Elusion Escape Rooms: Cursed Waters (Southampton)

Worth it for that one moment

You will need to put together an expedition team and follow a map to the last known haunt of the pirate Captain Keats and the crew of The Wraith.

​An uncharted cave invites fortune hunters to uncover its mysteries and make a hard choice between greed and honour.

Having just completed From Below, we were ready for our second game of the day Elusion, Cursed Waters. I’d been looking forward to this game for a long time and it was finally time to play it (I’m a big fan of pirate games).

We had a little downtime between the games so we sat in the comfortable Chesterfield style seats in the back waiting area. If you’ve not visited Elusion’s high street location, then you really should. You don’t just enter into a waiting room for an escape room, oh no, they have a full on cocktail bar called ‘Dark Arts Potion Bar’. It’s obviously very popular as when we were there it was very busy, and we’ll definitely be back one day to enjoy it properly and play their table top escape room.

After a short wait, it was our time to play. Our GM, Phillip, took us back to the little briefing room and then left us to watch the mission briefing video. When he returned, we followed him down the stairs and down the familiar hallway to the entrance to Cursed Waters. He opened the door, and we were off.

IMMERSION/ROOM DESIGN

I must say that it was actually quite a nice change to play a pirate themed game that didn’t take place on a pirate ship. First impressions of Cursed Waters were good, entering into the cave it felt like there was a lot going on and it was rather overwhelming, but once we settled down it all came together.

A pirate themed room would be nothing without a sense of adventure, and this had that in oodles. We encountered spaces that felt very distinct from each other, and each one helped push the story forward.

Everything in the space felt like it belonged, and nothing felt out of place. Props felt like they were built to last and nothing in the room felt overly run down. Actually, there was one thing that felt slightly out of place, during the reset a GM had left a Leatherman tool in the room – and if there’s one thing you don’t leave in an escape room it’s a tool that can be used to take things apart (we behaved).

Music was playing at all times, which I always like. But then later in the game the music changed perfectly for the space we were in and I loved every minute of it – I won’t spoil it but let’s just say the music choice in this one section was perfect.

PUZZLES

Like I said, when we entered the room there was a lot going on, so really the first puzzle was where we should actually start. Fortunately this was quite an open and non-linear game early on so we just split up and worked on the things that interested us the most. Liz went off and did an audio puzzle, and I farted around then eventually settled on something a little more physical.

The puzzles were satisfying to solve and most of them had clear signposting, although I must admit that one puzzle we likely wouldn’t have found if it wasn’t for the intervention of the GM. We had already done/found something with one thing so didn’t expect there to be something else going on with this same thing – our mistake.

The puzzles all joined together to help us progress with our mission. Generally they were; searching, observation, audio, physical, decoding and teamwork (maybe?) types of puzzles. For the most part the puzzles all felt reasonable and fair, but there was one thing that we think was a puzzle although we’re not sure that we ever actually did anything with it, so that confused us a little.

Oh yes, and because we found a Leatherman tool in one part of the room, we used our initiative (not the tool) and managed to very much shortcut a puzzle that should have taken a lot longer – whoops.

At the end of this game you have to make a choice. I feel like we made the correct choice as that meant we got an extra little puzzle to solve, yay!

GM/CLUE SYSTEM

Because all the puzzles made such perfect sense, we didn’t actually need any clues in this game. If we did they would have been delivered over the speaker system and I have no doubt that we would have received them quickly as Phillip was keeping a close eye on our progress.

I don’t recall seeing a timer in this room, but then again I don’t really recall seeing a timer in any of the other games that we played on this day. It makes sense, why would we see a countdown timer in this random cave?

ANYTHING ELSE

I enjoyed Cursed Waters. At the start it felt like there was a lot going on but it all came together well and also gave me one of my most enjoyable escape room moments – ok it was short lived, but the joy it brought me for that short period of time will certainly stay with me.

Success/Failure

Final Rating:

Team: 2 players – escaped in 34:05

Address: 125 High St, Southampton SO14 2AA

Website: https://www.elusionrooms.com/