Hamburg, Feb 2025
This is a premise that at another venue could easily have been a horror room: plagued by insomnia, you undergo experimental therapy to enter your own dreamworld to defeat your inner demons, before you’re trapped there forever. But while this does have some darker edges to the theming, it’s a puzzle-led game in an atmospheric but not scary setting.
With a very smart beginning, Insomnia got off to a strong start and never really faltered. I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say that there are several stages to the room, progressing through different styles of decor that are nonetheless linked by the surreal dream theming; at one point I entered a space and paused for a bit to just look and appreciate the way they’d built it.
In the three rooms we played at Big Break, I don’t believe I saw any puzzle with dubious logic; the ones in Insomnia made sense throughout. For us it flowed smoothly all the way through, with enough to keep all of our team of three busy without ever really losing momentum.
While it’s a lovely game, it shows its age a little in some of the design decisions, especially when compared to Big Break’s latest. For instance, the ending was appropriate for the story and worked perfectly well, but I thought it was a missed opportunity for something more dramatic and memorable. Something like a certain puzzle earlier on in this same game, in fact, which combined out of the box thinking with beautiful use of scenery to provide what for me was the best moment of the room.
Insomnia has been running at the venue for quite a few years now, and our host told us it’s in line for a refresh. I can see that there are opportunities for Big Break to upgrade the room, but even as it is I’d have little hesitation in encouraging you to include this room on a visit to Hamburg; if it gets a gentle overhaul that’ll likely make it even better. 
