Self-Guided The Bremen Syndicate City Escape Game

The starting point is the Bremer Marktplatz, with the Bremer Dom on the far side of the square, and the route leaves from there toward the river. It passes St.-Martini-Kirche on the way down and comes back through the streets east of the centre. As an outdoor escape game the order is dictated by the puzzles, not by a sightseeing plan.

The old centre of Bremen is compact and mostly closed to cars, so a team can spread out a little and still be within earshot. A team is two to five players sharing one phone, each with a character and a role in the mission, so the useful information is distributed rather than sitting with one person. Beyond five players you run as two teams, each with a phone of its own. Nothing depends on a guide, and no hour is set for the start.

How to play

The whole game runs from an app, and these four steps are the entire preparation.

1. Book the City Game
2. Check the instructions email
3. Download the Loquiz app
4. Start playing whenever you like.

Magnus left Bremen with a set of stolen formulas, and the search takes the team through codes, riddles and photo tasks laid out along his route. It runs past the Kunsthalle Bremen and up toward the Theater am Goetheplatz, and more than one puzzle stalls until each character reads out what only they were given. The trail bends back toward the water for the last stages.

With two or more teams playing at once it becomes a competition, which is why it also works as a team building afternoon rather than only as a family outing. There is no clock, so you can stop for a meal and resume the hunt later. The route finishes in the old centre of Bremen.