São Paulo, Dec 2023
Squeezing in a quick extra game before we left São Paulo, we booked into the hardest room at 60 Minutos at short notice. Most heist games involve breaking into a vault; in this one you’re trying to break out, though preferably still with the money.
Only a minority of Brazilian rooms are playable in English, and those that are may not be completely translated. This one had a couple of bits of Portuguese that gave instructions for handling locks and so were inessential, plus one puzzle where the answer needed some basic Portuguese vocabulary – though our host would likely have helped via the walkie talkie if we’d not been able to understand there.
This company, and this game, has been around for the better part of a decade, and I found it actually quite nostalgic. That doesn’t mean it was purely manual, though it primarily uses padlock codes and the largest piece of tech struggled rather due to a dodgy electric connection.
It felt designed with the energy and enthusiasm of early escape rooms. That has its downside: there are some ideas that the industry has learned not to do, such as pen and paper style puzzles, or blurring the line between what’s part of the game and what’s important safety equipment. The upside is some admirable creativity in the puzzle ideas, added in without being constrained by theme.
The result was a very mixed game, literally. Parts were frustrating or a bit unclear. Other parts were clever and fun. It felt both old fashioned and fresh, entertaining but with a great many rough edges. It would be easy to find it underwhelming and disjointed. Viewed more indulgently, there’s a cool old-style puzzle-led escape room here to enjoy. 
