"Donaumelodien" is a four-book crime series by the Austrian author Bastian Zach. In addition to a collection of short stories, there is now also an escape game from old Vienna. Here the players go in search of the legendary treasure in St. Stephen's Cathedral. The setting and the integration into a crime series promise a lot of story. You can read below how the game fared in the test.
In the series "Donaumelodien" the protagonists are the ghost photographer Hieronymus Holstein and his friend, the "hunchbacked Franz". Without having read the novels, such a pairing promises some entertaining chemistry. Unfortunately, as far as we can tell, apart from the year setting, nothing from the novel series will be in Danube Melodies Escape adopted.
A mysterious customer has offered the playgroup to share the treasure in St. Stephen's Cathedral with them. He provides them with the necessary information. He himself cannot attend the search because "important business" prevents him from doing so.
So the group goes to St. Stephen's Cathedral and searches for clues there.
Lean Rules
As you are used to from escape games, the rules are clear. The subtleties are here but again something peculiar.
You play your way card by card through a deck that represents a total of seven locations in St. Stephen's Cathedral. After a short puzzle to warm up, the cards are placed in small piles around the map of St. Stephen's Cathedral, forming the locations.
There are three different types of cards: Puzzles, Items, and Helpers. Puzzles must be solved to advance. Items are necessary to solve certain puzzles. The helpers are optional puzzles that do not have to be solved. If you still solve them correctly, you get a bonus of 10 minutes at the end of the game.
If you solve a helper puzzle or one of the compulsory puzzles wrong, you get a "Bummerl". This is a five minute time penalty which is added to the time required at the end.
The goal is to solve all the puzzles (including all time penalties and time bonuses) within 60 minutes. This is how you get the best rating at the end. If the time is between 60 and 90 minutes, you get an average rating and if the time is over 90 minutes, you get the worst rating.
Information about Donaumelodien Escape! The Treasure in St. Stephen's Cathedral
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| Number of people: 1-6 Age: from 12 years Playing time: 60 to 90 minutes Difficulty: medium Long-term motivation: one-time game Classification: escape game Game idea: Bastian Zach |
Conclusion
We will not go into further content of the game and the exact process, otherwise puzzles or parts of the story would be revealed. But here is our spoiler-free conclusion.
The gameplay is consistently good. The cards are nice and big and stable, so that everything is easy to read. Only for the picture puzzle would have been something "bigger" than the basis of the puzzle would have been desirable. Especially when playing in a group, the map size is unsuitable for this type of puzzle.
The plan of St. Stephen's Cathedral has no flaws and can easily be used for all required purposes.
The control cards also fulfill their task without reproach. The small peculiarities of the game are presented clearly and concisely. The "Bummerl" are known in a similar way from the Unlock! games, where penalty minutes are counted in the app if a solution is entered incorrectly.
The helper puzzles as another separate element of the game could not convince us when playing through. In our opinion, the bonus minutes that you can win with the three helpers contained in the game are hidden behind rather unimaginative puzzles, some of which only ask for extended general knowledge.
In general, the puzzles are the game's biggest weakness. Many are simple logic puzzles that you have seen many times before. How to measure an exact amount of liquid with three bottles that just don't hold that amount directly or in which direction you have to move a lever so that the last gear wheel is turned in the given direction are not really innovative puzzles.
The escape game genre has been trending for so long that it takes creativity to make it stand out. So it seems rather uninspired. A labyrinth, a picture puzzle, secret writing or puzzles with dice have simply been solved too often.
Some puzzles have other solutions than those given. In a puzzle, the solution depends on a very fine detail. This will be made clearer in a new edition.
Due to the nature of the logic puzzles, the story, both in the puzzles and in the game as a whole, unfortunately falls short. Especially since the game belongs to the book series "Donaumelodien" according to the title, the protagonists and their peculiarities could have been used here.
A long time ago we played an escape game in which Commissioner Kluftinger was kidnapped. While the main protagonist didn't actually appear in the game here, the way the puzzles were structured and referenced the story of the novels gave us a much more "lively" feel to the game, even though we hadn't read the novel series here either.
During development there were considerations to adopt the protagonists and the extended setting of the novel series. Ultimately, the decision was made against it because the names of the characters could have put the game in a certain corner if you weren't familiar with the novel series and the death rate for a "12+" game in the books was too high.
The "twist" of the story at the end is not surprising and in this form also a classic. Unfortunately, a lot of potential was wasted in the story.
People who have not yet played many escape games will perhaps not notice these negative points so much and this game can also work as an entry into the world of escape games, since the entire packaging does not have to be included or around various corners (also spatially ) has to be thought through, as is often the case in the EXIT or Unlock! series, but well-known forms of puzzles are used.
On the positive side, nothing has to be destroyed here and the game can be played again by other groups. The few points that you should write down on the game material can also be noted on a separate sheet.
| Preview | Product | Rating | Price | |
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ZMan, The Lord of Dreams, basic game, family game,... * |
66,97 EUR |
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