Bornazium (Game duration 60 minutes)
Fury team: Ivan Minchev, Georgi Georgiev, Venelin Gornishki, Hristo Tomov, Dimitar Smilyanov, Nadezhda Danabasheva
Date: November 28, 2018
Our time: 26:35 minutes (room record at the time of the visit)
The conversation about this room began with Niki ‘Odin‘ Kaiabashev a year earlier, whom I had known, apart from the divine line, from a long, long time ago when we both were part of a #fantastika channel at IRC. On October 18, 2017, I also heard the name Brainwatch for the first time. Niki sends us a clue that they are making not one but two new rooms, and I replied with one of my favorite movie quotes: “You had my curiosity, but now you have my attention”.
A new room opening in Sofia is now a rare event, and to talk about two is just a miracle. I am struck by the information that the rooms are expected to be scary, but I still wait for the information when I can bring the team to poop their pants and for me to have a good laugh while looking at the monitors. A year later, Niki wrote that the first room was now open for testing, and after extensive negotiations and maneuvers, Fury accepted the challenge of testing, including myself, with the promise that they wouldn’t scare me or touch me. I think if someone trusts me enough to grant me the leading role in Brexit negotiations, I can do that successfully as well.
The lobby is quite in the spirit of escape rooms genre with a slight artistic approach, while we entering the premises we comment that its already a great experience to just get here, the atmosphere is a bit creepy but beautiful and simple. We check in, get acquainted with the details of the story, and enter.
One mistake we made was that we collected six of Fury’s most experienced players. Although Bornazium doesn’t have a time limit and the photos, don’t comment on who escaped when, I will mention that we were out in 26:35 minutes, which is the fastest escape recorded for the team for the whole time since we are playing. And it’s not because the room is easy, we were just eager to prove we are prepared.
There are more than enough puzzles. The interior is great and helps the room story – Russian military experimenting with humans. I will just mention that the guys spent at least 5 minutes shining on certain objects and wasted time with “look at it, it’s so cool”, “but it’s real,” and so on. Your room has everything you need to spend a great hour solving puzzles, it has more or less complex elements, it has puzzles from all categories, it has an adventure, and it definitely has an awesome end. What impressed me the most was that every step of the way, you have feedback from the puzzle design, whether you are wrong, on the right track, or when the time is not yet come for you to start working on a puzzle. Without further ado, go save the world once again; it’s definitely worth it.
For all of you who are like me, a.k.a. chickenshit or easily scared, the room is quite tolerably scary; I wouldn’t even use that word, it’s a little disturbing at places, but I wouldn’t say scary. I don’t know when the second Brainwatch room will be ready, the chosen theme is VERY strong, but I have no permission to share it. It is also expected to have more adrenaline, and definitely not for little girls, but in Sofia, the rooms for players who love extreme adventures are only a few, and I think there is definitely a market for at least one more. And will I play it or not, the negotiations will show 😀
P.S. I had a very small and insignificant remark that was not even about something in the room but was on the Facebook page. Within 48 hours, the team had addressed it. I appreciate it when businesses listen to customers; so many great things are achieved. Keep up the boys, and good luck!