Belgrade, Mar 2020
Having started out as a single game venue, The Witch Escape Room renamed to Belgrade Escape Rooms when they added their Aladdin game. While it is of course a less creepy theme than their other, this room is not entirely cuddly – it seems inspired by a more traditional version of the Arabian Nights than the Disney one.
As with all the games I played in Belgrade, story was handled only briefly in the pre-game briefing. However, I thought this company was stronger on story that most – not in terms of explicit narrative but by giving a sense of progression and of achieving tasks related to the theme. Like their other room, Aladdin took us through a journey rather than simply giving us a room full of puzzles to solve; and I thought it did so with added polish and sophistication.
This included a particular time-consuming puzzle that some teams might find unpleasantly laborious, but for me was a highlight. It was aesthetically pleasing, provided a key part of the narrative, and had a nice way of resolving to a code (albeit with a small ambiguity). The rest of the content showed similarly solid puzzle design, though (in common with pretty much all the games we tried in Belgrade) you should expect plenty of modern-looking padlocks and a greater emphasis on searching than is now normal for U.K. escape
rooms.
rooms.
Unlike their other game, Aladdin was strictly linear and so well suited to a small team; playing as a pair worked well. It was pretty, varied and thoroughly enjoyable; if you’re doing a trawl of Belgrade’s escape rooms, this one is worth including. 
