Enigma Mission: Flux (Budapest)

A Fun Follow-up Game

You and your companions are stuck in the engine room and the means to get out have run out!

Time is running out, but if you can get into the generator room, you have a chance!

Budapest is a big of a mecca for escape rooms, not necessarily because of the quality of games, but more due to the fact that it was the first place in Europe where escape rooms appeared, and there are a lot of them in a pretty small area. On our few days in Budapest we managed to squeeze in 21 games without needing to do too much travelling (other than getting to Budapest, obviously).

Our third game of the trip, and our second at Enigma Mission (after playing Mission Enigma earlier) was Flux. Flux was the newer of the two games as Enigma Mission and we knew nothing about it. There were no reviews and no-one seemed to have mentioned it, so we thought we’d take a punt.

Our GM, whose name we didn’t get, gave us a short break between games while he got things ready and then returned to collect us. We walked through to what could best be described as a storage area which is where we received our briefing for Flux. I gather this area of the building is being renovated so it probably won’t always be a storage room come briefing area. I don’t recall anything that stood out from the briefing so we were shown through the door and our time began.

IMMERSION/ROOM DESIGN

Flux was a bit of a weird one as it was completely quiet, no music or ambient noises were playing at all. Although I guess the story was that there was no power so maybe that’s why they opted for silence.

This is one of those games where there are a number of rooms, and a lot of back and forth between them (good for getting steps up). The rooms were on the minimalist side in terms of set decor, but each one was distinct and unique to the previous room.

This was the newer of the two games at Enigma Mission, and in terms of the tech used I think it was clear to see their progression. Ok, I didn’t feel overly immersed in the story, but I still enjoyed the experience.

The rooms were dark at times although there were ways to increase the light which helped. At times you just needed to let your eyes adjust to the low light/darkness, and then it was ok.

If there was one thing I didn’t like about this game, it was that we were told we could use the calculators on our phones, if needed. I’ll speak more about the puzzles in a moment, but a calculator was arguably essential and it would have helped with the immersion if they just put a calculator in there. I’m not a fan of needing to use my phone in an escape room, it’s normally an hour of pleasant phone-free peace!

PUZZLES

This was very much a tech heavy game, with a few padlocks here and there but they were generally located in places where one would expect to see a padlock.

The puzzles themselves were certainly varied; communication, teamwork, logic, decoding, maths and one or two more physical puzzles. They were all fair and generally were enjoyable.

We stumbled on one puzzle for a while as we thought there were many ways to complete it. It wasn’t until we investigated some of the previous spaces again that we realised we had everything we needed and it was much simpler than we were making it.

There was one puzzle in this game that would normally make me rage quit from a game, but surprisingly, despite thinking it was going to be harder than normal, we actually managed to complete it first time. I could see this puzzle being a massive time sink for teams if you just can’t master it.

GM/CLUE SYSTEM

We didn’t catch the name of the gamesmaster. In Budapest we found that it didn’t seem to be a thing for GMs to introduce themselves. He was friendly and spoke decent English (which was good, as our Hungarian was rather limited).

I don’t recall needing any clues, but if we had we could have requested them by just asking out loud and then they would have been delivered over a speaker system. We did quite well in the first game we played at Enigma Mission so I think he wanted to give us time to solve things ourselves, which we certainly appreciated.

There was no timer in the room but the GM did chime in every 15 minutes with an update on our time.

ANYTHING ELSE

Flux was the newest game at Enigma Mission and it certainly shows when compared to their other game. Flux won’t blow your socks off with the puzzles and design, but it’s a solid game with tech (that works), and a decent flow.

Success/Failed

Final Rating:

Team: 4 players

Address: Budapest, Csángó u. 13, 1134 Hungary

Website: https://szabadulosjatek.com/