Locked Room: Bunker Heist

Locked Room Budapest- Bunker Heist

October 2023

Overview 

We ventured back to Locked for our 5th and final game in Budapest and I wish I could say that we saved the best till last but unfortunately it was probably the worst room we did on our trip. The reception area was large enough for groups to sit and chat whilst waiting for their game and one of the team was very excited with the free hot beverages as well. The staff were extremely friendly and welcoming, asking for our advice on escape rooms back home.

Room impression

We entered a small corridor set inside a futuristic bunker for our brief on the security TV. It was quite a simple concept and as the game progressed it did open out into a submarine based bunker with a lot of technical elements and a lot of clever decoration. As experienced with every other room we encountered in Budapest, it was really well designed and a lot of thought had gone into the flow of the room and the concept. It was very immersive even though we really did struggle with the game.

Puzzles

No padlocks in this game, a lot of puzzle solving with hidden codes was the main concept of Bunker. The game wasn’t that linear, however, with a team of 4 of us there wasn’t that much for all of us to do. A lot of time one of us was stood around twiddling our thumbs whilst the others attempted to crack on. For some reason we just didn’t click with this room and we asked for a number of clues to get us through it. This room is certainly for the more experienced groups than novices. 

Game Master Clues

There was the TV screen at the beginning of the game in the corridor which had a timer on it and where the hints would be shown each time we asked. The game master, we found, wasn’t that helpful in giving us a nudge when we were struggling and appeared to leave it until we asked when we ran out of steam before giving us a clue. This just frustrated us even further as we couldn’t get a flow of the game and it was very stop start.

Round Up

For whatever reason, this room just didn’t fit with us as a team. You can tell a lot of effort had been put into the design and the puzzles and this shouldn’t be taken away from the room, even though it just wasn’t for us. Wether is doing 5 rooms in 2 days had taken it out of us or not, we don’t know. We felt as if we has to ask for a lot of clues, probably the most we’ve had to ask for in all of the 40 odd rooms we have done and for this reason it was really stop start. Locked do some very good rooms and this may well be one of them for others giving it a go but you might struggle if you aren’t used to escape rooms.