Beam us up!
Attention Earthlings!
Extra-terrestrials have landed in our neighbourhood and curiosity gets the better of you!
You approach the seemingly abandoned spaceship, set foot inside and are immediately abducted!
So unless you fancy being probed, you better find the way out and fast!
The last time we were at Housetrap was a few years ago and Abducted was the game that wasn’t quite open yet. For this trip, which was an impromptu weekend away, specifically to play games at Housetrap and Dreadlock, we would finally be able to play Abducted, which was no longer their newest game, plus all the other games that they had opened since our last visit.
Abducted (as well as Camelot) are the two games at their Gnome World location in Indian Queens. From what we could see, it’s a holiday park with gnomes all over the place, and a building set aside for some escape rooms – an interesting combination. To make things more interesting, Abducted takes place in a caravan.
Before you arrive at the venue, make sure you read the instructions in the email as they contain information you need to actually get on site, such as the access code for the barrier. Fortunately, we had studied our instructions and arrived with plenty of time to spare. What was a bit more unusual about ‘Abducted’ is that there was no GM to greet us, just a sign on the door telling us what to do – make sure you read this sign, it’s important.
With our team assembled, the light turned green, and we entered the caravan spaceship…
IMMERSION/ROOM DESIGN
Considering this game was located in a caravan, it really didn’t take me long to forget that we were in one. The set design was good with the usual cliche type of decor one would expect to see in an alien spaceship – silver paint, alien languages, and weird alien noises playing every now-and-then. Being a caravan, there were steps up into it, and there were some narrow spaces, so if accessibility is a concern then it would be worth checking with the venue.
I read the description for this game, but I must admit that while playing I totally lost track of the story and how it factored into the game. The good thing is that it didn’t affect my enjoyment of it at all – and generally the story goes over my head anyway, I just like puzzles!
We played Abducted as a team of three and never found it too claustrophobic for us, as although the game started off in a smallish space, it soon opened up. The first space we encountered was also dimly lit, but again lighting soon improved and it was never an issue going forward.
PUZZLES
It felt like we had a slow start in Abducted as the first puzzle took us a bit longer than we would have liked, but once we got going, everything seemed to go smoothly and all of the puzzles clicked. One thing that helped was that a digital keypad was provided for taking notes, and I’m pretty sure there is no way we’d have completed this game without it. It was invaluable
All the puzzles were unsurprisingly around the space/alien theme, and I can’t recall too much that felt out of place. The use of space in this game was also quite clever in places. Puzzles were based around; observation, searching, audio, decoding (a good amount of that), communication, and a good amount of team work.
There was a little bit of tech in this game, but for the most part the puzzles resulted in combinations for a variety of padlock types or keypads.
We found the puzzles to be intuitive and enjoyable to solve. We only struggled on one, and that wasn’t so much the puzzle itself, but a stupid search fail where somehow the whole of our team managed to not check something properly.
GM/CLUE SYSTEM
Because we didn’t meet our gamesmaster until after the game, we can’t really comment on any welcome or briefing. However, any/all clues were delivered via the speaker system in an alien-like voice, but they could also be displayed visually on the screens in the rooms – these screens also displayed the countdown timer.
We made good time in this game so when we got stuck, we had to ask for a bit of help. Fortunately, that help came through quickly and got us back on track without ruining our flow. We didn’t catch the name of our GM when we finally did meet her, but she was enthusiastic and gave us a decent debrief, so we really couldn’t ask for me.
ANYTHING ELSE
Considering this game takes place in a caravan, it was very easy to forget that fact. Set design was decent, puzzles were fun (although perhaps a little heavy on decoding/translating), and the ‘no-gm’ start worked well.
Success/Failed
Final Rating:
Operation Puzzles Room Design GM/Clues Excitement
Team: 3 players
Address: Gnome World, Moorland Rd, Indian Queens, Saint Columb TR9 6HN
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