Kadabra: Poison (Barcelona)

Dastardly good fun!

A peculiar maniac has escaped and has a brainless plan to destroy all of Gotham. Will you be able to find his lair in time and put an end to this madness?

When we go abroad for escape rooms, we do try to throw in a little bit of culture in addition to the games. One of my favourite things to do whenever we visit a new country is to take a food tour, and experience all of the local delicacies. Which is how we ended up at the Sagrada Familia, followed by a tour of one of the smaller markets on our second day in Barcelona. But the three hours we spent stuffing our faces full of the most delicious things, plus the two hours of tourism first thing in the morning, meant that we would be taking it easy on the game front with only Kadabra’s ‘Poison’ on the agenda.

Kadabra isn’t technically in Barcelona, but rather in the suburb of Mataró, just outside the city. Thanks to the decent network of trains, however, it was easy enough to make our way out to Mataró by train. We arrived with plenty of time to make the 15 minute walk from the station to Kadabra, and thanks to the signage, there was no question we had found the right place once we arrived.

As we found was the norm in Barcelona, we were instructed to ring the bell exactly at our appointment time. An ominous voice crackled through the intercom, confirming the reason for our presence, and with that out of the way, we heard the buzzer sound. The door clicked open, and the game began…

IMMERSION/ROOM DESIGN

The set of Poison could have been pulled directly from an old comic, with vibrant colours, and chunky, tactile, and impressive set pieces. Everything, from the set to the lighting, to the sounds and even the smells were there to help build the world and immerse us in it. Even the briefing video, something so normal in escape rooms, was presented in such a way that it allowed us to forget that this was a way to set out the “rules” and instead, became a part of the story.

The start of the game felt quite linear, although in reality it wasn’t especially, but once we made it over the initial hurdles, Poison seemed to explode into a totally open puzzle palooza, where it was quite easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer volume of content. There were the natural, and inevitable, choke points, but the open game set a frenetic pace, as we felt the pressure to jump from one thing to another, with the option for the entire team to be working on different things at any one time.

But despite this pace, Poison had an almost joyful feel. Yes, we were trying to stop a madman from gassing an entire city, but gameplay was interspersed with moments that can only be described as playful, which when combined together with the brightly coloured set pieces, and the snappy puzzle solving gave us a game that was just pure fun.

PUZZLES

Of all the games we played in and around Barcelona, Poison is the one that sticks in my mind purely for the simple fact that the puzzles in Poison were front and centre throughout the game and they were good. Yes, the set was beautifully built, and the atmosphere was spot on, but it was the puzzles that were the star of the show for me. The puzzles and tasks were clever, varied, and sometimes quite complex with multiple layers to them. There was a pleasing mix of tactile challenges mixed in with the more cerebral puzzles, and there were so many fantastic “Ah ha!” moments, that each challenge was a joy to solve.

Unsurprisingly, given the split start, communication is key, not just at the beginning, but throughout the game. But other familiar escape room tropes came out to play as well, with tasks that varied from simple observation, and a bit of logical deduction, to a scavenger hunt and a bit of outside-the-box thinking.  The signposting throughout the game, regardless of the puzzle, was subtle, but clear, and it was rare we found ourselves stuck on anything. But the non-linear structure meant that it was easy and fluid to move to something else and come back to it later, perhaps when more information had been uncovered.

GM/CLUE SYSTEM

There wasn’t a single game that we played in Barcelona where we received what I would call a “traditional” escape room briefing. With one or two exceptions, every game threw us straight in, either with the introduction to one of the characters of the story we were about to play, or in the case of Poison, with nothing at all. We entered the dark, cavernous space, and save for a single light directing us to a piece of paper, we were on our own.

Okay, we weren’t really on our own, but it certainly felt that way. The disembodied voice or maniacal laughter of the Joker would occasionally float through the air down to our ears, sometimes to offer guidance and other times to taunt. Other times, a masked madman would appear in our peripheral vision, only to disappear as quickly as he appeared. The one bit of proper character interaction, while perhaps slightly outside of the narrative, was entertaining and a joyful moment in the game. Eventually we did meet our host, GM, and one of the owners of the small family run business following our successful escape, and had a lovely time chatting with him about the game, our trip, and of course, their new game that is currently under construction.

ANYTHING ELSE

In a city where the escape rooms are deviating more and more from their original form and venturing further into immersive experience territory, Poison is a breath of fresh, puzzly air. Poison is the type of game that will appeal to every player, from the total newbie to the exceptionally experienced enthusiast, from puzzle fiends to scenery snobs, and is well worth making the trip out from central Barcelona to play.

Success / Failure

Final Rating:

Team: 4 players

Address: Carrer Castaños, 118, 08302 Mataró, Barcelona, Spain

Website: https://www.kadabraescape.com/