Budapest Escape Room Weekend

Pictured above: Our celebratory photo after the Pirate Cave room

This past weekend three of us traveled from Kyiv, Ukraine, for a long weekend of escape questing in Budapest, Hungary. There is a bit of a debate about whether the origin of the escape room is Budapest or Japan, but regardless there is definitely a well-developed escape room culture in the former. 

First of all, a shout out to our blogger predecessors, The Logic Escapes Me, whose impressions and reviews we used to plan our weekend. You'll find below our own impressions of the 9 rooms we were able to fit in during our 2 days in Budapest. 

Rating system: Fun (F), Difficulty (D), and Puzzles (P) from 1-5

1. Gozsdu Mission is the company that gave us the idea of coming to Budapest for a long weekend of escape questing. Ever since we got into the escape room scene we had been reading about their White Mission and how escape questers travel to do this one room. This room is described as literally just a white room with the exit key hanging in the middle on a string too short to reach the door. Obviously your task is to solve all of the puzzles to unlock the lock holding the key and escape. They give you 90 minutes for this room, but we couldn't figure out why... or maybe we're just that good. We were out in 57 minutes, and that would have easily been 47 if we hadn't gotten set back on a simple box that we had a key for and never bothered to open. The puzzles were mostly logic and math based but the room was clearly dated, with mostly padlock, code, and blacklight delivery. Our thoughts? It did not live up to expectations. It was really just a room with puzzles and no decoration, which for some reason was its draw. 
   
   We also completed the Maffia Mission by Gozsdu on this trip, and Rex and I completed the Prison Mission on a trip 3 years ago. Although neither was terrible, they were letdowns compared with where escape rooms have gone in the next generation of puzzles and concepts. If you're headed to Budapest with escape rooms in mind, give Gozsdu a miss. There are much better rooms to be found. A plus for White and Maffia Mission rooms is that they are non-linear, so our group of 3 could branch out and work on different puzzles without having to wait on each other too much before moving on. 
   
   White Mission: F=3, D=3, P=4
   Maffia Mission: F=2, D=2, P=3
   Prison Mission: F=2, D=2, P=3
   
   
2. LogIQ Rooms had a room called Napuche that we enjoyed for its immersion factor. The theme was based around the Mayan sun god whom had been angered by a botched ritual and we had to complete the ritual properly to "restore order to the world." There were some unique and fun logic puzzles that also required a bit of hide-and-seek and observation in order to solve. We liked that it was another non-linear room, and after this weekend definitely think that non-linear is the way to go with escape room design. We didn't feel like we were ever really stuck on anything for too long, although there were at least two points during the game where the game master gave unprompted hints as the way to activate certain triggers was not clearly obvious. Apparently this room has been franchised out to Las Vegas and Paris, so it definitely has a following. It was good, but not our favorite. We made it out in 47 minutes.
   
   Napuche Ratings: F=4, D=3, P=4
   
   
3. Mystique has a room called Time Machine (Steampunk) which actually kicked off our weekend on the very first evening. In the waiting room the game master told us that it is one of the top 5 most difficult rooms in Budapest, which may have either psyched us out or primed us to work fast and efficiently once we got into the room. Regardless, we came out swinging and took complete charge of the room, needing only one hint the entire time due to having repeatedly overlooked a hidden clue. This room started off with some hide-and-seek puzzles quickly followed by logic and math. A nice mechanical puzzle moved us forward to the next room where the "time machine" was found that we had to activate. Another non-linear type of room where each of us could go our separate way to try and activate all four cylinders of the time machine and get it working. We escaped in 55 minutes and felt that was a pretty good time! As the ratings below reflect, we didn't find the room to actually be difficult at all, but there were a LOT of puzzles to solve! A very well-decorated and immersive room to keep a team consistently busy.
   
   Time Machine Ratings: F=5, D=3, P=4
   
   
4. Pirate Cave was a thoroughly enjoyable quest that started us off on the morning of our very full Sunday. This room started off with you locked in a jail and having to use a pulley system to magnetically get the key and bring it back. It followed up with a number of puzzles utilizing objects you might imagine a pirate using, from spy glasses to compasses. There was even a waterfall and literal cave into which you sailed on a raft! We loved the absolute immersion of this setting and the fun factor was one of the highest we've experienced. A first for us in this game was the hint system, which involved a "spirit trapped in a crystal ball" that would talk to you in lieu of the game master. We really liked this system and found it to be extremely helpful to keep you focused on the theme. The puzzles were not super challenging, but it was so much fun! We escaped in 49 minutes, but it should have been quicker as we again overlooked something very obvious. 
   
   Pirate Cave ratings: F=5+, D=2, P=3


5. Enigma Mission was another first for us, as this escape quest encompassed multiple floors of a building! This room required lots of teamwork, but definitely utilized lots of written out clues posted on the walls and hidden in drawers and such. The concept of having to go back and forth between the rooms to solve some puzzles was unique and really fun, and I think we counted 5 full sized rooms (with a couple of additional closet-sized rooms) that we had to open and solve in order to "steal the enigma" and make it out without being captured. The ending of this room was also something to remember... but we won't spoil that for you! We were given 90 minutes to make it through this room but escaped in 59! At this point, we were really excited to be sticking to our team name we'd come up with of "Under 60" referring to the time we should aim to beat for each room, of course.
   
   Enigma Ratings: F=5, D=3, P=5
   
   
6. E-Exit Rooms gave us two doses of entertainment with their Heaven and Hell and then the Santa Muerte rooms. These were probably the only two rooms that we came out of exhausted! We worked hard to get through these rooms and are happy to report that we made it out of both in time, although just barely for the Santa Muerte one (59.5 minutes).
   
   Heaven and Hell was a unique concept in that there were two very different and immersive themes taking place within the quest. The object of the game was that you had died but were given 60 minutes to use the defibrillator to revive yourself or else you would stay in either heaven or hell forever. Some really neat effects in this rooms made it a whole lot of fun. As always, we let a key sit around unused for way too long and barely made it out in time.
   
   The Santa Muerte room was very colorful with a more dream-like theme. You walk into the second room and there are puzzles everywhere. This was another game that gave hints through a book that you carried with you, the Book of Life. I definitely prefer this method of giving hints to the sound of the game master's voice breaking the mood of the room! A challenging room but we made it out and the exit was another good one! 
   
   I would highly recommend these two rooms by E-Exit, especially if you want to do two rooms with one company. These were both a lot of fun and a lot of good challenging mental work, with rewarding endings. 
   
   Heaven and Hell: F=5, D=4, P=5
   Santa Muerte: F=5, D=4, P=4
   
   
7. Trap is a company known for franchising rooms around the world. Rex had done the Egyptian room on a previous visit and says it wasn't memorable, but they had opened a new room called Anachronistica that is supposed to be highly technological and we were looking forward to experiencing it! Unfortunately, we received an email a few hours before our scheduled time stating that the room was under maintenance. We rebooked to do the Game of Thrones room which is their Medieval room with some tweaks to make it more gimmicky. We've read a couple of review on the Medieval room with people stating that they really liked walking into the room and seeing all of the very physical puzzles laid out right in front of you. For me, this was actually a bit of a turnoff and destroyed the immersion factor of the room for me. During our quest there were at least 2 puzzles that didn't trigger like they should have, and I really just found that the room wasn't to my liking. We made it out in 55 minutes, but only 5 of those were spent in the second room. Overall we wouldn't recommend Game of Thrones and wish that we could have done the Anachronistica as planned. 
   
   Game of Thrones ratings: F=2, D=3, P=2

Photos clockwise from top left: Santa Muerte, Enigma, Napuche, White Mission

We hope that someone can find our experiences to be helpful in planning their own escape room getaway in Budapest! There are some great rooms, but we still have yet to find the perfect blend of immersion, puzzles, and fun. If you're looking for another great destination for an escape room weekend, check out my post on Kyiv, Ukraine, and the wonderful undiscovered world of escape rooms that Ukrainians have to offer!
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Pictured above: E-Exit Heaven and Hell