Huxley

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EXIT Live Adventures is located in Berlin Mitte in the vicinity of Alexanderplatz. You can conveniently reach it via U- and S-Bahn (Klosterstraße or Jannowitzbrücke) and the building is easy to spot. Once you enter you find yourself in an old DDR-bunker where everything is decorated accordingly with camouflage nets, sandbags etc. and a spacious waiting area. There are several lockers to put your stuff in so you don’t have to carry anything with you while you play. The staff at the front desk was super friendly and, since this was a virtual escape room, explained to us how VR works and that this company developed the VR technology they use in house which is really impressive! There also was a VR headset to try on in the waiting area, so you could get a first impression of what to expect. Obviously, this escape room company is a big franchise with escape rooms all over the world, which was also evidenced by a wall covered with the names of big companies that have played escape rooms here for team building events.

Our gamemaster (super friendly guy as well) brought us to the “escape room” which was actually just a room with concrete walls and some VR equipment hanging on one side. Everybody gets to wear a backpack with the computer in it that generates the virtual world, and a pair of VR goggles that include a microphone, headphones, and a pair of “hands” so you are able to touch and grab things throughout the game. All of the VR equipment was wireless and also its weight was fine. Our team was divided onto different (real) rooms, so there would never be more than two people in one room. This is done to prevent you from hitting your team mates or bumping into each other all the time while playing.

Once you are set with the equipment the virtual escape room HUXLEY takes you to 3007 AD: “The world, as you know it, is gone. Mankind has been replaced by machines. What once was green, is now destroyed. You are the last, remaining survivors, with one mission: help HUXLEY.” There is no oxygen left on earth and your oxygen tank will run out in 44 minutes. That’s how long you have to save the world. Everyone gets to choose an avatar so you can distinguish your team mates from one another. Beware that the clock is already ticking here and choose your avatars quickly.

The virtual room was well designed, very realistic and consistent with the story. The graphics were great and are comparable to current video games. The VR room worked with different levels and we could be moved around, either by transportation or beaming. At times the virtual room seemed a little small though (although the size of the actual room was about 20 m²) leading us to bump into each other several times.

Except for these incidents and some glitches (only for a second especially when we were being moved or a new setting unfolded) the VR provided a great immersive experience. The setting was very realistic and running out of oxygen in 44 minutes gave us a good reason for having a time limit. It was fun to explore the virtual world and it felt like actually being a part of it. The puzzles were different than in real life escape rooms and a lot of them required “doing things”. The VR was well exploited to implement puzzles beyond the possibilities given in a real life escape room (sorry I can’t go into detail here, but I don’t want to spoil anything) which also helped with feeling immersed. In general, the puzzles were rather easy. Some of them required real team work, which was fun, while others were kind of sequential leaving no room for scavenging or piling up puzzle pieces for later use.

We also want to mention that when playing this game with more than four people you’ll get divided into two teams playing in battle game mode. Both teams play on their own seeing the exact same things as if it was only one team. I guess in the end they just compare which team was faster. So if you want to play with seven of your friends beware that in this VR escape room you can’t actually play together as a team of eight.

Overall, we really enjoyed this virtual escape room. It was like playing a really good video game only that now you can be part of it. It’s obvious that EXIT put a lot of thought and attention to detail into this escape room. However, the puzzles are rather simple and there is not a lot of scavenging involved like in real life escape rooms. We feel like this room is great for beginners giving you the opportunity to combine VR with an escape room experience at the same time.