Illuminati Escape – Titanik 2.0 – Escape Room Berlin

Berlin / 5-9 players / Price: 25 – 21,50 Euro per person / Rating: 8.6

Location: Abbestraße 17, 10587 Berlin

Date of Play: 18.12.2021

Team Size: 5

★★★★

Having already broken into a casino in Macau, escaped from a computer store in Omsk, and explored an abandoned diner in the Nevada desert in Illuminati Escape, it was time to return. This time we boarded the Titanik 2.0. Read here how we liked it.

Illuminati Escape is one of the few Escape Game providers in the west of Berlin. The premises opposite the Berlin University of the Arts are located in a backyard of a Berlin factory building from the turn of the century in Charlottenburg. When getting there, you can’t avoid a short walk, unless you come by car. Either take the U2 to Ernst-Reuther-Platz or the S3/S5/S7 to Tiergarten and then walk to the Illuminati Escape headquarters, which is located in the said backyard on the 2nd floor.

Illuminati Escape has come up with a special concept for its rooms: All rooms are interwoven with each other story-wise. Thus, everything revolves around the Illuminati and a quantum computer with which they want to achieve world domination. The hunt for the Illuminati is supposed to take us around the world. The Cyber Attack room (Zur Review) takes us to Omsk in Russia to a small computer store. In the Jackpot (To the Review) Escape Room, the players are supposed to puzzle their way through a Chinese casino in Macao. Titanik 2.0 takes place on a sinking ship in the Caribbean and the room Alien Grill (Zur Review) in an abandoned diner in the Nevada desert.  However, all missions can be played independently without any problems.

The briefing was very focused, so that it was quickly made clear to us what our mission was. Perhaps the quick understanding was also due to the fact that we had already chased the Illuminati around the world and we could hardly wait to enter Titanik 2.0.

A special feature of Titanik 2.0 is that you should be at least 5 game ends. This is due to the fact that you are divided into 3 teams. One of the players has to take on the role of the scientist and is already in the communication room of the ship at the beginning of the game. You can read more about the role of the scientist in Maria’s conclusion.

The other players are divided into two teams and start their mission separately within the ship. 

Titanik 2.0

You receive the distress call of the Titanik 2.0. The ship is sinking! On board is a scientist with explosive information about a highly secret experiment. You have 60 minutes to save the scientist….A helicopter will fly you to the sinking Titanik 2.0. There you will board in two teams, rescue the scientist and try to escape from the sinking ship.

Room

Clever minds have been at work in the design of the rooms, which have managed to conceive such an adventure on several levels and with beautiful details in a small space – and with a twist that we don’t want to spoil here. Just like on a real ship, there are narrow corridors and passages, ways up and down, so a certain agility of the players is required. This is exactly the kind of authenticity that adds to the gaming experience. Of course, there aren’t a lot of bells and whistles lying around on a real ship either, and Titanik 2.0 is no exception. At the same time, maritime details and technical gadgets are everywhere, so the setting of a ship has been believably created.
If criticism were to be made at a high level here, the soundscape still has room for improvement, as it didn’t support the course of the story enough for our taste. A few sirens for an alarm or the feeling of incoming water here and there would have raised the existing pulse even more. 

Particularly worth mentioning in Titanik 2.0 is the finale, which really stands out with its idea and implementation and gave us a lot of pleasure.

Riddles

The varied puzzles mostly had a maritime character, without any knowledge of nautics being necessary. Even though the puzzles were linear in places, there were also rooms where the players could work on puzzles in parallel or explore the corners of the rooms. Besides two entertaining gimmick puzzles, most of the puzzles are logical-cognitive and at times haptic. Some puzzle-solving clues are redundant – which is a definite advantage for first-time players and makes it easier for them to get through the room. So there is not much new in the puzzles, but the implementation is coherent and adapted to the theme. What is particularly positive is the high level of cooperativeness in the puzzles. We have rarely played a room with so many successful puzzles that require the cooperation of some or all players. 

Gamemaster

The communication with the gamemaster works via a small two-line display in the communication room – thus the scientist of the group becomes the extended arm of the gamemaster. Due to the sometimes quite stringent clues within the puzzles, there was little need for our gamemaster to communicate. But the clues that came were concisely formulated, but always helpful.

Maria’s Conclusion

In the role of the scientist, I was given the important position of the communication point between the teams. This role can also be taken on by people who don’t have much experience with puzzles, since there are no big brainteasers to solve here and the primary focus is on communication with the two teams. The duration of my seclusion from the rest of the team was also kept within limits and was also entertaining due to the constant audiovisual connection.

The adventure in Titanic 2.0 was a very well-rounded experience with many moments of success and a certain adventure feeling. Especially the finale had the feeling of a computer game element that had become real and knew how to surprise. Illuminati Escape has put together a convincing escape room game here and we can recommend it to all gamers who have no problems with moderate physical exercise and a penchant for a certain thrill. The many puzzles with a cooperative nature were particularly successful and created a strong sense of community as the story progressed. However, we also believe that 5 players is indeed enough and that you tend to get in the way with each additional person.

Sebastian’s Conclusions

For me, Titanik 2.0 was actually the most compelling adventure yet in the world of Illuminati Escape. The creative use of space made me forget that we were in an Escape Room. I was convinced at all times that I was in a ship, although not necessarily a sinking ship. This is where I felt there was a bit of a lack of underlining, convincing soundscape, which caused the actual narrative to suffer a bit. Nevertheless, Titanik 2.0 is a wonderful cooperative escape room experience with coherent puzzles and a successful finale.