The Padlock: Safe – The Secret of Jack Daniels (Prague)

Safe?

I’ve spent my whole life looking for a lost safe. A safe which once belonged to Jack Daniel. To a successful entrepreneur, a lover of women and a respected gentleman. Who would expect that looking for an ordinary safe can be for somebody that important?  But what if it hides the real secrets? What if it is really crucial for us to look inside again? What if it hides something that needs to be dusted off again and shown to the world?

Shortly after my studies I set out on a journey for the first time and I haven’t ended my wandering yet. I crossed the length and breadth of two continents, I used to sleep both in luxury hotels and in huts on the edge of the forest. During that time I met a lot of people and I listened to an inexhaustible amount of stories, truths, and lies. Hardly anybody would say, that a thing you use every day for your work might become for you fatal. But what if the same thing disappears afterwards without a trace? Maybe it will veil that thing with a vague secret, maybe it will give a rise to new stories. For me and many others the search has become an obsession. I still don’t know whether behind its disappearance is a mistress or a relative. I still have no idea whether the safe hides something more than just money. But what I do knowis that it was the reason Jack Daniel died for and that it’s necessary to find it before it falls to wrong hands.

Our second game in Prague, after departing Poland stupidly early, was Safe: The Secret of Jack Daniels. For this game we teamed up with our usual teammates so we played as an experienced team of four.

If you just saw the shortened name of this game, ‘Safe’, you’d probably think it was just a heist game – and in a way it was, but it was certainly not your normal heist game.

Safe: The Secret of Jack Daniels had an all time high in the TERPECAs back in 2022 when it peaked at position 36. Since then it has dropped to a position of 306 in the 2025 awards.

Our meeting point for Safe (I’m just going to call it that from now on for brevity) was a cafe and it was here that we met our gamesmaster. She then escorted us a few doors up where we entered another building and descended the stairs to the comfortable waiting room in the basement.

We took a seat in the basement and received our briefings. The mission briefing was done via a TV in the waiting area, but they put a fun little spin on it which made it more ‘immersive’ but also made us feel old! Once the briefing video was complete, it was time to get down to business!

As I mentioned, this game is located downstairs in a basement. The game itself is also not accessible for those with limited mobility due to uneven surfaces, steps, and occasionally small spaces. I didn’t check, but I’d assume this game probably has an age limit of 18+, but I could be mistaken on that.

IMMERSION/ROOM DESIGN

This is a really interesting game and I can see why it was so highly rated, but I can also see why some people don’t agree. The set was cool and it had a good sense of adventure, with interesting spaces to explore and a set that perhaps felt a little too authentic.

We’ve played games that have been a little grubby and, for lack of a better word, sticky, but this game took that to the next level. With dead spiders, real cobwebs, a moth or two, and water that looked a bit stagnant and like it may have been harbouring life, it genuinely felt like this game could have been a health hazard, and our entire team couldn’t stop coughing throughout.

The ‘grubby’ and questionable choices didn’t just remain with the set design, it overflowed to the puzzles with realism seemingly chosen over hygiene, and possibly safety. I read a review by a well respected blogger and it actually sounds like our experience could have been worse.

There were items in this game that if used incorrectly could have caused serious injury, and one was evidently just a prop even though at times we thought that perhaps we should be using it for a puzzle – I’m still unsure if certain things were design choices or damage caused by previous players.

Oh and there is a good chance that you could get a tad dirty, at least your hands anyway (mine certainly did).

Credit to The Padlock though, the ending was a bit of fun and certainly not something that I was expecting! This game would be a fun start to a night out, just make sure you choose wisely.

PUZZLES

One of the most annoying puzzles for us is ‘difficulty by darkness’ and I genuinely felt like this game suffered from that curse. As a team of four we were given one tiny torch to use, and this meant our progress was slower than we would have liked. So in a room where you don’t really want to touch things, it’s annoying when you also can’t really see anything. Don’t get me wrong it wasn’t overly dark, just dark enough to make it atmospheric and annoying.

Signposting felt a bit weak so it felt like we spent a long time in a state of confusion. On a few occasions we said out loud “I’m going to do THIS, if I’m not supposed to, please say now” as we didn’t want to break the game, or our game. This was generally met with silence so we went ahead and did it, but it felt like quite a leap.

At one point early on we triggered something but didn’t inspect it closely enough which meant we lost a lot of time to confusion. This could have been on us, but from speaking to other teams who played, it’s a common issue. Not wanting to touch things in a game also adds to the challenge!

Some of the puzzles were good, many were unique, and one had the potential to be dangerous, but we got through it in one piece and with no apparent long term-effects. Searching, observation, teamwork, directions, an element of skill, and some apparent outside of the box thinking is what was needed to complete this mission.

GM/CLUE SYSTEM

Our host was pleasant and enthusiastic but I have a feeling she is aware of the ‘issues’ with this game as she seemed a bit deflated at the end when one of our teammates (politely) mentioned something about it.

We didn’t really click with this game, and I’m not sure if that’s just because we were distracted by the overall ‘feel’ of the game, so we did need assistance. When we did, we simply had to request it and it came via a walkie-talkie that we were given before we entered.

ANYTHING ELSE

This is a good game and certainly unique. We struggled at times with the signposting but we struggled more with the physical room itself. I hope they have a rigorous cleaning schedule but I’m just not sure.

If you can get over the potential health issues of playing this game, it’s a solid set, with different puzzles, and a satisfying climax. Or you could just wear a face mask to be safe?

Success/Failed

Final Rating:

Team: 4 Players

Address: Kubelíkova 1778/25, 130 00 Praha 3-Žižkov, Czechia

Website: https://www.thepadlock.cz/