Escape Boats: The Inspectors (Galway)

“How did they fit that on there!?”

You are an elite maritime inspection team with the Global Protection and Security Agency. Recently the agency has been made aware of a highly suspicious cargo vessel spotted off the coast of Galway, and it is your job to investigate the cargo and confirm the rumours. Depending on what you find on board, you may need to take decisive action to prevent innocent lives being lost. Your instincts, your courage, and your team are the only things standing between peace and catastrophe.  Will you rise to the challenge—or let the danger slip away undetected?

We were in Ireland for a wedding, a wedding that was conveniently off the coast of Galway, meaning we’d fly into Dublin and get the train to Galway. Dublin and Galway…two places that happen to both have Escape Boats venues – it’s a sign! Once we had finalised our plans for the wedding, we made sure to get booked in ASAP. The Galway venue was on the return leg of our trip, so after a (really) short flight from Inis Mor, and a bus into town, we made our way to the harbour and located the venue. As you may have guessed by the name, the venue is indeed a boat.

We’d played both games at the Dublin venue, SOS and Convicts on the way over to Galway, so we already knew that the quality of the games by Escape Boats was high, and expected more of the same in Galway.

First impressions were good. It was a boat, and it felt much bigger than the boat in Dublin. It even had a very good sized waiting area that could comfortably fit larger teams if needed. Like Dublin, I don’t recall seeing a toilet on board, so possibly worth using one before you arrive.

When we stepped on board we were greeted by our host, Carolina. She gave us a warm welcome and we had a lovely chat. As nice as chatting was, we were obviously there to deal with some suspicious cargo. So we donned our safety gear, received our briefing and then descended down the steep ladder/staircase to find ourselves outside the entrance to the room.

IMMERSION/ROOM DESIGN

I really like how Escape Boats work to their strengths when it comes to choosing their themes. SOS – a ship in distress, Convicts – a prison ship, and The Inspectors – investigating dodgy cargo. All themes that are 100% suited to being on an actual real-life, floating boat!

Our journey in The Inspectors started off in a pretty standard and quite small room, but before long, it opened up into a bigger space and certainly contained a wow-factor. I was surprised by what was in front of us and later had to question the staff how they managed to get this ‘thing’ on a boat – very impressive and once again, perfectly fitted to the story.

Out of the three games we played by Escape Boats, I think The Inspectors was my favourite, mostly because of the set design. The boat looked sizable from the outside, but it was like a Tardis and I’ve no idea how they managed to fit in what they did, and apparently still have room on the boat for another game!?

Like the other games by Escape Boats, I honestly can’t remember if there was any ambient noises being pipped in, or if it was just typical boat noises. But it worked, and we were immersed.

Sadly, like many games that take place on boats, it’s not really accessible. Even just to get to the room you have to go down a steep set of stairs and there is a good chunk of crawling/climbing involved. If you REALLY want to play this game (and you probably do), it would be worth reaching out to the venue directly to see if there’s anything they can do to assist.

PUZZLES

When you look at all the effort that Escape Boats put into this game to make it feel authentic, it’s no surprise that the attention to detail was also carried over to the puzzles. Each puzzle we encountered felt naturally integrated into the environment, and the style of the puzzles evolved as we progressed through the spaces.

The puzzles used objects that one would expect to find on a boat, and solving them was a delight. Searching, observation, decoding, teamwork, communication and generally just following obstructions made up the bulk of the puzzles.

Signposting was decent, and I think we only struggled in one place later on in the game – but that could have just been us not noticing something or overthinking (like we usually do).

Solving the puzzles either resulted in a code for a padlock, or they triggered some tech. Speaking of tech, there was a good amount of it in this game, and it all worked flawlessly

GM/CLUE SYSTEM

Our host, Carolina, welcomed us on board when we arrived and her welcoming nature continued throughout our whole experience. All Escape Boats staff wear uniforms that feel right out of the merchant navy, and I would assume the rank they have also aligns with their seniority in the business, maybe?

For the most part we gave Carolina an easy ride as the game felt intuitive and flowed well. I think there were a couple of stupid moments, but she chimed in quickly over the walkie-talkie and got us back on track nicely. We did suffer from a minor reset error which stalled us ever so slightly, but Carolina picked up on it quickly and got us moving right away.

ANYTHING ELSE

Each game we played with Escape Boats (both Dublin and Galway) seemed to improve on the previous. The Inspectors had a great wow moment and some clever puzzles that we hadn’t seen before. Galway looked like a beautiful place, and we probably should have spent more time exploring, but even having literally just visited to play this game, we regret nothing.

Success / Failure

Final Rating:

Team: 2 players – escaped in around 53 mins

Address: The Old Dock, The Long Walk, Galway, H91 WR8C, Ireland

Website: https://escapeboats.ie

*Disclaimer: we weren’t charged for these tickets, but this has not influenced our review*