Key Info
- Playa De Las Americas, Tenerife, Spain
- 60 Minute Game
- 2 - 4 Players
- Room states a 4/6 Difficulty Rating
- €37.50 Per Player
- Free Parking Nearby
- 8/10 Difficulty
We Escaped In
56 Minutes
- Pete, Nate
- March 2024
Room Brief
There are rumours in the Fairy World that the Evil Forces are gathering an army. A new battle is on the way and you are our only hope. Put an end to the centuries-old war against the dark forces!
You have to prove that you are ready to go into the battle. Many trials await you, in the search of the Almighty Ring and the attempts to free the magical spirits of Power. Are you ready to travel through our Magic Land?
Arrival
Island Phobia comes highly recommended on Tripadvisor and Google and is in the heart of Playa De Las Americas just off of the main promenade near the beach. A perfect location to appeal to the many tourists that visit Tenerife every year. We parked up near one of the main shopping centres (for free!) and took a stroll along the beach front to get here. The venue actually proved a little tricky to find on our first visit as the entrance is obscured somewhat by a small bar. Once through the bar, we entered what appeared to be an abandoned shopping complex and inside we found Island Phobia in pride of place at the top of a central staircase.
Once inside the venue, the area is divided into six segments each representing one of the rooms available to play. On site are also a Harry Potter, Freddie Krueger, Bank Robbery, Jumanji and Sherlock Holmes themed games. We were playing the Dragon’s Ring room which is essentially a room themed around the Hobbit.
After being checked in, greeted and briefed by our host Vlad we were able to begin our game! After being given our capes, of course…
Immersion
Pete
Nate
With the themed areas in the lobby, it was immediately obvious which game we would be playing by the impressive doorway to our game. Instead of the usual door, a small round half sized door was in front of us, with grass and flowers surrounding it. No mistaking, this was a Hobbit Hole!
Once we’d ducked and made our way inside, we were really impressed with the decoration and attention to detail that has been achieved. For anyone that has watched the Lord of the Rings films, or the Hobbit prequels there will be an instant familiarity. This has been captured through the timber panelling on the walls and floor and the cosy layout of the game. Such is the attention to detail that even the pictures and coat hooks hanging on the wall are at shoulder height, as if they have been hung by a hobbit!
The theming of the room was consistent through the entire game and even with multiple areas opening up as we played, each felt like an extension of the original space rather than a totally new environment. This worked well in the setting of what is effectively a house as we ended up exploring walk in cupboards and food stores etc. Each of these spaces was filled with relevant props and the puzzles within focused on use of appropriately placed items.
Whilst having watched or read the Hobbit is not essential to this game, there are some nods to the films which fans will appreciate, we enjoyed spotting these throughout the game.
Puzzles & Challenges
Pete
Nate
The Dragon Ring is a logical and linear game that has a clear route of progression. Though if we were to sum up the puzzle in a few words, it would be “interesting but a little chaotic”.
The game objective is to find the Dragon’s ring and it became clear that this would be no simple task! The game area is quite vast actually and there were a lot of objects in the room that looked as though they might be useful at some point. Once clear what we needed to focus on in order to escape this first stage of the game, we had to rely on logic, thorough searching and object manipulation to ultimately solve a set of traditional puzzles revolving around one focal item of furniture. This was somewhat reminiscent of a real life version of the Room mobile phone app for anyone who has played. This gradually led us to a technical challenge which, whilst high tech, had been designed to not look out of place in a hobbit hole and felt entirely relevant.
If the first game space was more traditional, it’s got to be said that the following areas consisted of puzzles which could be viewed as a little more abstract. After uncovering many, many red herrings we were quite stumped on how to proceed at a couple of points within the game. When we were prompted in the right direction we found ourselves wondering on more than one occasion how we would ever have thought to get to that point without help. We found this quite frustrating at times because the actual puzzles were very well thought through and designed, but getting to them was too subtly signposted. One area in particular we thought was a brilliant idea, but it referenced things in the room that were never used and so didn’t feel particularly logical. The process needed was actually much better than what we thought but we would never have got there ourselves. This game is supposedly one of the easier experiences on site but we just did not understand this!
Games Master & Clues
Pete
Nate
Our games master for the Dragon Ring was Vlad, who is part of a team at Phobia who clearly enjoy escape rooms themselves. We made a time amendment to our booking fairly last minute and he did a great job of setting the room up for us in English in no time at all. He did a brilliant job of outlining the game scenario and best of all, equipped us with capes so we looked the part. Following the game, Vlad was helpful in explaining in more detail where we had needed a few clues to get through the room. One puzzle in particular we had never encountered before and even though we’d solved it we weren’t quite sure how and Vlad was able to demonstrate this for us which was really useful.
Clues in the game are delivered via a microphone which is broadcast through a speaker system and displayed on screens which are present in the main and follow up rooms. The screens could be said to distract from the theme a little as they were not disguised particularly well. Unfortunately one of our screens was also presenting with an unconnected HDMI message too which was funny, but a bit distracting. Vlad had been clear that if we wanted a clue, we were to raise our hands and ask him out loud for a bit of help. Outside of this clues would not be handed out. Definitely our preferred way of playing. We did need to ask for a few clues and when we did these were gently nods in the right direction rather than a full blown set of instructions.
Value for Money
Pete
Nate
Island Phobia has a set price for the game, rather than a price for each player so with a room rate of €75 euros, this made it quite an expensive experience for 2 players in comparison to other games on the Island. Due to its prime location in Playa De Las Americas, we were warned ahead of visiting that games in the resort were a bit more expensive than those in other locations. With more players, this becomes more economical obviously but it did feel a bit steep for us when we had played other games at better rates which were very well executed.
There is plenty of free parking in the nearby area, and getting to the venue is very easy from either Los Christianos or Playa De Las Americas by walking along the promenade, meaning a taxi isn’t something most players will have to fork out for!
Enjoyment
Pete
Nate
We enjoyed the Dragon Ring as a game thanks to its brilliant set design and novel puzzles, though we did find a few of these quite frustrating and lacking in signposting. We don’t want an easy ride through a room of course, but we do want to stand a chance of getting out unaided and sadly there was no way this was going to happen in this game.
We had a great time however, and later on during our stay in Tenerife, we did pay the guys here another visit to take on their most difficult game, Jumanji.
