In April 2017 and October 2018, I visited Prague and played a few (OK, 38) escape games based on a combination of TripAdvisor reviews, recommendations on the Escape Room Enthusiasts’ Facebook Group and information on Solve Prague (also good for discounts in the less popular venues!). If you’re heading out to the Czech capital and want to play a game (or lots!), then hopefully this series of posts will give you a leg-up on the research.
We visited games across 15 different companies: The Chamber, Runaway, Questerland, EscapeX, Mind Maze, Locked In Prague, Chess Key Room, The Padlock, Door Z, Endorfin, Riddle Twist, Elixir Mystery, EscapeTheRoom.cz, Coderoom and Getaway. We played at pretty much all the venues we’d have liked except Reactor Escape, which we’d heard good things about but couldn’t fit into the schedule. We didn’t play at TRAP because we’ve played their games elsewhere (Blackpool, UK and Budapest), but I’ve added a few words at the end of this article for completeness. This Google map may help with locations – it has most of the escape rooms below marked on (including the individual sites in the case of companies with more than one site, which is important for the Chamber and Runaway), plus a couple of others which might be interesting.
Too Long; Didn’t Read? In summary: The Chamber was the best company. Play Poltergeist, if you can cope with very scary rooms, Medieval Dungeon and Haunted House if you don’t mind something on the scary side, or Hacker’s Nest and The Emperor’s Secret if you do. Questerland is a good option for multiple games too – Zombie Apocalypse was easy and linear but very logical and flowed well, while their other three games were also good quality and all four are beautiful. EscapeX: Dream Extractors and the Padlock‘s 99-minute Mission 53 are two interesting rooms with stunning sets.
Other good games: Xaverius at Riddle Twist, Chess Key and the other game at the Padlock: Cemetery. If you want something a bit different, then I’d recommend Endorfin‘s single player game, The Morgue, or Decrypt‘s The Red Room, which you have to watch the video to believe!
Other general points: English speakers won’t have a problem for any of the games we played. Some were language-agnostic but most had good English translations that didn’t cause us any issues. The only language barrier for us was when asking for hints but, even then, with a couple of clarifications, we’d get the message relatively quickly. Their English was certainly a lot better than my Czech. The biggest general point was that, in Prague, clues are things you ask for. They were very rarely given to you and, even then, we were always asked if we wanted them or not. I found that very hard to handle because the difficulty of rooms varied massively – so, for example, in one game we asked for around five clues because we felt we were well behind time but then escaped with almost a third of our time remaining.
If you want the in-depth articles, they’re here:
- The Chamber and my second visit (six games)
- MindMaze: Galactic Pioneers (one game)
- Runaway (six games)
- Riddle Twist (one game)
- Questerland and my second visit (four games)
- Decrypt.cz (one game)
- EscapeX, Chess Key Room and the Padlock and my return visit to the Padlock (four games)
- Elixir Mystery (one game)
- Mind Maze and Door Z (five games)
- EscapeTheRoom.cz (two games)
- Endorfin (two games)
- Locked In Prague, Getaway (three games)
- Coderoom (two games)
The ones we’ll do next time…
I’m going to head back to Prague at some point so, here’s my list of games that will be on the playlist!
- Based on recommendations
- The Chamber’s new experiences Opus Magnum and Wonderland
- Nautilus from MindMaze
- Reactor Escape
- Based on previous experiences
- Endorfin (Star Wars, Titanic)
- Magic Escape Room 2 and Moriarty’s Phantom Trap from Questerlands
The ones we’d already done…
As mentioned above, we’d already played both the TRAP games available in Prague so didn’t visit their venue, but we would definitely have done so otherwise. Each city has the game customised to fit the space and with some modifications, so we can’t be certain of the quality. If Blackpool’s games are anything to go by, then they’d rate at around 4 stars. Follow these links to read the UK reviews of the Bomb and Secret of the Tomb.
That’s all, folks
I hope you found this write-up useful. If you did, then please let me know via email, and that will encourage me to write more in future. If you’ve got opinions on the above or, equally, if you’ve found some other gems that people should take a look at, do drop a comment below.
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Hi,I am just wondering why you didn ´t visit any of our games while being in Prague.Is it because you didn ´ t know about us or is there some other reason? Thank you for your answer, Zuzana,PUZZLE ROOM
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Hi Zuzana. We obviously couldn’t visit *all* the rooms in Prague so we had to reduce to a manageable list. We were aware of your company but you weren’t specifically recommended by anyone and the 4.5 average TripAdvisor review meant you didn’t make it to our final list. Sorry – I realise that it’s a bit arbitrary but we had to be – we didn’t have enough time to visit as many games as we’d have liked.
Ken
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Hi Ken, thank you for your reply! Zuzana
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Love the guide, we have played only 3 rooms in prague for now and one of them were really special .. good to know that we should give it another chance 🙂
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Hope you do and hope this helps. Which games did you play?
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I was in https://questerland.cz/ too, but what do you think? Which room was the best from these three? Ive been in their new room (they have 4 rooms now) – “star element” – i dont play these games often but this was very good. I just wanted to ask if is it worth to play this zombie apocalypse.
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Zombie Apocalypse was my favourite of the three I played but it was also the easiest. If you’re OK with paying for a full game but potentially getting out in half an hour then I think it’s a great choice.
The magic room was fun but had some rough edges. I wouldn’t discourage people from playing but it’s not a game that I went “wow” about. I could well believe others love it though.
I got frustrated in the bank over a couple of puzzles that I thought were weak so although it had a lot going for it, I came out disappointed. I think a bigger team would have changed how we felt about it though because those weak puzzles would have been easier to handle. Again, I wouldn’t dissuade you from playing but I don’t think it’s a “wow” game, pretty though it is.
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Which Prague room would you recommend for my mum and me to do? I have nearly 40 rooms under my belt and she would be a complete beginner. So something not completely dull for me but easy enough that we have a chance with me basically doing it all on my own. Thanks!
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MindMaze Alchemist strikes me as a great game for that. It feels like something you could do with relatively little help.
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Thanks very much. Will check it out!
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i played galactic pioneers and mission 53, but as a couple and the two rooms made up to be in my top list! absolutely stunning games with great puzzles and riddles. both had amazing decoration that suits the theme perfectly. deffs 5/5!
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Galactic Pioneers and Mission 53 are both spectacular games. did them both as a couple- was challenging and we had to take quite a lot of hints. nevertheless we felt satisfaction after solving the puzzles. amazing set, technology and decoration in both. 2 rooms to not miss when you’re in prague.
did over 100 rooms worldwide and these 2 are in my top 10.
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Hi! My boyfriend and I are going to Prague on Sunday. I want to book an escape room as a surprise for my boyfriend’s birthday, while we are there. I have never been to an excape room, and I don’t think he has either. He normally loves scary stuff and dungeons and I’m not really following (so trying to avoid the Prague dungeon) 😀
Which escape room(s) would you recommend for us as a couple? I would love to impress him with the best of the best. Thanks!
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Hi Sussie. It’s really tough to make this kind of recommendation and I’d encourage you to think about which theme suits best but here’s what I’d suggest:
– Mind Maze’s Galactic Pioneers. It’s a fantastic game but it’ll be tough for a couple to complete in the hour. It will still be a very enjoyable experience if you don’t quite make the time limit but I know some people struggle with not “winning”. That company has also opened a Steampunk and a Magic-themed game since we visited, if those themes appeal more than sci-fi.
– Questerland’s Zombie Apocalypse. It’s not a scary game IMO although with a zombie theme, it’s obviously not a totally non-scary room either. It’s by no means the best game in Prague but, if you’re worried about taking on a hard game then this is one of the easier ones (although obviously still no guarantee you’ll escape!) and it’s got great decor.
– EscapeX – Dream Extractors. This game messes with reality in a fun way. If you do play, don’t be perturbed by the disappointing start. Things will improve quickly 🙂
– The Chamber – Wonderland. I’ve not played because it opened after my last visit but I’ve heard good things.
I’d definitely point you at Galactic Pioneers though – it feels like the best fit given what you’ve said.
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Thanks and Sci-fi is spot on! I have booked Questerland’s Zombie Apocalypse, but put the others in the map in case we get time for more. Thanks!