Unlike Day 3, we were not quite as packed in for Day 4, with many of the escapes having enough time between for transit travel. My feet were happy for it!

Tourist Trappings

Spain loves baguette sandwiches, and I love them for loving it. The style is so up my alley as well. There is meat. There is baguette. That is usually it. As a hater of cheese and mayo on sandwiches, there were SO MANY more sandwich options opened up to me here than in North America. I will miss it.

I got to try paella finally! We went to a fancier restaurant closer to the beach and got a family sized one served right at our table. I now need more paella in my life.

I also finally got the “aggressive tourist vendor” treatment with a man selling roses outside the restaurant. One of our group took one when he said “free” but then he gave her three to hand around to us and then said “money” so we just gave them back. Just don’t accept anything from anyone in the Barcelona tourist areas.

Part of me wonders why walking traffic signs are needed for such narrow lanes, but I am also sure that even in the 3 seconds it takes to cross people would get run down.

Local Trends

Not as many ladders today! But plenty of crawling.

Still lots of IPs in our escape room games, with just enough changed to not make it copyright infringement.

Spain also makes a lot of use of padlocks and letter locks, but weirdly I didn’t really feel the padlock fatigue. Maybe because they are paced out well. There is never any question about what code goes in which lock.

Puzzles in Spain also tend to veer on the easier side, which isn’t a bad thing but may be disappointing for puzzle focused enthusiasts.

I am finding Spain has a higher rate, though, of interesting mechanical/interactive moments in rooms, and today’s games were no exception.

Oh there is also a lot of “oh my gosh, you did a thing?! QUICK, RUN” moments toward the end of every escape we do. Occasionally, like with TV Studio, these feel shoehorned in.

Oh, and guns! Spanish rooms often seem to have guns! We always give them to Myra because she is the American. She resisted a little at first but has since embraced our stereotyping.

Elements Escape

Our first two rooms of the day were at Elements escape is related to City Escape.

Mutant X

Mutant X is exactly what it sounds like: an X-Men-esque theme where we, potential mutants, are captured to go through a de-mutanting process. Of course we want to avoid that and escape with our powers intact.

Each of us were given a role to play by our host, Pol. These provided some fun mechanics to play with throughout the game, although some ended up being more used than others. Errol, for example, very much enjoyed his role, while Myra had only one part where her power came into play, and we ended up using one of our other team for it.

Of the rooms we played today, this one seemed the most worn down, with some set pieces showing a bit of battle damage and a couple of wires which seemed damaged. Most everything seemed to work just fine.

The puzzles mostly made sense. We got stuck once or twice but a quick nudge had us on the right track (shocking no one, it was usually a searching challenge).

Exodus

Exodus is a post-apocalyptic themed game where we are essentially trapped in a bunker after society collapses. Not much more to the premise than that, but then it’s not really needed.

Exodus was actually a pleasant surprise for me. I didn’t realize it was a newer game, open just over a year! Where this game shines is in its environments. Having seen my fair share of post apocalyptic sets, I was pleased to see Exodus explore more environments than the standard “tin cans in shelves” motifs. It put me in mind of properties like The Last of Us. One in particular ignited all of my nostalgia.

There was also a twist I didn’t expect that was a pretty great wow moment. A small part of me wondered why it was there, but I also think I missed some of the narrative and even so, I was willing to suspend my disbelief for the enjoyment it brought.

The puzzles again were mostly task based, with a heavy emphasis on searching, so naturally we dragged our feet a bit finishing some things. It was fairly linear though and I felt that we had too many players for the tasks needed. A good chunk of the last half had a few of us waiting for others to finish the puzzle required.

This was thankfully made up for by the last part of the room, which had a fun group task that involved a lot of yelling and general chaos in the best way possible.

Pol was our game host again, and had more of a character to play this time, which he did so with enthusiasm. Errol spent approximately 65% of the room talking to him on the walkie. He took it all with good humour, and was good with helping us out when we floundered. Overall, a fun room I would recommend!

Enigmik Escape

Our next two escapes for the day brought us to Enigmik Escape, which is in central Barcelona. This made me happy because I did like walking down La Rambla again.

The NW6 Bunker

In NW6 Bunker, we had to sneak into a doctor’s bunker in order to steal and destroy a formula that…could destroy the world? The details are fuzzy, but I assume so.

To so, there was some light roleplaying we had to do, posing as electricians coming to fix the building. Our host, Olalla, greeted us with pretty much fluent English, the best we have heard since arriving in Spain!

Errol brought out “Manny”, the Filipino cleaner persona he first developed during the Netherlands escape trip. Unfortunately for him, and for us really, the role playing aspect was more for the pre-game and didn’t factor in once the game proper began. I would have liked to do more of it, but I guess it narratively gave us an excuse to play.

The actual game was pretty fun. This one was less linear than others, allowing us to work in tandem more and not just stand around waiting for others to finish. Lots of communication puzzle still but at the very least, not across a huge space.

The only sore point was one of the last puzzles, a timed sequence (my own personal nightmare) that involved a lot of running, shouting, and swearing due to having to complete tasks within 10 seconds. It was also dimly lit again, but it did not factor in too much, with spots of light appearing when it was necessary.

It was also the first escape room of the trip where a timer was actually displayed, which I am not used to in European rooms. Of course this meant my stress went up, which confirmed the less i know, the better.

Overall this was a solid and standard “stop the evil chemical thing from killing the world” game.

La Cerveceria (The Brewery)

The Brewery, a Terpeca winner, had us going for a beer tasting at a famous brewery. But the brewery owner had a surprise for us. Turns out he needed help to find a secret beer recipe lost to his family. We needed to help him, but if we didn’t find it in time, we would be trapped in the secret brewery forever…because…I guess we have to have stakes?

Unnecessary stakes aside, though, the Brewery is delightful and a unique theme I welcomed. Our host, Raquel, was super friendly and the intro video was pitch perfect in its tone (loved the actor they got to play the brewer).

The set in The Brewery was impressive. It made me want to get my brother, who used to own a brewery to to play. There was a big central area where it was clear the answers to our puzzles would eventually go, as well as a clever track to show our progress while still being consistent with the world.

The tech used within the set had great feedback as well. I was never unsure of when I had solved a puzzle. Each of us were given a role again, however this time, they actually did factor heavily into the game, with some puzzles only bring solvable if the person with the right role was there. I felt this was an improvement from NW6, as it allowed everyone to be involved and was in theme.

Speaking of, the puzzles mostly involved searching, tasks, and a couple of light “ahas”. They all fit the theme well and made sense within the world. Any frustration on my part was only due to the shenanigans of our team and not the puzzle itself. They were somewhat non-linear but, as I mentioned before, there was a specific progression of events we needed to do.

Best of all, I learned it was based on an actual brewery in Barcelona!!! I am a sucker for themes that use local landmarks and history.

And yes, you get to drink beer at the end (if you include it in your price). It was a welcome.end to the day. Trolling from Errol about my alcohol imbibing ensured.