Welcome to The Matrix
Prague, 22nd century. ChamCorp, a global entertainment megacorporation, is throwing a banquet to celebrate its success. However, the opulent event doesn’t hide the fact that there is something rotten in the Underground City district. Gangs are fighting for control of the streets, anarchists are relentlessly planning one diversionary attack after another, and the corporation is certainly not left unscathed. Who is to blame for the alarming number of missing people? Will you infiltrate the scene to uncover the truth, or would you rather hang out at the bar and earn a few credits betting on robot fights? The decision is yours!
Intro
When we booked a week-long escape trip in Poland, we didn’t realise just how close our final city of Wrocław was to Prague. But at one point in our planning, we noticed that we could get a train between the two, and in just a matter of hours join in on the fun at the Prague Escaping Summit, organised by the team at The Chamber.
As part of the summit, The Chamber arranged special sessions of their immersive experiences: Kingdom Come: Experience and ChamCorp: The CyberGame. We missed out on Kingdom Come: Experience due to the plans we had already made in Poland, but our early morning train from Wrocław ensured we would arrive in plenty of time for ChamCorp, so we booked our tickets, despite knowing next to nothing about it.
So, what is it?
ChamCorp isn’t strictly speaking an escape room, although it most certainly is escape room adjacent. Simply put, ChamCorp is an immersive experience. But since that term encompasses so many things, what exactly does that mean?
ChamCorp is essentially an open world adventure game, combining elements of immersive/interactive theatre, RPGs, and Escape Rooms to create something unique. Readers in the UK will probably compare it to Phantom Peak, and while the concept is similar, the execution is very much different. Set in the 22nd Century, the Chamber have created a futuristic cyberpunk world within the exceptionally cool venue, the Fun Arena. Although dressing up is not strictly necessary, accessorising yourself with any futuristic bits you can do certainly help set the mood.
How does it work?
We were slightly delayed in arriving at the venue, so when we arrived at the Fun Arena, the queue to enter was already quite lengthy. But it moved quickly, and it wasn’t long before we were ushered inside the building. We were held in the foyer as we waited for the space to fill up, but once it was, one of the inhabitants of the Underground City helped to fill in the blanks regarding why we were there.
Our first mission: Choose our Faction and our Gang, then find our contact to give us our first mission. With our choice made, we made our way deeper into the Underground City, and allowed ourselves to become enmeshed within the world.
Depending on your choice of Faction and Gang, players will then follow one of four narrative arcs, completing missions, solving puzzles, and participating in side quests to see where the story leads. Unlike other immersive experiences we’ve participated in, ChamCorp made me feel like I was actually influencing the story, rather than simply uncovering it. Sometimes we were uncovering information, other times we were simply proving our loyalty to the gang, and in still other instances, it felt like things happened because of the choices we made.
Apart from a break for some food and a beer, we were in constant motion the entire time we were at ChamCorp. We didn’t feel a frantic pressure to go, go go, and moved at our own pace. Even so, there was more than enough time to follow our narrative path through to its conclusion before the climactic end to the night. And those that find themselves finished early can even work to join another gang, or participate in other side quests. In fact, there is so much to see and do that it’s impossible to do it all in one night, and this could easily be an experience people would repeat.
Puzzles?
The Chamber are an escape room company, so of course ChamCorp has puzzles! But they might not be the puzzles you’re expecting. There are certainly some escape-room style puzzles, but there is so much more to it than that. Character interaction is paramount to seeing the story through to the end. Missions could encompass anything from testing your agility, following an operative to discover the whereabouts of some critical information, proving your loyalty, or to a gun battle in the Laser Nerf Arena, and so much more. But whatever it is, the missions are there to drive the story forward, or offer an opportunity to go off-piste and just have a bit of fun.
The only downside is that because the experience is so heavily narrative driven and character focussed, there can often be bottlenecks when waiting to speak to a citizen of the Underground City. The cast managed this well, and were able to switch off to manage this where they could, but sometimes it just wasn’t possible, and we found ourselves losing momentum.
Anything else
ChamCorp is all about the experience, and it most certainly was one. The Chamber have created an entirely new world, with a complex and intriguing narrative that transports you out of Prague and into the future. With hours of content, as well as plenty of other activities, ChamCorp is well worth an evening to take it all in, and experience.
Success/Failed
Final Rating:
Team: 200 Players?
Address: Bartůňkova 1761/7, 149 00 Praha 4-Chodov, Czechia
Website: https://thechamber.cz/en/
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