Escape Venice ASD-APS - Escape Room Venezia — Local services in Venice

During a short weekend trip to Venice, I booked to play at the only escape room in the historic city of Venice. They offer a few outdoor experiences, and two indoor escape rooms. We decided on The Merchant of Venice, which is on the more difficult side and, according to the company, has a 20% success rate. The Venue is super central and next to a little square with several restaurants, quite easy to find. But there is no entry room or anything, basically the front door is the door to the escape room, so they do the whole induction briefing outside and then usher you into a dark room, where there is a short video message explaining the scenario and putting you in the spirit. Once the light comes back on, it's off to the races! I attended with a team of only two people, this room is definitely more suited for larger team, there is SO MUCH to do. However, there is a bit of a caveat. I've played over 80 escape rooms at this point, and there are so many different approaches to them and it really depends on what you like in a room. This one is not a narrative driven, fully immersive room. It's basically a series of locks, with unconnected puzzles that get you keys or codes to open those locks, and more clues and props to solve more puzzles to open more locks. Personally, I quite enjoy this type of room, probably more than the average escape room enthusiast. I like having a puzzle at a time to focus on, while other players can try to solve other puzzles. And once you're done with a box or drawer or cupboard, you can shove the materials aside and move on to the next one. While a fully immersive experience with story-driven challenges and non-padlock mechanics is amazing, I also really enjoyed this lock-riddled puzzle room. We didn't get stuck on anything, though we did ask for a few hints here and there, and we didn't stand still for a second, rushing from puzzle to puzzle and challenge to challenge. Unfortunately there's only one room (with a few cupboards, but no side rooms) to discover, but it's packed with things to tackle. Most of the puzzles are quite logical and well labelled, making it easy to figure out which lock goes with which props, there was only one puzzle that had us stumped, and it was a visual one that relied on counting items, without it being clear what was being counted or what the number was then used for. We got it eventually, but did need some help with this. There was no communication system with the games host, but they can hear you and then write customised clues onto the screen in the room, which works quite well. We did finish the room with seven and a half minutes to spare, which was very exciting, and did feel a sense of accomplishment. So while it's not a high-tech room, it's a great challenge and fun to play. Most props were related to Venice and its history, so that was a good bonus, though I would have loved a more immersive use of the story in the title of the room. Overall, a fun room if you like padlocks and industrious puzzle solving. If you're expecting high tech immersion and detailed storytelling, maybe steer clear and find a different...

SPOILER ALERT

Me and my friends were on a trip to Venice and decided to give some escape room here a try. We chose "Venice under attack" and this was a disaster. We are really well experienced with escape rooms and we know what to excpect from such an entertnainment.

First impression:

Escape room employee instructed us to wait outside by the door. After a while she called us by the speaker. As we entered the room, a short plot film was played and... the game has starded. No introduction, no briefing, nothing. There was no place to leave our personal stuff, we couldn't even use a toilet before the game.

The room:

All the game was 1 small room. We needed to solve mostly combination and key locks. Puzzles were frustrating and unbalanced (some of clues were trivial and some had no sense or even were incomplete so we had to improvise).

The game:

For the whole game the screen was showing us tips and informations no matter if we needed them or not (usually players have an option to ask for help). Also there were some clues translated into other languages. Unfortunately - not every clue (some of them were just italian which was obstructing sometimes.

Summary:

This room is for sure outdated and represents the old school of first escape rooms - there is nothing to do but looking for a digit codes and hidden keys, maybe eventually push some buttons. The whole attraction costs €75. So far it was the most expensive, the smallest the shortest and for sure the worst escape room I've ever...

Had a rain day during our Venice vacation, so we decided to seize the opportunity and try out the Merchant of Venice Room. And what can I say, it was a really well-made decision. We were three people and never able to catch our breath, there was just always something to do. The riddles were lots of fun and creative, we really enjoyed our stay. What you probably should know is that there is almost no introduction, you are led into the room and off you go, which might be problematic if you haven't done some escape rooms before. For us however it was really cool, got your adrenaline up right from the beginning. You should also be aware that there are in fact many number locks. They are implemented in various and creative ways, so we really enjoyed them, but if you are very focused on puzzles being inbuilt into the story you might be wary. The room is for 2-6 players if I recall correctly and I would say, 3-4 is probably ideal. As I said, we were very busy and never bored for even a second, so if you find yourself looking for an indoor activity in Venice, give it a try. Had it not been for the weather we really would have like to do the outdoor templar version, which sound incredibly interesting and fun, so maybe we will come back for it...