TeamCrack – The Walking Z – Escape Room Bielefeld

Bielefeld / 4 – 10 Players / Price: 27 – 20 Euro per Person / Rating: 6.6

Location: Kesselbrink 5, 33602 Bielefeld

Date of Play: 29.08.2021

Players: 3

★★★

At the beginning of 2019, a new TeamCrack location opened in Bielefeld with the Cabinet of Secrets. Every film adaptation always carries the risk of not living up to the specific ideas of the players. The newest room, The Walking Z, also makes use of a famous role model from the film world. We were therefore curious to see how TeamCrack managed to adapt The Walking Dead. 

The premises of TeamCrack are centrally located in Bielefeld, various parking facilities can be found along the street. The waiting lounge is inviting and brightly furnished. 

The welcome was a bit more distant compared to the last visit. Our game master then asked us to lock our valuables in a chest. Immediately afterwards, however, she asked us to pay the game amount. The organization could certainly have been a bit more professional at this point. We then took a seat on the comfortable sofas and received a standard briefing.

The Walking Z

“In 1998, a secret experiment went wrong at a secret military hospital in Bielefeld, Germany, turning patients into soulless monsters. However, during the attempt to develop an antidote, the infected went on a rampage. In the process, the employees were torn to shreds or bitten and began to transform. The apocalypse could no longer be avoided. Just a year later, almost all of humanity strolled the streets in the form of soulless creatures. The few who have not yet been infected hide deep in nature or underground in the cities. Your group of survivors heard about the military hospital in Bielefeld and learned that they were close to developing an antidote. Recognizing this unique opportunity, you set out for the now abandoned building. Once there, you manage to activate the emergency generator, which, however, only has enough fuel for 60 minutes. The research station now has the necessary power for the system and thus an emergency lock on the doors, but this has also alerted the Soulless Ones to you and the clock is ticking mercilessly…”

Room

Equipped with various equipment such as headlamps, we were divided into two rooms within the hospital. The surveillance/changing room is suitably bare in the context of the hospital with white walls, a few lockers and a desk. In the course of the game, however, there are hardly any further surprises in terms of scenery. The white wallpaper has blood stains in places, otherwise only the props like a treatment chair remind us of a hospital. The atmosphere of an abandoned, secret military hospital could certainly have been conveyed a bit more strongly. Overall, the setting doesn’t seem to have much attention to detail. We also only felt the presence of the soulless creatures once in the entire game time. On a positive note, the atmosphere is underpinned by a coherent background sound. 

Story

The story is about a mission objective. Why we started separately in the military hospital was unfortunately not made clear to us. Overall, the story is told mainly through the puzzles. We were able to produce the antiserum in time and thus save humanity. However, a proper, more dramatic finale would be desirable at this point.

Tasks

The puzzles are classic logic puzzles that mainly end in codes for (number) locks. Especially at the beginning, this leads to trying out the codes on various locks. We liked the cooperation between the subgroups, since the players depend on the results of the other subgroup. Overall, the puzzles are thematically integrated and tell the background story to the room. The final puzzle also fits in well with the story. The difficulty level is in the average range.

Gamemaster

Our game master was a bit distant and unmotivated during the greeting. During the game, she also didn’t always know where we were in terms of content. Unfortunately, a mistake also happened in the preparation, so that she had to come into the room during the game to close a door. Since mistakes are human, dealing with mistakes is important for especially. Unfortunately, there was no apology for the interruption of the game at that point. Instead, she provided us with information via walkie-talkie about the possible reasons for the overheated door magnet, which we were not yet able to see, however.

Conclusion

The Walking Z is a room whose spark unfortunately didn’t jump over with us. The very classic puzzles could entertain us for an hour, but the setting hardly convinced us. The high significance of the gamemaster was once again demonstrated to us on this day. The gamemaster is not only responsible for monitoring the game, but is also the contact person for the entire experience of the players on site.