The City – La Taberna

https://thecityescaperoom.com/

La Taberna (Game duration 120 minutes)

Fury team: Nush Krasteva, Ivan Minchev and Nadezhda Danabasheva

Fury time: 131:00 minutes

Date: February 5, 2024

There’s a saying that one should never meet their heroes (because they usually shatter the myth that they are heroes). This room reminded me of that.

“The Tavern” is a relatively new room that takes the first place in the ranking of rooms in Spain and rightfully claims the 9th place in Terpeca’s ranking for 2023. With such a claim, there’s no way the room could be bad, right? Right?

“The Tavern” is a two-hour, cinematic pirate adventure that, as the name suggests, begins in the tavern. Here, we encounter the first NPC, the tavern’s bartender. And here begins my ordeal with this “room.” The girl who plays the role dives deeply into character, constantly shouting (as if she’s had too much to drink). We, being cooperative, adopt her vibe and start talking, joking, fooling around… assuming that she is a professional and knows exactly how much time we have, the volume of content we need to play through, and so on. Alas, the assessment is quite wrong because we waste a lot of time, and then we start rushing like crazy, constantly pressed by the actors.

In moments when they try to give us hints, they actually restrain us. Everyone is in the role of a drunken pirate, speaking mumbling, “drunken” and confusing English. The game requires a lot of communication between players, which is difficult not only because of the ambient sounds of the game but also because we are shouting over drunken sailors. I allowed myself to make a remark to them, which helped with the bartender, but in the next interactions, I literally had to curse one of the guys (I’m not proud of myself) my nerves couldn’t take it.

“The help” comes whether you want it or not. The overall feeling after the end of the game was that they were “pushing” us the whole time to leave as quickly as possible. The volume of content we had to go through was gigantic, and two hours for three people was insufficient for me. Yes, we lost 20 minutes in meaningless conversations with the bartender, but there was no way for us to know that this was a mistake. All of this led to rushing, with some of the puzzles being unlocked automatically so that we could reach the end. I hit my forehead, and I’m walking for four days with a bruise because “the pirates are coming, quickly, go go go.”

If we put aside our experience, “The Tavern” is a stunning adventure with an excellent plot, full of endless surprises. The decors take your breath away; they are undoubtedly the best I have ever touched or seen. Everything is done with Hollywood attention to detail, sounds, effects, lighting… A grand finale from which we only understand half because part of the information was spared from us due to the rush. In the end, we were left with raised eyebrows and many questions.

The fact that this woman tried to talk to us through a 15-meter-long room away where I couldn’t hear my own thoughts because of the waterfall noise remains absolutely inexplicable to me to this day.

I categorically state that if they had let us play on our own and given us 3 hours, this would have been my nomination in the top 5 of Terpeca for the year. Another room where inexperienced operators can simply ruin the whole experience.

If you’re wondering what to play in Barcelona, go and check it out. But manage your experience yourself, don’t pay attention to external factors, and hurry. I hate rushing in such a room…

I have never loved and been equally disappointed by a room to this extent!

P.S. Conversation after the game:

- Did you like it?
- We rushed a lot; we need more time. We have questions.
(no follow-up, as if I said nothing, changing the subject)
- Let's take a picture.
- Can we take our own phone to take a picture?
- Here? There's no time to take your phone and come back (our phones are locked in the lobby)
(We manage to convince her that we need it, leading to the result that we have two pictures, both blurry)
- You have a discount for our other rooms!
- Thank you, we're leaving for Bulgaria in the morning.
- I had to say that, it is a part of my after the game speech. 

Honestly, I traveled 1800 kilometers for this…