E-Exit: Heaven and Hell (Budapest)

Another Escape Room Legend

You know what?! GO TO HELL!

Not quite what you thought? It’s a bit late… This is the point of no return.

You wanted to know something about heaven and hell. But to do this, like all mortals, you would need to die first.

This time you’re lucky: hibernating yourselves is enough. At the end of the adventure, you have to use a defibrillator so that you can come back to life…

When we were planning our trip to Budapest there was one venue that we kept on hearing about and knew that we were going to play there: E-Exit. E-Exit is probably the most well known escape room venue in Budapest and their games are always classed as ‘must plays’. So we lined up Heaven and Hell, Santa Muerte and Secret Subway. First up, was Heaven and Hell.

E-Exit actually have two venues, one which holds Santa Muerte and Secret Subway, and the other which has Heaven and Hell, and 1984. So the first venue, which holds Heaven and Hell, was down some steps and had an interesting feel; I guess the word ‘dingy’ would probably be a good word to describe it. When we arrived we were greeted by our host and shown to a small but comfortable waiting area.

Heaven and Hell is a game that has been around for a while, and in that time it has won a number of awards. In fact it was actually a TERPECA nominee from 2019-2022. So it had quite a reputation but I think we were also a little apprehensive to see how a game that was around in 2016 was going to hold up.

After making use of the facilities and stashing our belongings in the lockers provided, it was time to get going. Our host gave us the mission briefing and before we knew it, it was time to visit heaven and hell.

IMMERSION/ROOM DESIGN

I am one of the worst people at following the story or journey of a game, but if I understood this one correctly then I think we were alive, then dead, then in purgatory, then in hell, then in heaven, and then alive again. So quite a unique journey and certainly in keeping with a game called ‘Heaven and Hell’ as you certainly wouldn’t expect to just walk through a door and be in hell.

I can see why this game was popular when it was first released, and why it is still popular to this day: the story is unique and the game has some ‘wow’ moments. Unfortunately I think the game is starting to show its age and is perhaps not as refined as it maybe once was.

To play Heaven and Hell you need to be comfortable with a few things: tight spaces, darkness, and, well, I guess the fact that you’re in hell? My biggest gripe with this room was indeed the darkness, not that it was dark, that was to be expected, but it was that as a team of four we were only given one torch. This meant that some of the team didn’t feel as involved as the others as if you didn’t have light you couldn’t really do anything.

PUZZLES

I think with puzzles it’s probably easier to make them fit the hell theme than it is to fit the heaven side. Really, with hell you just have a few body parts dotted around and generally macabre things and you have a very hellish feel. I imagine creating ‘heavenly’ puzzles is probably a bit trickier, which would make sense as I feel like we spent more time in hell than we did in heaven.

The puzzles involved seeing in the dark (well it didn’t help that we only had one torch), observation, teamwork, communication, and some spatial relations – or that’s the best way I can think to describe it. I think because of the rave reviews we were expecting more from this game, but completing it in around 30 mins made us question the level of the content.

GM/CLUE SYSTEM

Nothing much to say about our GM, she was polite and friendly when we arrived, and when we left, but we didn’t need any clues so she had a pretty easy ride. I don’t recall seeing any TV screens in the room at all so I would imagine that if we needed any help it would have come over a speaker system? But that’s just a guess.

ANYTHING ELSE

Likely the high ratings for this game are historical, as it is now starting to show its age and feels a bit run down in places. The set design was different and the story even more so, but I certainly wouldn’t plan a trip to Budapest just to play this game. We did actually have a copy of the game in the UK, in Cambridge, but it appears to have closed now.

This game is designed for 2-6 players but even as a four we found it frustrating, mostly due to the lack of torches, but also for one puzzle that seemed to be designed for three players – and as this was the final task, it meant one person on the team felt left out.

Success/Failed

Final Rating:

Team: 4 players – 31:59 taken

Address: Budapest, Klauzál u. 34, 1072 Hungary

Website: https://escaperoom.hu/