The Video Store of the 80s

This is a review of the Escape Room “The Video Store of the 80s” offered by Baker Street in Gijón, Spain.
  • ⭐️ 7/10
  • 🌡 Medium
  • ⏳ Minutes
  • 👥 2 – 7 Person

The youngsters among you might not now anymore what a video store is, or if you do, most likely you have never set foot in one. Physically borrowing movies nowadays sounds like something from remote times. In my case I grew up going every weekend with my father to one, and while now you can just select your movie using Netflix or any other streaming provider, it was an activity I was very fond of. This room pays homage to that institution of the 80’s, that reached well into the 90’s and made the transition from VHS to DVD before disappearing.

We arrived at the door of the venue and unluckily they were having technical issues, this caused a substantial delay in our tight schedule, but luckily, we were able to play everything afterwards, thanks to the different venues that tolerated our delay. They were working hard on solving it, and they managed to do it, so we could finally enter. I have to acknowledge that in spite of the delay, I really appreciate owners that solve the issues, and not the other way round, namely when you have a room having old/broken/nonfunctioning mechanisms, sometimes for days, weeks, months or longer.

The room starts with a nice, acted intro and welcomes you in the video store, which could easily be a real one. Other than the video store, the escape room has a variety of spaces, some better than the others. In terms of riddles, I had the impression this room had less density than most of the other rooms we played during the trip. I think we struggled a little bit more than we should have.

Overall, neither the set nor the riddles were particularly overwhelming. I think with a higher budget the theme could have been more spectacularly exploited and this shows, and the riddles do not manage to compensate for it. Nevertheless, it is a good room, which is usually mentioned among the recommendations in Gijón and has an original topic that brings us back fond memories.

Santiago Onel

Santiago Onel