Polish title: Pogrzeb Arystokraty
Location: Wroclaw, Poland
Date played: October 26, 2017
Team size: 2-5; we recommend 3-5
Duration: 90 minutes
Price: 160 złoty per group (approximately $45)
Funeral of Aristocrat is only available in Polish. Critical puzzles required fluent Polish.
Story & setting
Funeral of Aristocrat was the middle segment of an escape room trilogy. We were at a funeral… and beyond that I’m not really sure what was happening. Part of this may have been because I only experienced the middle chapter. A lot of it was because I don’t understand Polish. It didn’t matter; Funeral of Aristocrat was fun.
Funeral of Aristocrat took place in an elegant, wood-adorned funeral parlor. This was a beautiful place to puzzle.
Puzzles
Funeral of Aristocrat was a truly challenging and enjoyable puzzle game with a broad range of puzzle types. This escape room hosted the semi-final of the 2017 Polish Escape Room Championship and it was appropriately difficult.
There were a few puzzles that required speed or dexterity. These could potentially stop a team from advancing, so come prepared to work through them.
Standouts
The set looked great.
Funeral of Aristocrat used technology to present challenging, interesting, and unusual puzzles.
There was a sequence of puzzles in the second half of the escape room that I absolutely loved. The interactions felt so satisfying.
There was a fantastic and somewhat crazy late-game moment.
Shortcomings
Prior to the game beginning, one player volunteered for a mystery mission. That player really needed to listen carefully to instructions. If they don’t, they could hurt themselves doing something that is really cool… that you likely won’t see in the United States.
One of the tech puzzles that appeared early in the escape room seemed out of place in the environment.
There were one or two brutally challenging process puzzles that hints could not really assist with. You simply have to do them. I can imagine teams burning a significant amount of time on both. Luckily they were presented at the same time.
We didn’t know when the game had ended. We had won, but we didn’t realize it. This wasn’t just me. My teammates who spoke Polish were equally unaware.
Should I play Brain Code’s Funeral of Aristocrat?
Funeral of Aristocrat was a fantastic escape room filled with challenging puzzles and elegant set design. The physical interactions were the highlight. One such interaction would be unlikely in an escape room North America.
I highly recommend visiting Brain Code and playing Funeral of Aristocrat if you have some experience playing escape rooms. It’s smart, different, and refreshing. If you have limited escape room experience, however, I recommend that you play something easier and more typical.
If you’re a tourist, know that you must have a player who reads Polish fluently. There were puzzles that were written in the Polish equivalent of old English. You won’t be able to interpret them with only minimal grasp of Polish.
Book your game with Brain Code’s Funeral of Aristocrat, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.
