The Illusionist

This is a review of the Escape Room “The Illusionist” offered by De Kraakfabriek in Antwerpen, Belgium.
  • ⭐️ 8.5/10
  • 🌡 Medium
  • ⏳ 60 Minutes
  • 👥 2 – 6 Person

De Kraakfabriek had been on my personal list for quite a while. As a matter of fact, my first escape trip ever was to the city of Antwerp. I had seen back then some nice reviews about their other two rooms (we played one in this trip, see Heiner’s review of The bunker), but at that point in time the company was closed.

As I knew they had a new room, which had also positive critics and some people mentioned it to me when planning the trip, a visit to this venue was arranged. The building they are in now is quite a fantastic building and it is a pity that probably for practical reasons it is not possible to make use to the full extent of such a naturally beautiful building.

This is also probably the reason why their new room is constructed in the way it is constructed, in a rather modular way. Maybe I am being too critic with this aspect, but a tendency that is common in many great rooms is to provide for an immersive start into the game. This can be implemented in a variety of ways, and I have to say that this was a minus point in this case. We walked towards the room which inside of a monumental building to encounter a plain white container like structure where the actual escape room is located, in front of which an explanation takes place.

Luckily, the interior contrasted with that first impression in a positive way. Already from the start the room is designed so that the players can work in parallel on different tasks. Most of the action of the room takes place in a beautifully decorated space with a great use of lights. I was positively impressed by it. Parallel working is key to be able to succeed in time. I do not remember the exact spot we reached now, but we did pretty well and made one of the top times.

I found great how the story is told. If you like narrative, this room will definitely make you happy. The puzzles were all logic, several involved collaboration and were thematically connected with the room. Several nice elements are present and some nice original ideas. The end is a challenging puzzle and it can be discussed whether it is the best way to finish this room, I enjoyed it, but the best is to experience it for yourself, in our case we quickly managed to sort it out thanks to the skilled direction of Tanja.

Santiago Onel

Santiago Onel