Outline: Outline (Barcelona)

Not for the faint hearted!

In Cornellà there is Outline, an old abandoned factory owned by the late Mr. Morgan. He adopted a somewhat peculiar boy whom he called James, whose parents had died in a tragic accident inside the factory.

It was said that Mr. Morgan practiced occultism inside the facilities, he was obsessed with everything esoteric and contacting the afterlife, and that obsession ended up costing him his life.

James continues to guard the old factory, sometimes voices are even heard inside, but no one knows what happens behind that fence, the people around live terrified, because it is said that Mr. Morgan’s body wanders around the factory, and everyone who enters the area disappears forever.

A few days ago, we received a video message for help from the missing Markus Smith, who seems to be a local reporter who decided to investigate the area.

Someone anonymous has hired you to rescue him and find out what happens there. The remuneration is too juicy not to accept the case.

Will you be capable?

Our final day of a lovely week-long trip in Barcelona and we had planned three games to play on the way to the airport. The first game of the day was 11S which was an experience, to say the least. Next up was Outline, a game we knew nothing about other than that it was a horror experience.

We arrived at the venue for Outline, having walked from 11S, and were in no doubt that we were in the right place thanks to the large ‘Outline’ sign prominently displayed on the themed wall. Oh, and the smoke coming out of the vent.

At the time of our booking, we knocked on the door and entered the darkened area, with no-one to be seen. We placed our items into the trunk that was provided, and paid our ‘entry fee’. With the formalities completed, our experience began and we entered the creepy abandoned factory.

IMMERSION/ROOM DESIGN

We’ve played a few horror escape rooms in our time, and this certainly ticked all the boxes you’d expect; Dark? Yes. Loud? Yes. Live actor? Yes. But Outline made choices in this game that took things to the next level. When I say ‘choices’ I mean with the set design and some of the choices they used for building with – it was clever, and I liked it.

The Spanish seem very big on immersion and having you join straight into a game without actually seeing or speaking to anyone, and that works very well in a horror game. You never know how many people are in there with you, what they will look like, or when they may appear.

This game is not for the faint-hearted and at times is very full on and an assault on the senses. You will be running, climbing, crawling, and perhaps getting a little dirty – so make sure you don’t wear heels or your finest attire.

One of the things I liked about this game was that it was a horror experience, there’s no doubting that, but there was still time to actually find and solve puzzles. I do love puzzles.

PUZZLES

Although Outline was dark (very dark at times), thanks to clever use of lighting we rarely struggled to see what we needed – especially when solving puzzles. It’s nice when the designers remember that generally people like to be able to see when solving puzzles (not always, we have played a game in pitch black). Lighting can be low enough to create an atmosphere without adding that much hated puzzle of ‘difficulty by darkness’.

So, the puzzles. I love it when puzzles are integrated in the experience and haven’t been an afterthought. This diegetic type of design ensures that everything in the game feels like it belongs, and everything we’re doing adds to the immersion.

All the puzzles we encountered resulted in us getting deeper into the story, one could argue at times they felt more task based than just purely being a puzzle for puzzles sake. Observation, teamwork, logic, communication and bravery (yep, I’m classing that as a puzzle type now) are all required in Outline.

GM/CLUE SYSTEM

Normally we try really hard to get the names of our GMs, as they are putting on a performance and deserve to be recognised by name for what they do. Unfortunately we found in a lot of the games we played in Spain that we were so caught up in the moment that we either forgot to ask their name, or it completely slipped our mind due to the adrenaline fueled experience we had just had.

I don’t want to reveal how many actors/GMs were present in Outline, but needless to say, they were great. Characters appeared, and each one played a part in building the story and raising our heart rates!

No timer was present in Outline and time became a loose construct. When we were in there, the outside world faded away and it was quite jarring to leave the building into the bright sunlight! Clues were once again seamlessly integrated into the game and if you need assistance, you will receive it.

ANYTHING ELSE

I loved Outline. Even from just standing outside the building it was clear to see that this was going to be something special, and it was. We went on a true adventure – although when I say ‘adventure’ I don’t mean like a lovely light hearted quest like perhaps The Goonies, no, this was more like an adventure in Resident Evil.

If you’re a fan of horror games and are heading to Barcelona, make sure you book in to play Outline. You won’t regret it.

Success / Failure

Final Rating:

Team: 4 players

Address: Av. del Parc de Can Mercader, 5, 08940 Cornellà de Llobregat, Barcelona

Website: https://outlineescaperoom.es/