Polish title: Tożsamość
Location: Wroclaw, Poland
Date played: October 27, 2017
Team size: 2-5; we recommend 3
Duration: 60 minutes
Price: 120 złoty per group (approximately $34)
Story & setting
In a near future dystopia, war and plague have consumed the city. We had to free our team captain and radio our unit to confirm our identities and location. If not, nobody would ever come to our rescue.
Identity was a technology-driven escape room with a detailed and carefully designed militaristic set.
Puzzles
All of the puzzling in Identity was built around technological interaction and reveals. Consequently, much of the game revolved around manipulating the set. The serious puzzling arrived late-game.
Standouts
The enjoyable sequence of late-game puzzles fostered teamwork.
The set looked better than most of those I saw in Wroclaw.
The technology worked well; there were some entertaining interactions.
Shortcomings
All but one player was essentially helpless during the opening puzzle. Everyone was restrained and no one knew what we had to do to solve the first puzzle. There weren’t any clues other than finding the correct interaction and doing it. This meant that the first puzzle was entirely reliant upon one player finding the correct thing to do. If that player couldn’t accomplish it, everyone else had to wait.
Cluing was a big challenge in Identity. This extended beyond that first puzzle. Too often we simply had to search every detail of the set in hopes of finding an interaction. Once we triggered an interaction, we frequently didn’t know what it had unlocked or why.
Should I play Exit19pl’s Identity?
Without having seen Exit19pl’s other games, it seemed to me that Identity was an experiment in technology. In doing so, they created some cool interactions, but these were largely unclued. Their focus appeared to be elsewhere. Far too many of the puzzles and solutions seemed random.
Over the course of the game Identity built momentum and finished strongly. In spite of some early frustrations, I was glad to have played this escape room.
If you’re looking for a technology-driven escape room in Wroclaw, this was by far the most techy escape room that I played in the city.
Book your hour with Exit19pl’s Identity, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.
