one of the only rooms with a front lobby and bathrooms available before the game.
  • Payment is upfront.
  • Lobby is really nice (movie theatre themed). Popcorn was fake though. That made me sad.
  • There was a box to put away all of our stuff.

About the Game

  • Game info:
    • 👥: 2 – 6 Players.
    • 🕒 Duration: 2 Hours.
    • 🎙️ Host: Tomas
    • 😱 Leezet scream count: 1 jump scream, one extended scream.
    • Room Escape Artist’s Review
  • 🌃 Set: Gorgeous with an amazing environment. There were real plants used to simulate a jungle. It was impressive.
    • You will get dirty as well as a bit damp.
    • Can be a little dark.
  • 🪜At least one person will have to crawl.
  • 🧩 Puzzles: Fine, but not the tightest I’ve seen.
  • 💪 Minor dexterity challenges.
  • 🎭 Role-playing: Some interaction at the beginning. Host was very energetic and did a great job at playing his role.
  • 🎬 There were a number of cinematic experiential moments in the game.
  • 🧑‍⚖️ 💭 Final thoughts: As our first room, we started off strong! This is definitely one to check out, even if the puzzle design wasn’t all that perfect.

Game 2 — Distrito 111, Unreal Room Escape

About the facility

  • The place is a bit hard to find: it’s in a plaza surrounded by tall buildings. There was a cafe close by to grab food if need be.
  • They did let us in 5 minutes early.
  • Cold open.
  • 2/3rds of the way through, you will get access to a bathroom.

About the game

  • Game info:
  • 🌃 Set: Great, but you will get a bit dirty in this room.
  • 🪜Climbing and crawling in cramped spaces.
  • 🧩 Puzzles: Good. Some were a bit vague and we were hinted through.
  • 💪 There were some “forceful” aspects of this game that were unique for me, which I enjoyed.
  • 🧑‍⚖️ 💭 Final thoughts: We enjoyed the room, but there were no wow moments that stuck out to make it memorable (in the TERPECA sense).

Day 2

Our game started at 10am, and since it was in Terrassa, we booked an uber to pick us up at 9am. It’s expensive to take a taxi out there, but it was our only choice if we didn’t want to wake up too early.

There was a bakery close by, and my wife and I would go there every morning for breakfast. I got a croissant with a frankfurter in it and an Americano with no cream.

Here is Manpans’ Barcelona Day 2 blog.

Game 3 – Proyecto Omega, Escape Room Terrassa

About the Facility

  • We took a taxi here, so I don’t know how challenging this would be to get to using Transit. The station itself is about a 10 to 15 minute walk away.
  • Cold open. Payment at the end.
  • There is water available to drink, which was needed.
  • There is a bathroom available about a third into the game.

About the Game

  • Game info:
    • 👥: 2 – 6 Players.
    • 🕒 Duration: 90 minutes.
    • 🎙️ Host: Elena
    • 😱 Myra and Leezet scream count: 2 jump scares.
    • Room Escape Artist’s Review
  • 🌃 Set: Solid. I really liked the build.
  • 🧩 Puzzles: Really enjoyed the puzzles in this one. They were clever and there was a unique mechanism I thought was cool.
  • 🎭 Role-playing: I had too much fun interacting with our actor. Elena played along and role-played with me throughout the whole game. It was great!
  • 🧑‍⚖️ 💭 Final thoughts: ❤️ This game came in second for most fun (out of the 23 I played this trip). This was due to the puzzles and the actor interaction.

Game 4 – Cybercity 2o49 at Escape Barcelona

Getting back from Terrassa to Barcelona was a beast. No drivers were available and so we took transit. It was three trains and we paid each time, but that was more than likely our fault.

About the facility

  • Cold open.
  • Facility did not have a bathroom in the game, but were available at the end.
  • Payment also came at end, where they have merch available.

About the game

  • Game info:
    • 👥: 2 – 6 Players.
    • 🕒 Duration: 120 minutes.
    • 🎙️ Host: Eric
    • 😱 Leezet scream count: 4 but for silly reasons.
    • Room Escape Artist’s Review
  • 🌃 Set: Really impressive with an amazing cyberpunk feel.
    • Incredibly dirty. Out of all the games, I was the most filthy after lying on this floor.
    • Can be hard to see because of the coloured light.
  • 🪜A bit of climbing for some people.
  • 🧩 Puzzles were mostly basic tasks with some skill-based challenges.
    • There is a mechanic to solve and discover things (which I’ve left vague so as not to spoil things), but it was dim and hard to see those opportunities.
    • This room felt the least “puzzly” out of all of them, with more “video-gamey” parts.
  • 🎭 Role-playing:
    • A few tense sequences and action moments.
    • I did have a short NPC interaction which I thoroughly enjoyed.
  • 🎬 Some cool experiential moments.
  • 🧑‍⚖️  💭 Final thoughts: Enjoyed the vibe it was going for and deservedly on the TERPECAs.

Game 5 – K.O.N.G Protocol at Escape Barcelona

About the facility

  • Similar to above, since it’s the same company.
  • Bathroom available at the end game

About the game

  • Game info:
    • 👥: 2 – 7 Players.
    • 🕒 Duration: 120+ minutes.
    • 😱 Leezet scream count: one extended scream, one scream because of GM opening door quickly.
    • Room Escape Artist’s Review
  • 🌃 Set: Really impressive and expansive.
    • You will get a little dirty, and possibly wet.
    • Got quite dark in some places and challenging to see.
  • 🪜Not a lot of climbing, but it will help to be dextrous.
  • 🎬There were some amazing wow and cinematic moments in this game. They did a good job for the intro and outro for this game.
  • 🧩 Although I enjoyed the number of puzzles, I can only remember the tedious ones.
    • Colour matching is hard if the colours don’t match. Is that done on purpose? Are we supposed to cycle through ones we think they could be?
    • Due to darkness, one aspect of a puzzle we couldn’t see at all, but fortunately, there were problems where they had to reboot the system, so the puzzle was bypassed.
    • One communication puzzle was challenging to do because the environmental sound was too loud. In the end, I stopped caring because I was tired of yelling. And if *I’M* tired of yelling, that’s saying something.
    • Another communication puzzle was tedious and, again, not fun. At least we had multiple tries.
  • 🧑‍⚖️  💭 Final thoughts: Definitely should do this room, and I can see why it was as high as it was on the TERPECAs. It’s a shame those puzzles ruined it for me.

Puzzle design rant

Let me rant for a bit. Being a button pusher isn’t a fun role. Being a light holder isn’t as exciting a job designers think it is. Sure, it may satisfy the quota for ‘team’ puzzles, because more than one person is involved, but I want more out of my games than listening to someone say “shine it over here” or “press the button now.”

If I’m going to do a team puzzle, I want every person to have some type of agency. There WAS one team puzzle in this game where each person did have to have some agency and I thought that was a good team communication puzzle. But I was annoyed a lot by a few other puzzles.

And if you have noticed, this is only our fifth game, so puzzle fatigue hadn’t settled in yet. Nor did we lose the game, we finished on time, so it’s not sour grapes.

Now, is this game worth checking out? Yes! It has some amazing experiential moments, but out of all the rooms I’ve done on our trip, the puzzles in this room frustrated me the most.

Game 6 — Nakatomi Plaza, Escape Republik

About the facility

  • Cold open. I don’t know why I keep putting cold open. All the rooms are cold open.
  • Bathrooms available a third of the way into the room.
  • If you are like us and forget about emails sent to you from escape rooms, you should read the instructions given to you for this game!

About the game

  • Game info:
    • 👥: 2 – 7 Players.
    • 🕒 Duration: 100 minutes.
    • 🎙️ Host: Aday

  • Does this not scream sexy?

    🌃 Set: The set was a hotel, and was done very well.

  • 🧩 Puzzles: Standard fare, but they were good.
  • 🎭 Role-playing:
    • Our game host brought excitement and energy to his role and was willing to play along with my shenanigans. I only got to interact with him a couple of times, but it was fun.
    • Also, as you can see from our game photo, we got to dress up! It wasn’t very comfortable, I don’t know how people do that on a daily basis.
  • 🧑‍⚖️  💭 Final thoughts: Good game. Sorry for my belly shirt.

Day 3

We booked a vehicle for 6 people since we were going out to Terrassa again! But not before I did a bakery run with my wife.

Here is Manpans’ Barcelona Day 3 blog.

Game 7 — La Base Secrets: Codigo Rojo (Code Red), The City Escape Room

About the facility

  • Cold open again.
  • Bathroom available about a third of the way into the room

About the game

  • Game info:
    • 👥: 2 – 8 Players.
    • 🕒 Duration: 80 minutes.
    • 🎙️ Host: Biel
    • 😱 Leezet & Myra: 1, but at GM.
  • 🌃 Set: Set was solid. A little dirty.
  • 🧩 Puzzles: Standard fare, but they were good.
  • 🎭 Role-playing:
    • You are given a walkie-talkie to stay in touch with headquarters, and I stupidly did not interact with him in character, which was sad because he seemed open to it.
  • 🎬 Wow moment: Not as cinematic, but there was one part we all enjoyed a lot.
  • 🧑‍⚖️  💭 Final thoughts: Cool game, and we enjoyed it.

Game 8 — Academia De Cocina (Cooking Academy), The City Escape Room

About the facility

  • Game starts with a cold open, but there is a lobby!
  • Bathrooms are available at the start.

About the game

  • Game info:
    • 👥: 4 – 16 Players.
    • 🕒 Duration: 90 minutes.
    • 🤼 Competitive
    • 🎙️ Host: Ainhoa
  • 🌃 Set: Four stations set up for a competitive cooking show.
  • 🧩 Puzzles: Standard, but were good.
  • 🎭 Role-playing: The game is a competition between cooking teams, and the host takes on the role of the angry master chef who’s judging the whole competition. Our host was amazing and she was willing to engage and role-play with me, but it was her first time hosting an English game. I’m sure I would have been able to go all out if we both spoke the same language.
  • 🧑‍⚖️  💭 Final thoughts:
    • In our game, it was Philip, Manda, and Margaux against myself, Leezet, and Myra. Leezet just asked for hints the whole time (and getting none) and I bothered the host the whole time. That meant it was three versus one the whole game.
      And we won.
      I learned something new: Myra thrives in competitive games. To be fair, Margaux had not slept at all (she always has projects to work on during these trips), and I may have scared Philip away from a logic puzzle we were working on. Still, good on Myra.
    • I enjoyed the uniqueness of this game. I yearn, however, for what it could have been if we all spoke the same language.

Game 9 — Estudio de Televisión, The City Escape Room

  • Game info:
    • 👥: 2 – 4 Players.
    • 🕒 Duration: 75 minutes.
    • 🤼 Competitive
    • 🎙️ Host: Ainhoa
  • 🌃 Set: Okay. Not good if you have claustrophobia.
  • 🪜As you can tell by the ladder in the picture, there is a small bit of climbing.
  • 🧩 Puzzles: Standard. Some mini-games and trivia, which is challenging if you don’t know Spanish culture.
  • 🎭 Role-playing: There are few times to get into character. Our host was very energetic again!
  • 🧑‍⚖️  💭 Final thoughts: The premise of this game is unique: you are game show contestants going up against each other. Manpans disliked it, but I still had fun. Would this be something that would rank on TERPECA? No. But I liked that it was different than your normal fare. However, I wish it leaned more into the theme. It didn’t feel like we were in a TV studio. If there were a live studio audience (not a real one of course, just laugh tracks and stuff), or a commentator the whole time, and maybe monitors of each player, that’d be neat.

Game 10 — La Taberna (The Tavern), The City Escape Room

  • Game info:
    • 👥: 2 – 7 Players.
    • 🕒 Duration: 120 minutes.
    • 🎙️ Host: Uri and Charles
    • 😱 Leezet: I didn’t write down if Leezet screamed in this one. It does get dark, so there was potential.
    • Room Escape Artist’s Review
  • 🌃 Set: Incredibly epic. There is a reason this ranked as high as it did in TERPECA. This was a gorgeous set.
    • The architect Frank Lloyd Wright used the architectural principle of compression and release: using spatial contrast to manipulate emotion. The technique involves transitioning from a small, low, or narrow space to a larger, more open one, making the larger space seem even more expansive and grand by comparison. Taberna does this well, and other rooms should take note.
    • Not that dirty, but you could get wet.
  • 🪜A lot of climbing and narrow spaces in this one.
  • 🧩 Puzzles: Pretty standard.
    • Some mechanical puzzles which were neat and diagetic to the set. One looked really cool, but didn’t work that well in practice.
    • Colour puzzles in coloured light isn’t that fun, for the record. “What colour is this? Is it white? Purple? There is blue and green lighting, so it’s hard to tell.”
  • 🎭 Role-playing: There were plenty of times to interact with characters in this game, which is great. However, our GMs didn’t ‘play’ as much with me. They didn’t ignore me and did their best to humour me, I can tell they weren’t into it. Other GMs would lean in hard and enjoy the experience. Don’t get me wrong, they were great hosts. I could just sense they weren’t as playful.
  • 🎬 A few cinematic experiences. Set did a great job, however, of delivering that wow affect.
  • 🧑‍⚖️  💭 Final thoughts: This made it into the top 10 of the TERPECAs and rightly so. It is epic in scale and a must play for any visitor.

Game 11 — Apophis, Vortex Escapes

  • Game info:
  • 🌃 Set: Although this was a standard office and lab setup, they did some pretty neat things. The set felt like an epic game if this was back in 2015, if that makes sense.
    • Some parts are dark and it gets challenging to see.
  • 🪜Climbing and crawling required.
  • 🧩 Puzzles: There were a couple of refreshing puzzles in this one. There was one set of puzzles which could do with some validation. You know when there are three or four puzzles which need to be completed in order to trigger the solve, and if it doesn’t trigger, you don’t know which one of the puzzles is incorrect? To be fair, we were fortunate to get them all right on the first try, but there was a lot of humming and hawing about what to do next (because we didn’t see the last puzzle part of the series).
  • 🧑‍⚖️  💭 Final thoughts: I really enjoyed some of the puzzles in this room, and there were a few things I haven’t seen before, which added to my experience.

Day 4

We got home late the night before. Again, paying for taxis is expensive. I wonder if it would have been better to rent a car, but there wouldn’t have been a place to park at our AirBnB, and I would hate trying to drive in the narrow streets. Also, there was a lot of construction, so it was challenging to get around.

Anyway, I’ve been setting my alarm for around 7:30am so I can do my bakery run with my wife.

You may have noticed that I’m not putting pics up of the store front. They’re not that hard to find, and all the About the facility tend to be “Cold open. Bathrooms available”, so I stopped.

You will also notice my feet are now visible in all photos. Myra was great in making sure this was a thing. I’m a bit shocked she was willing to help out with my eccentricities.

Here is Manpans’ Barcelona Day 4 blog.

Game 12 — Mutant X, Elements Escape Room

  • Game info:
    • 👥: 2 – 6 Players.
    • 🕒 Duration: 75 minutes.
    • 🎙️ Host: Pol
  • 🦸‍♀️ 🦹‍♂️ Roles: In this superhero themed game, each person will take on a superhero role! Some roles are more useful than others.
  • 🌃 Set: Set was good.
  • 🪜One person has to crawl.
  • 🧩 Puzzles: Standard fare, although there were some “button-pushing” puzzles which were a bit more interesting than your regular, boring, button-pushing puzzles.
  • 🧑‍⚖️  💭 Final thoughts: There aren’t that many games out there with a superhero theme, and for good reason: it’s hard to pretend to be a superhero when your abilities are normal. In my case, they’re subpar. I can’t throw, I can’t see, I can’t pay attention. I’m the last person you want on your team. Anyway, it’s hard to immerse yourself in a superhero role if your power doesn’t amount to anything more than the ability to shine light. Still, we had fun, and I liked to pretend my ability was awesome, and not easily replaced by a common household item.

Game 13 — Exodus, Elements Escape Room

  • Game info:
    • 👥: 2 – 6 Players.
    • 🕒 Duration: 90 minutes.
    • 😱 Myra screamed at the GM host. Surprisingly, Leezet did not.
    • 🎙️ Host: Pol
  • 🌃 Set: This is a newer game, so the set here was really nice.
    • A little dirty, which makes sense given the post-apocalyptic theme.
    • Given the number of post-apocalyptic themes I’ve done, they did have a fresh take on it.
  • 🪜A bit of climbing, and some low ceilings.
  • 🧩 Puzzles: Good.
  • 🎭 Role-playing: I was given a walkie-talkie. It was probably for hints. For me, it was my life-line back to the only other survivor on this forsaken planet. I gave him up-to-date reports on our progression, our morale, and our relationship status. It was wonderful.
  • 🧑‍⚖️  💭 Final thoughts: I enjoyed the finale on this one, and in the end, our GM (Pol), expressed his love for me. I love you too, Pol. I love you too.

Game 14 — NW6 Bunker, Enigmik Escape

  • We need to get into character more, like Myra!

    Game info:

    • 👥: 2 – 6 Players.
    • 🕒 Duration: 70 minutes.
    • 🎙️ Host: Olalla
  • 🌃 Set: Good.
  • 🧩 Puzzles: Good. There were a machine I hadn’t seen before, which was neat.
  • 🎭 Role-playing: I was hoping there would be given the description of us having to sneak in, however, there wasn’t any need. Sadness.
  • 🧑‍⚖️  💭 Final thoughts: I know manpans hated the final puzzle, but I thought it was fair and not too tedious. It was a good room, with some elements I enjoyed.

Game 15 — La Cerveceria (The Brewery), Enigmik Escape

  • Game info:
  • 🦸‍♀️ 🦹‍♂️ Roles: You get different roles in this game.
  • 🌃 Set: Lovely and detailed. It looked like a brewery. Or, at least, my thoughts on what a brewery should look like.
  • 🪜Some crawling, and some minor climbing.
  • 🧩 Puzzles: Good. They could have been a bit clearer on when a puzzle could be worked on, but it didn’t cause many problems.
  • 🧑‍⚖️  💭 Final thoughts: Fun room, with some cool team puzzles. It is evident why made it onto the TERPECAs. Furthermore, the ending was nice and on theme. Loved that part.

Day 5

We didn’t need to start as early because our first game was local and not as early! My wife wasn’t feeling very well, so I had to do the bakery by myself.

This was also the day Leezet had to leave. This decreases the amount of fun I have in a room. Sadness.

Here is Manpans’ Barcelona Day 5 blog.

Game 16  — Tocata and fugue, Palau de la Musica

About the facility

  • The Palau de la Musica is a music hall, and, yes, a tourist destination and not an escape room.
  • However, there is an ‘escape room’ within the music hall, which you can find on their site, and this was the only way Margaux could get me to do touristy things.
  • Btw, I know the title above is misspelled. That’s how it was on the website. I don’t know if it was intentional or not.

About the game

  • Game info:
    • 👥: 4 – 8 Players.
    • 🕒 Duration: 90 minutes.
    • 🎙️ Host: Juan
  • 🌃 Set: Since it’s set in the music hall, it’s obviously gorgeous.
  • 🧩 Puzzles: I was expecting the worst, but the puzzles weren’t bad. There is a lot of hand holding, because you don’t know what pieces are applicable at any moment, so the GM needs to guide you, but they would probably fit fine in a normal escape room.
  • 🧑‍⚖️  💭 Final thoughts: Should you do this? Yes. It’s a great way to combine tourist and escape rooms together.
    • Not only do you get to have a small tour of the music hall, you can stay as long as you want after the the escape part is complete.
    • They were playing Toccata and Fugue in the music hall on their grand organ, which was super cool.
    • At one part, we were in the practice hall with a piano. I started playing, and Juan, being a musician himself, was enjoying himself. After we finished the puzzle for that room, Philip was ready to go, but Juan stopped him, and instead, we all gathered around the piano and sang Let it Be by the Beatles (Juan was a Beatles fan). Good times.

Game 17 — 11S, Open Mind Escape Rooms

  • Branding is covering my feet!

    Game info:

  • 🌃 Set: Really cool and detailed.
  • 🪜There is a lot of climbing, crawling, and maneuvering through small spaces. They give you a hardhat, which is required, and it’s great, because I did bump my head a number of times.
  • 🧩 Puzzles: As firefighters, you will be using a lot of different tools you would expect as a first responder on a disaster site. They used them in clever ways which was neat. There were also escape room puzzles mixed in there, which gives an interesting dichotomy, but I turn my brain off for these things and don’t worry too much about how diagetic things are, believe it or not.
  • 🎭 Role-playing: As a first responder, I radioed back (using the walkie-talkie) to our sergeant on a minutely basis. At first, he was resistant, wanting to keep the line clear for things like hints. Pffft. However, after he realized I was not going to stop, he really leaned into it, and we role-played back and forth as I gave him updates on our progress and search for survivors. It was great!
  • 🧑‍⚖️  💭 Final thoughts: Again, a unique theme, giving us different things to do in an escape room. I’ve only done one other firefighter room (in Canada), and I like that aspect of being a first responder.

Game 18 — Final Code: Bermudas, Plastic Robot Escape Rooms

  • Darn you branding!

    Game info:

    • 👥: 3 – 7 Players.
    • 🕒 Duration: 90 minutes.
    • 🎙️ Host: Gerard
  • 🌃 Set: Impressive. One I didn’t expect.
    • Although no climbing or crawling, there are a lot of tight spaces.
  • 🧩 Puzzles: Standard, but there were a few neat ones.
  • 🎭 Role-playing: Again, we had walkie-talkies to radio in to HQ. Gerard immediately started role-playing when he realized I wouldn’t stop talking to him. We talked about our past. We dreamed of our futures. We sang Queen songs. We made memories to cherish.
  • 🧑‍⚖️  💭 Final thoughts: The game was a bit linear, leaving a few of us waiting on some bottle-necky puzzles, but it was good experience. At least for me, because I made a new friend.

Game 19 — Londium, Saga Escape Rooms

  • Game Info
    • 👥: 2 – 6 Players.
    • 🕒 Duration: 80 minutes.
    • 🎙️ Host: Alex
    • 😱 Myra: twice. Room is a little creepy with jump scares, but it’s not a horror room.
  • 🌃 Set: Wow. Simply Wow. This steampunk set was gorgeous. The level of detail was exquisite. Even turning a key felt glorious as the tumblers clacked into place. The amount of work that went into this is mind-boggling.
  • 🪜There is a part where people need to crawl.
  • 🧩 Puzzles: Standard.
    • There is one puzzle that requires a specific skill. 
      Spoiler on skill

      There is a music puzzle where you need to repeat back notes. This will take a musical person about 20 seconds to figure out (well, it took me that long because my memory sucks). If there is no one musical in your team, I can imagine this being frustrating.

      [collapse]
  • 🎬 Cinematic moments: There are a couple of minor ones.
  • 🧑‍⚖️  💭 Final thoughts:
    • The design in this game is detailed, large, and grandiose. This is for both the sets and the puzzles. They are larger than life, and the atmosphere is beautiful.
    • The beginning was cool and cinematic.
    • However, note I downplay the cinematic experiential bullet? There are a few wow moments, but remember the principle of compression and release I brought up in Taberna? There is none of that here. The most spectacular parts are at the beginning.
    • The same can be applied to the experiential arc. Normally, in well-designed TERPECA room, the highs and lows will slowly rise in the game until it culminates in a final climactic WOW moment. But this doesn’t happen in this game.
    • To belabour the point, imagine a Hitchcock film. He was the master of suspense, but this is because he knew how to manage the audiences emotions. The tension would slowly be drawn out, releasing at moments like an expert fisherman reeling in a catch, until the final climax and the audience is given the pay-off they’ve been craving for the whole film. Contrast that to Londium. There is tension and release, but then the fishing line is cut and you’re left with no fish, no bait, and your pants down. (I don’t know why you’re fishing with your pants down, but let that image dwell a bit.)
    • I’m sure this game will get a TERPECA due to its set alone and it is definitely a room you should check out. However, the experiential arc is lacking, and any gains it makes in the ranks will be due to newness and set junkies.

Day 6

Final day of escape rooms for us. Keren was feeling better so we did our normal bakery date.

You can read Manpans’ final blog update here.

Game 20 — Tao Room Escape – Japanese Massage Center, Virus Room Escape

  • Game info:
  • 🌃 Set: Pretty! Spacious room with a Japanese aesthetic (without rice paper).
  • 🧩 Puzzles: Standard and themed as you would expect.
    • There is a lot of activity that happens in this room, with cool implementations of physical activities.
  • 🧑‍⚖️  💭 Final thoughts: This was fun and had a novel theme.
    • Myra gave me her thoughts which were perfect: “This is a Japanese escape room designed by a weeb’s view of Japan.” If you don’t know what a weeb is, it should be safe enough to google. I hope. I didn’t test that. May the odds be ever in your favour.
    • Our host was high energy, and did an excellent job. She didn’t engage with me whatsoever though, no matter how much I tried to role-play with her. Maybe being in a kimono with no pants scared her off.
    • They give you socks. I loved the socks, but I missed being barefoot.

Game 21 — Poison, Kadabra Escape

  • Game info:
  • 🌃 Set: The initial room was the lobby, a bare and unimpressive room. However, it follows the compression and release principle very well, and we found the set pieces satisfying and impressive.
  • 🧩 Puzzles: Standard, but playful. There is one interaction I really enjoyed, and I wanted to do more of it. Fortunately, Israel let me continue my antics after the game. What a trooper!
  • 🧑‍⚖️  💭 Final thoughts: We enjoyed ourselves in this room. The puzzles and set pieces were big and bold, and there was a lot to do. The game was not linear, so we all felt involved.

Game 22 — Scoobik-Doo, Cubick Escape

  • Game info:
    • 👥: 2 – 8 Players.
    • 🕒 Duration: 80 minutes.
    • 🎙️ Host: David
  • 🌃 Set: The set reminded me of a cartoon haunted mansion brought into the real world. It was done very well.
  • 🧩 Puzzles: Standard. I did enjoy some themed puzzles based on Hanna-Barbera. There was a minor colour-identifying problem again. Spain really needs to fix that.
  • 🎭 Role-playing: I don’t think there was supposed to be role-playing in this game, but you do get to interact with the game host in a few places, and interact I did! Muahahahahaha! Fortunately, the game host dug right in and played along with me the whole time. He was great! There was a bottle-neck in the game, and that was me! Fortunately, there were chairs for my teammates to sit in. They’ve given up on me now.
  • 🧑‍⚖️  💭 Final thoughts: I know Manpans didn’t enjoy this game, but I found it fun. Yes, there was a lot of noise, but I wasn’t fazed by it.

Game 23 — Josep Fontcalda House Museum, 1801 Escape Room

There is only one bad thing about this game. And that is it’s not available anymore.

I am not going to do this game in point form. I am not going to talk about how hard it was to get here. I’m not going to give you any normal details about the puzzles.

All I want to say is this game was the best experience I had in Spain.

Now, I know I paint myself as utterly useless in the game, but that’s not entirely true. I mean, it’s mostly true, but not unequivocally true.

When I do an escape room, I don’t work on puzzles. I look around the room. I find things. I play with things I find. And if I happen to find a puzzle thing, I bring it over to the people who are working on puzzles.

I rarely work on the puzzles. Why?

Over the years, I’ve turned into a snobbish diva when it comes to puzzles. For the most part, they tend to be process puzzles which bore me.

“Oh. What’s this? Trial-and-error switches? Yay. HEY! Manpans. Do this. You love these things!”

Josep Fontcalda was different.

I started off as I normally do: searching. Whenever I found something, I realized it was a puzzle, and I solved it. And it led me somewhere else. Which was another puzzle, which I solved. Sometimes, it would give me an item, and I would give it to the people solving puzzles, and I’d continue my search. And I’d immediately find another puzzle, which I could solve.

Before I knew it, I was playing the room, solving puzzles, and enjoying it!

I realized each solve brought me the same delight I experienced with my first escape rooms.

Do you know how rare that is? Whenever it happens, it usually happens for one puzzle. But this happened throughout the room!

Where today’s escape rooms use puzzles only to gate your progress, Josep’s puzzles were meticulously crafted to evoke wonder. 

It was glorious.

Now, I know I’m an anomaly. The reveal of a new set piece does make me go wow, but it’s fleeting. A large set is not as spectacular in my eyes. I can appreciate the intense amount of work and effort that goes into them, but it isn’t the qualifier for a great room.

But Josep’s puzzles rekindled that joy of discovery.

I know it won’t be in the top 10 of TERPECA, but everything about this room was a delight. From the adorable TV with little doors to show you your time and hint system, to the finale ending where a recording of all the designers cheer your win and mechanical hands applaud your success.

Honestly, I cannot gush enough about this room. This room is the reason I play escape rooms. Kudos to Fortià and his team.

And thank you, Spain, for your escape room industry. It was amazing.