Mystique: Pirate Bay (Budapest)

Talk about a ‘WOW’ factor!

Find the source of the Young Manhood and win eternal life. Get on board, a real pirate ship in downtown Budapest!

Mystique is a venue that has a lot of games so choosing which games we wanted to play was a challenge. We like to play as many as possible at each venue but sometimes we have to be selective. In the end we chose: Cube, Time Machine, AI, Fairy Tale, The Lost Crystal Skull, The Witch, and of course, Pirate Bay – not a bad selection.

I have a love of pirate themed rooms. I don’t know why, I just do. Don’t judge. So this game was the one I was most looking forward to.

Mystique has a few venues so it’s worth making sure you turn up to the correct one. Fortunately they’re all within walking distance of each other, and Pirate Bay was located at their Mystique 1 venue.

Pirate Bay wasn’t our first game at this venue so we were already settled in and quite comfortable between games in the multiple waiting areas. When it was time, our GM escorted us to another part of the complex where we found yet another waiting area. This is where our briefings took place before we were finally ready to visit Pirate Bay.

IMMERSION/ROOM DESIGN

All of the games at Mystique had top notch set design, but this game. Wow. I’ve played many pirate themed games, and many very good pirate themed games. But as soon as you enter this room you’re met with this giant structure in front of you and it feels like something straight out of Pirates of the Caribbean.

Don’t get me wrong, the puzzles in Pirate Bay were good, but really the star of the show was the set. The first ‘wow moment’ from when we entered was arguably the best bit of the set, but it was nice that we got to interact with most areas and really investigate the ship. Some of the areas were a little tight in places, but with so many places to explore and investigate it was nice to be able to split up and look around individually.

Another thing worth pointing out is that this game is in no way accessible. Pirate Bay has a lot of stairs/ladders, and they’re mostly very steep, there is also at least one area where you will need to lie-down, crawl a little (well it depends how you tackle it, but it helps). So you really need to make sure you’re comfortable with going up and down ladders and the risk of possibly falling down holes (only if you’re not paying attention). For me though, this game is 100% worth any risks.

Ambient pirate/seaside/boat noises were being played at all times which helped to add to the feeling that we were actually in a boat in a port. For the entire time we were in this game, which admittedly wasn’t long, I don’t recall hearing any noises from the outside. I also spent a good amount of my youth at various ports and seaside resorts around the UK, and one thing is for sure, they’re never silent (damned seagulls).

PUZZLES

Being completely honest, the puzzles were not overly memorable in Pirate Bay. There were the usual things that all used the appropriate props that you’d expect to find in a pirate themed room: searching, observation, decoding, colours, audio and putting things in the right places.

The puzzles were fine, not memorable, but fine. One puzzle relied on an image of something to tell you what to do, but it wasn’t the best image so it took us a little while to work out what simple thing we actually had to do.

I wish I had checked my steps on this game as there was some very sneaky hiding of things we needed and we spent a long time scouring the various levels in great detail to find them.

GM/CLUE SYSTEM

It seemed like all of the clue system at Mystique (that we played, well except one) used the same clue delivery method – walkie-talkies. Nothing wrong with walkie-talkies really, they’re tried and tested, and they work. But they certainly don’t fit with any form of immersion when you’re supposed to be on a pirate ship.

Generally we did find that the gamesasters in Hungary weren’t perhaps as welcoming and warm as those we have found in other countries, but of course this could just be a cultural thing or perhaps down to the language barrier – we certainly didn’t speak much/any Hungarian! Saying that, the GMs we met at Mystique were a mixed bag, some were pleasant and one seemed grumpy. Our GM for Pirate Bay was in the ‘nice’ bag.

I can’t recall needing hints in Pirate Bay but I do remember stalling on a puzzle but the GM gave us time to work it out for ourselves which was nice. I think we opted for the ‘we’ll ask for help if we need it, but if we look like we’re really struggling, then please help’ approach – fortunately our GM followed that to perfection.

ANYTHING ELSE

Pirate Bay had the wow factor, there’s no doubt about it. The set was very impressive and the puzzles were also solid. I’m not sure what my favourite game we played at Mystique was, but this one was certainly a contender.

One thing I spotted in the Mystique website was this sentence “For our design team, the primary consideration is to create rooms that can be enjoyable and solvable for everyone, so that the rate of successful escapes is nearly 100%”. Credit to Mystique for this. Escape rooms are designed to be fun, and creating a game that is primarily made for people to have fun should always be the goal.

Success/Failed

Final Rating:

Team: 4 players – 29:13 taken

Address: Mystique Room, 1055 Budapest, Szent Istvan Korut 9

Website: https://www.mystiqueroom.hu/en