The Living Immortal

THE LIVING IMMORTAL is one of the more unusual escape room experiences I played in Chongqing, mainly because of its setting. The game takes place inside an approximately 1,000-square-meter building built around a traditional tongzilou-style structure. Rather than moving through a series of disconnected rooms, the whole experience feels like one large vertical space, with an open central courtyard connecting all three floors.

The story begins with us being invited to an old house to visit the Longmen Huafu Folk Relics Museum. As darkness gradually spreads through the building, it becomes less and less clear where we really are and what happened to the people connected to this place. At its core, THE LIVING IMMORTAL is a story about obsession and attachment. Different characters are unable to let go of family, love, memories or personal desires, and these feelings gradually become something darker.

Players are divided into three families ; Ma, Zhang and Wang. At the very beginning, although the experience does not immediately split into three separate routes. The opening is much more performance-driven, using the actors, lighting and architecture to build the atmosphere before the game becomes more interactive.

This is where the three-floor building becomes especially important. The open courtyard creates perspectives that would be difficult to reproduce in a conventional escape room. You can stand downstairs and watch something happening two floors above, look across the courtyard through windows and railings, or watch teammates and actors moving through different parts of the building. Instead of simply walking through individual rooms, you constantly feel that everything is happening inside one connected structure.

The lighting is also one of the strongest parts of the experience. THE LIVING IMMORTAL does not rely heavily on flashing stage lights or huge mechanical effects. Instead, it mostly uses atmospheric lighting and filtered light to emphasize the architecture itself. The balconies, windows, staircases and railings become part of the visual composition. 

The actors also use the vertical space very effectively. Their performances rely a lot on body movement, positioning and timing rather than dialogue alone. Several scenes place actors at different heights around the building, creating strong visual compositions across the three floors. There are also moments where multiple actors perform together, and the combination of their movement, the lighting and the building gives the game a surprisingly theatrical feeling.

There are several solo missions during the earlier parts of the experience as well. Selected players may be separated from the rest of the group, while others can sometimes watch parts of what happens from another floor. Because of the open structure, even a solo mission can become something for the rest of the team to observe. One particularly memorable image was standing at the bottom of the courtyard while paper offerings slowly fell from above.

Around the middle of the game, everyone comes together for some relatively simple cooperative puzzles. These are not especially difficult, but they provide a nice change of pace after the performance-heavy opening and gradually lead into the RPG section. The game is never really about difficult puzzle-solving; the puzzles mainly help move the story forward and give everyone something to do together.

From there, the three families begin following their own objectives around the building. The puzzles remain fairly simple, with the main purpose being to uncover more of each family’s story rather than to provide a difficult challenge. 

This RPG section is quite simple, but I actually enjoyed it. Its biggest strength is the freedom it gives players to move through the building and explore the three floors at a more relaxed pace. The progress of the three families also affects how the final part of the story develops, leading to different endings.

Practical tip: One translator per family is recommended, since the group splits up and you might be sent off on solo missions.