Room Escape Artist

District 111 is one of the best escape rooms in Barcelona. Here are our recommendations for other great escape rooms in Barcelona, Spain.

Smashing

Location:  Barcelona, Spain

Date Played: April 20, 2024

Team size: 2-7; we recommend 4-5

Duration: 90 minutes

Price: from €38 per player for teams of 2 to €21 per player for teams of 7

Ticketing: Private

Accessibility Consideration:  This game includes climbing ladders and crawling.

Mess Meter:  🧹🧹🧹 (out of 5)

Emergency Exit Rating: [F] No Emergency Exit

Physical Restraints: [A+] No Physical Restraints

For more on our trip to Spain, here’s our field report.

REA Reaction

We played District 111 on our first day in Barcelona, and it gave us a feel for the Spanish escape room style that we would experience throughout the trip.

District 111 had an approachable cold start, a gorgeous set, and creative, environmental puzzles. It required us to move our bodies and fully explore the space. Furthermore, as the game progressed, it escalated in scale and intensity. In this way, it set the tone for our week playing escape rooms in Spain.

It wasn’t going to be the most intense, most epic, or most unusual game we’d play over the course of the week, but it pushed at all those boundaries in a really good way. We can see how this game likely inspired many of newer Spanish escape rooms.

The main problem with District 111 was that it felt old and under-maintained. I don’t know when this game opened, but it felt tired and worn. One segment was so poorly maintained as to have become misleading cluing. It was also pretty dirty. Furthermore, there was a sloppiness to the execution of little details, for example, in transitions, that had a negative impact on the otherwise impressive world-building.

We enjoyed District 111, although not as much as we probably could have. We continue to recommend it to (a) folks looking for a great game in close proximity to central Barcelona and (b) escape room tourists as a first stop on what will be a stacked itinerary of the best Spanish escape rooms. If you fit into either of those groups, District 111 would be a great choice for you.

Who is this for?

• Adventure seekers
• Puzzle lovers
• Scenery snobs
• GENRE fans (i.e. Sci-fi, horror)
• Best for players with at least some experience

Why play?

• Novel, environmental puzzles
• Impressive set with a wonderful door

Story

In a post-apocalyptic world where everyone is struggling for survival and resources, we were inhabitants of a city divided into two factions: the ruling Federation, and the rebellious Fireflies. We had to venture into Firefly controlled territory and complete a secret mission.

Setting

District 111 began in a small bunker. From there we infiltrated the enemy territory. The set was much larger than it initially appeared, with some impressive doors and large, detailed set pieces. It was appropriately weathered and post-apocalyptic.

The world had a physical depth to it that continued to surprise.

Gameplay

Unreal Room Escape’s District 111 was a standard escape room with a moderate level of difficulty.

Core gameplay revolved around observing, making connections, and solving puzzles. Some of these were standard escape room fare and others were more environmental and situational.

Analysis

➕ The set was well constructed and established the post apocalyptic world. It was gritty, but also beautiful. Furthermore, it was a world that people had lived in. We loved the mid-game reveal of such a specific establishment, which made the world authentic. A cut above.

➕ We love a beautiful vault door. In this regard, District 111 really impressed.

➕ The unusual puzzles were a highlight of District 111. In almost every scene, there was a nifty puzzle implementation that took a known concept and twisted it just a little bit.

➕ The gameplay was exceptionally environmental. Everything was in play, from floor to ceiling. In some instances we had to physically maneuver. In others, we had to understand the environment and solve our way through it.

➖ District 111 was well worn when we played it in 2024. The padding for the crawls had worn away. Some of the set construction had born the brunt of many, many teams. And it was dusty. We emerged pretty dirty.

➕District 111 incorporated some really fun destructible interactions, which did their part to make this world come alive.

➖ Wear rendered one sequence hugely problematic. We had just received a tool that could cause destruction, and lighting pointed us toward a marking on the set… which covered a damaged area. It seemed like the game wanted us to further amplify this destruction, when in fact, the damage was the result of many previous teams misunderstanding the cluing. The game wanted us to destroy somewhere else. After the game, our gamemaster was pretty upset over our actions here, which felt bad. This was a problem of poor maintenance and unclear cluing, not player action.

➕ Unreal Room Escape upped the intensity in the final act of District 111. The game taunted us with a scene that we could see from early on, but wouldn’t access until later. Once we solved that scene, the finale escalated further, with a race against the clock.

➖ The finale was a bit confusing, story-wise. From a gameplay perspective, we understood our goal, but from a narrative perspective, we were a little lost in the good guys or bad guys department.

➖  A couple of inelegant space transitions marred a few later sequences. In one case, we could hear the gamemaster transitioning a set for the next scene, just behind a closed door. In another instance, we opened a door to the game’s bathroom. It was just a bathroom (which was totally cool!) but it was also storing the thematic props for the post-game photo, which confused us as to whether the bathroom was somehow in play. 

➕ We struggled with some of the cold starts we encountered in Spain, but in District 111 it worked well. We had time to put our belongings down and get out bearings before the action started. The reveal of the world was a bit of slow build too, which added intensity.

Tips For Visiting

• This game is located in the San Marti neighborhood of Barcelona. Parking is likely challenging.
• They can give clues in Spanish, Catalan, or English.

Book your session with Unreal Room Escape’s District 111, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.