Mystique: The Lost Crystal Skull (Budapest)

A Quick Visit to the Mine

Once upon a time, in a mine deep underground, whose mysterious corridors and dark passages have become a home for adventure, a mysterious crystal skull unexpectedly appeared. The mine workers were moving huge boulders when a hidden nest suddenly appeared in a corner of the mine.

The skull was made of shimmering, transparent crystal, as if it were radiating the glow of the sky. No one knew where it came from or how it had ended up in the mine, but it immediately fascinated people. It seemed to emanate a special energy, and those who got close to it could sense the mysterious power that resided within it.

Word of the skull spread quickly, and adventurers, archaeologists and treasure hunters flocked to the mine to discover the mysteries of the mysterious crystal skull. But the more people arrived, the stranger things began to happen. Now it’s your turn to find out what’s going on!?

On our trip to Budapest we managed to fit in 21 games, and seven of them were at Mystique – and even then we didn’t play all the games they had available. Safe to say that they have quite a few (at a couple of different locations).

Having already played: Cube, Pirate Bay, Time Machine, AI, and Fairy Tale, it was time for number six: The Lost Crystal Skull. Thanks to the 2008 Indiana Jones movie, I thought it may be an homage to that. I can’t say for sure that it was, but I’d say there were possibly things in common.

The Lost Crystal Skull room is located at the Mystiqueroom 2 location, where they also have ‘The Witch, and Fairy Tale. It’s a rather modern and clean looking venue with plenty of seating and good facilities to make sure of between games (yes, don’t just book one game).

As this was our second game at Mystiqueroom 2 we had a little down time, but not too much as Fairy Tale was a full one hour of puzzling! I’ll come on to it later, but The Lost Crystal Skull was, shall we say, shorter.

After a little rest it was time to get down to business. Our GM came over and asked if we were ready to go, and of course we were. So we followed our GM, and descended the stairs to the basement where we were apparently going to encounter; narrow passageways, stairs, dim light, and an ‘authentic gaming experience’

IMMERSION/ROOM DESIGN

First impressions of The Lost Crystal Skull were very good, set design is definitely an area where Mystique really excel. The spaces weren’t huge, mostly there were a lot of narrow passageways (they did warn us of that) but there were larger areas where it was easier to congregate as a team – we played as a team of four and that felt like the perfect team size.

The other things they promised were also present, sound effects, stairs, dim light and flashing lights – but everything was used in a way to add to the experience without being too much or out of place. Although our time in this game was short, really short, it was strangely one of my favourite experiences of the trip, and I think that is mostly down to the set design.

This isn’t the most accessible of games, especially as it’s in a basement, so your experience will be better if you are able to bend, climb and lift some small weights. If you’re unsure if it’ll work for you, perhaps check with the venue first.

In my time I’ve been in a number of actual mines, and also many escape room mines, and I must admit that this was possibly my favourite. The quality of the set was top notch, and other than what was carefully designed to look rustic and old, nothing showed signs of wear and tear – and everything seemed to work smoothly.

PUZZLES

Despite this game being set in a bit of a dilapidated mine, it was actually chocked full of tech, and a good number of puzzle types to keep things interesting; searching, observation, teamwork, audio, logic and colours. Nothing felt out of place, and the signposting was spot on, both in general with the puzzles as we found them, but also with subtle lighting clues to help guide you through the experience.

As you’d expect from a tech heavy room, you won’t find many, if any, padlocks in this mine. Solving a puzzle generally seemed to trigger something else to happen, but there was never any guess work about ‘what’ that actually was.

I think this game is listed as intermediate difficulty, but I can’t comment on that as we were out in under 19 minutes. So it’s possible it just clicked, or maybe the puzzles were well made and signposted, or there was a lack of content? I don’t feel like it was the latter, and despite our short time in this game, I would still recommend it.

GM/CLUE SYSTEM

Generally I’m not a fan of walkie-talkies are clue systems, but in this scenario it actually worked and felt in keeping with the theme, so I’ll allow it. Fortunately, like I mentioned above, we found the puzzles in The Lost Crystal Skull to be on the easier side, and didn’t need any help. If we did need help, I can only assume that our GM would have chimed in over the walkie-talkie but how responsive they’d have been is anyone’s guess.

ANYTHING ELSE

This is one of those games where you’re in for a good time, not a long time. We clicked with this game so we were out in just under 19 minutes which was arguably a little short, yet it still managed to be one of my favourite games in Budapest, mostly because of the set.

Success/Failed

Final Rating:

Team: 4 players – 18:45 taken

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

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