Mystique: The Witch (Budapest)

Not one for us…

Your King has given you an important and dangerous mission: find the healing elixir, because he is dying. You know where to find the potion, but getting it is another matter… Only the wicked Witch can make the elixir, but in return you must free her from her captivity! Let’s start the mission!

When we planned our Budapest trip we had only booked six games at Mystique, but after getting out of The Lost Crystal Skull in less than 19 minutes, we had a bit of time to spare. Couple that with a rebooking discount and we decided to make it seven games by booking in The Witch.

We love a good day filled with escape rooms, and on this day it was all about Mystique; Cube, Pirate Bay, Time Machine, AI, Fairy Tale, and The Lost Crystal Skull. The one thing they all had tying them together was very high set design, so we of course expected much more of the same from The Witch, which I believe was the newest game at this venue when we played there

Thanks to getting out of The Lost Crystal Skull so quickly we had a bit of time to kill. So we made the most of the comfortable waiting area until the room was ready. Fortunately, this didn’t take too long and before we knew it we were receiving our briefings and our mission was underway. As always, I had no idea what the mission was, but fortunately my three other teammates were much more attentive than I was, and they knew what we were doing.

IMMERSION/ROOM DESIGN

If you’ve read any of our other reviews for Mystique then you’ll probably be expecting me to start off by saying how good the set design was in The Witch, and you’re right, it was good. Perhaps not as ‘wow’ as some of the other games, but then again it’s essentially a Witch’s cabin in the woods, so it’s harder to make it really impressive.

We played as a team of four and had plenty of space to move around. There weren’t too many unique places in this game, but the ones that there were, were spacious and enabled us to split up to explore.

Another thing that Mystique love to talk about is the ‘generations’ thing. I’m not a fan of that, but they consider this to be a ‘third generation’ game, which essentially means you will find very few, if any padlocks in it – but more on that later.

Ambient noises, creative lighting (although never technically too dark), and it also felt like this game utilised smells to add to the immersion. Where this game excelled, for me at least was in the set design, where it was lacking, was the puzzles.

PUZZLES

My biggest issue with this game was the puzzles. It started off fine, but then it quickly felt like their default puzzle choice was to go to colours. Great. Ok, for the vast majority of the population this isn’t an issue, but for the estimated 4.5% of the global population that is colour-blind, it is. Because of this, I spent the majority of the game standing around just looking at the set – not a fun way to spend an hour.

Obviously colour was the big thing for puzzles, but generally the puzzles also revolved around; observation, teamwork, logic, searching, pattern recognition, and following instructions. I actually can’t talk too much about the puzzles because it made me mad/sad, and just killed the fun vibe of the day.

Like I previously mentioned, Mystique classed this as a ‘generation 3’ game, so solving puzzles normally meant placing something in the right location and then waiting for some tech to trigger to say it was complete. One puzzle I do remember though felt rather illogical and I definitely recall that annoying the rest of the (colour-normie) team.

GM/CLUE SYSTEM

Like all rooms, well most rooms at Mystique, clues for The Witch were given using walkie-talkies. We simply had to request help and our GM would have sent a message over the walkies. I can’t recall if we needed any help, not because of me, I was lost for the whole game, but fortunately the team carried us through, and I was there for the ride.

There was no timer in the room, so it was anyone’s guess as to how long we were in for – although to me it felt like a lifetime. In reality we were in this game for 57 minutes which I think is a reflection of how much we didn’t gel with this game, and perhaps how tired we were after all the other games we played at this venue.

ANYTHING ELSE

I assume other people have good experience in The Witch, but for me, it was like torture. I desperately wanted the time to be over. If you’re looking to add a game, sure, add it, but I did not enjoy it, and if anyone on your team struggles with colours, they may not either.

Success/Failed

Final Rating:

Team: 4 players – 57:57 taken

Address: Mystique Room, 1055 Budapest, Szent Istvan Korut 9

Website: https://www.mystiqueroom.hu/en