I’d play it again, just for the ceiling
Every 5,000 years, when three planets are in eclipse, the black hole opens like a door and evil enters, sowing terror and chaos. The four elements of life, Water, Earth, Air and Fire are grouped around a fifth element; Light , the source of life. Every element is a huge force on its own. All together work in harmony to produce the Light of Creation.
But the time of the eclipse is now near and the four elements have already lost their balance. The light has been lost. As the eclipse approaches, myths and legends surface, revealing a well hidden and sacred Altar of the elements. Whoever discovers it, will go through many difficulties, and will have to travel a long way to find the light.
To accomplish this goal, one thing is needed . Selenite, the crystal that, according to the legends, is hidden in the Forest of Souls. Only the ray of light of Selenite can activate the rainbow. Otherwise, light will turn into darkness and life into death forever. There are only a few minutes left until the eclipse! Nevertheless, “Time does not matter, only life
Athens is known for exceptional horror rooms, but I must admit, after a while we needed a break from being scared and decided to try and find an escape room that wasn’t a horror themed game. We stumbled across Exit Plan and fortunately they were willing to open earlier than normal to fit us in (many games in Athens aren’t available until later in the day), which was great as this was also a quite last minute booking.
Exit Plan are right next to a large shopping mall, and also a short walk from No Exit (the home of the incredible El Exorcista), so it was an area we kinda already knew. When we arrived we were greeted by our GM although I must confess, I didn’t catch his name. The waiting area was comfortable enough and was on the ground floor, but the game we were playing was up a flight of stairs – once inside the game it was all on one level.
We ascended the stairs and lined up outside the entrance where there was a trunk for our personal possessions. With our goods securely stowed away, we were then led into the game, not blindfolded but with our eyes closed – there was no real reason for this, it just made the reveal when we were in the room that little bit more impressive.
Once we were in the room a story briefing played (in English) over the speakers, and then we were told we could open our eyes. First impressions, this was a pretty room!
IMMERSION/ROOM DESIGN
If you’re a fan of a certain Hollywood film starring Bruce Willis and Milla Jovovich then there’s a good chance that you may appreciate the theme of this room. It’s not a rip off by any means, but it did feel like aspects of the story and some design elements were perhaps inspired by it.
First impressions of this game, like I said, were favourable as the ceiling, walls, and the focal point of the room were really quite pretty – I loved the ceiling! The other first impression was that the room was very dark, although fortunately we were each given a torch (not a modern flashlight style torch, but an actual torch) to use, although we had a few tech problems with them which meant that we didn’t have quite as much light as we were supposed to. With the torches and ambient lighting there was generally enough lightning to see.
This game doesn’t have the same vastness of space that many of the other games we played in Athens had, nor did it have a live actor, but it did have a lot of charm and they still managed to fit in some surprises and a good use of tech to keep us entertained. I can’t recall if there was any ambient music being played, but despite that, it still felt like a nice space to be in – it was a world away from central Athens, and even further away from the horror games we had been playing!
PUZZLES
I don’t recall this game having a massive number of puzzles, but the ones that it did have were satisfying and felt like they belonged in the theme, and managed to fit about the overriding theme of the ‘elements’. I believe there may have been one padlock perhaps, but even that I’m not sure on, as this game relied heavily on tech.
Puzzles revolved around; teamwork, communication, colours, logic and observation. We were an experienced team of four and found the puzzles to be satisfying and fair. We did manage to confuse ourselves at one point, but our friendly GM chimed in at the right moment.
GM/CLUE SYSTEM
The man with no name (because I forgot it) was a friendly enough chap and didn’t seem disgruntled that we had booked in for an earlier slot than normal. When we were in the game, and got lost, he chimed in at the right time and was able to tell us that we were doing it right but we just needed to check it was fully in the right place (the joys of tech).
If we needed clues, we simply had to request it and it would be delivered over the speaker system. This is another game that was available in both Greek and English, and we had no issues with any of the translations.
ANYTHING ELSE
I think if this game was in the UK it would probably be more impressive, but it’s surrounded by world class games in Athens so it’s likely a little overshadowed. We had a good time playing The Dark Side of the Elements and I fell in love with the ceiling and some of the cool tech they used.
Success / Failure
Final Rating:
Operation | |
Puzzles | |
Room Design | |
GM/Clues | |
Excitement |
Team: 4 players – saved the world in 58 mins
Address: Aidiniou 5, Athina 173 43
Website: http://www.exitplan.gr/home.htm
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