From the horror escape room “Qualen”, the XXL room “Atomarer Ausbruch” and the puzzle room “Das Hotel der geheimnisvollen Uhren” from Geheimdepot Dorsten – the reports about an escape room organizer in Germany resound all the way to our Escape Room Hamburg.
We played a different Escape Room Theater for the first time and would like to share our spoiler-free experiences with you in this blog post. Have fun reading.
The secret depot in Dorsten
We have had the Geheimdepot in Dorsten, North Rhine-Westphalia, on our radar for a long time, as it is the second Escape Room Theater in Germany. It is very special for us to see and experience how the Escape Room Theater concept is implemented by other operators.
A short conclusion up front: the secret depot does a lot of things differently in many places, but we also saw parallels!
The secret depot in an old colliery currently has four escape rooms on offer – the game “Kammerflimmern” will soon be dismantled. However, three new escape games are planned for this year. The themes and game mechanics are always different in the various games. We have experienced an extremely creative and innovative escape room operator here. The brains behind Geheimdepot, Marvin and Niclas, will be attracting a lot of attention in the coming years. We don’t need a crystal ball to tell us that.
“Nuclear Breakout” – the first escape room with drama
Right at the beginning, we went into the XXL Escape Room with a play “Atomic Breakout“. As with our escape room theater “ChainSAW“, the area was gigantic.
We found ourselves in a prison with lots of cells. The aim was to escape from the cells and somehow manage to break out of the prison. The problem was that a guard followed us everywhere we went and was constantly looking into our cells. It was an incredibly immersive experience to solve the puzzles in the cell without getting caught. The adrenaline shot through our bodies. After about 83 minutes, we managed to stage an incident that allowed us to escape.
We were simply speechless at how cool this escape game theater was. The acting was of an extremely high standard and absolutely authentic. It felt like the game was really real. Simply outstanding. You have to play this game! An absolute MUST-PLAY game!
“The hotel of mysterious clocks” – the puzzle room in the secret depot
Our second room “The Hotel of Mysterious Clocks” was characterized by many tricky puzzles. The drama was deliberately placed in the background here. The setting was outstanding and peppered with lots of great effects that really surprised us.
The playing area is very small compared to the huge “Atomic Breakout” escape room, but the use of space is very clever. We puzzled our way through the various rooms of the hotel and were able to free the hotel from the ghost at the end. Our actress staged a terrific finale that really thrilled us.
This escape room was completely different from the first escape room, but it was also extremely entertaining and a lot of fun.
“Torment” – the worst horror escape room in Germany
And then came a room that has already cast its shadow over the whole of Germany. This horror escape room is not only advertised as a real borderline experience, it really is.
“Torment” is a very special room. A mixture of the films “SAW”, “The Nun” and “Jungle Camp”. When you’re told before a game that it’s best to play in boxer shorts and without shoes, you suddenly feel completely different. So we sit undressed in the foyer and the pre-show starts. As we were exclusively told, the rehearsals for this introduction alone took two months. Everything is perfectly coordinated: sound, lighting and the staging of two actors. If we hadn’t almost wet our pants, we’d probably be applauding.
We won’t spoil what happened next at this point. We’ll just say this much: one player in our group dropped out after 5 minutes and was completely off the rails and extremely distraught for hours afterwards. We would therefore like to give you an impression of how we felt afterwards.
Did you know that the human body has a survival mode? When the body switches into this mode, you are remote-controlled. You do things without thinking about it and only realize what you’ve actually done hours or days later.
What was demanded of us in agony is simply sick, disgusting and insane! We wouldn’t be surprised if this game is banned at some point! We mean that seriously! But once you’ve let it all sink in and survived all the agony, you’ll have one feeling: PRIDE! My goodness, we were proud of ourselves.
We went through with it and surpassed ourselves. We did things that we would never have done without this adrenaline rush and fear. And that’s what makes this room so special. You get to know a side of yourself that you didn’t know you had.
We celebrated agony to the extreme! There won’t be another one like it in Germany, because no operator would ever dare to do something like this. Once you’ve played the room, you may well get bored in the other highly acclaimed horror escape rooms.
Conclusion
We love the secret depot! And we definitely recommend playing the “Atomic Breakout” and “The Hotel of Mysterious Clocks”. “Torment” is definitely not suitable for normal escape room players. If you are looking for a real borderline experience and want to push your body to the absolute survival maximum, you will have fun here.
We were able to experience how fantastically the Geheimdepot uses its actors. Either in a choreography with sound and light in harmony or in improvised roles. Here, the actual idea of acting in escape rooms is lived just as it is here at OPOLUM. The actor takes on a central role and ensures that the escape room has a completely different level of immersion for the players. We bow our top hats! Keep up the good work! Hearts and kisses go to Dorsten! We love the Geheimdepot!
