Quito, Jun 2025
After a great many companies in South America that offered games in Spanish only, or where the English language option was provided very imperfectly, it was a refreshing change to find that The Key has full support for running their rooms in English. That appears to be the case for some of the other escape venues in the city; but although there was no language barrier here, the game play didn’t leave us feeling like trying others.
We chose The Dragon’s Rescue mostly at random, and the story summary made clear it was themed after Game of Thrones, with the goal being to recover a dragon egg. The majority of the game consisted of a linear series of puzzles, each independent of the other but each styled for the setting. We were given an allowance of three hints, provided via a screen.
I would be giving this game a higher rating it it had been less dark, or if they had provided a second torch. Not a high rating, but certainly a better one. The lack of light was a constant background frustration, but was made worse by the degree to which this game involved searching; and the searching might have been okay if we hadn’t been doing it in the dark.
There were some nice touches in the decor, particularly near the end, though by that point we weren’t really in the mood to appreciate them. It’s not that it was flamboyantly dreadful in an interesting way; it was simply a lowish budget room with little to make it stand out, and enough moments of shaky design to make us question why we were playing it. 
