Escape Peterborough: Escape the Seven Seas (Peterborough)

Not your typical pirate room

Having been held captive on Captain James’ ship for weeks, his crew are currently plundering a Spanish Galleon of its treasure. You and your fellow captives have a window of opportunity to free yourselves from the brig, steal some of James’s treasure and escape the ship! But hurry, the pirates are too much for the Spanish forces and the battle will soon be over!

Our second room of the day having just completed The Cabin, was Escape The Seven Seas which as you may have guessed is a pirate themed room – I love pirate rooms!

Before going into the room we had a quick chat with our GM, Kyle where we asked if all the ‘Escape’ franchise rooms are the same but he said that this one was their baby and although using the same name and theming, it was a different room to the other Escape The Seven Seas rooms are other escape venues (worth checking on that independently though).

The room briefing took place outside the room, where Kyle explained the health and safety and also the background on what we were there to do. With that out of the way we stepped into the room and instantly we noticed something we’d never seen before in another other room with this theme (or any theme for that matter)…

PUZZLES

When we first entered the room we were a bit overwhelmed with knowing where to start and having too much fun (for me, not Liz) with a certain feature of the room. But once we got settled we started to work out where to go.

Early in the room it is a fairly linear experience with a set flow that things need to be done in order to progress but it soon opens up into a multi-linear experience where you can work on different puzzles simultaneously.

One puzzle was particularly clever as we had to use it multiple times but each time it was different and had a different goal, although at times it felt a bit like we were cheating or going to break the room.  Talking of breaking the room, I did take one puzzle too literally and did something that could have stopped us progressing but fortunately I somehow triggered the mechanism and it opened what it was supposed to (sorry Escape Peterborough).

There was some searching needed, but not much at all as most of the puzzles relied on logic and one involved some manual dexterity.

Story plays a big part in this room and there is a journal which is very verbose. We felt like we spent an inordinate amount of time reading the same thing again and again to try and make sense of it, but it does help to guide you through. It isn’t necessary to read all of the entries, but it certainly helps to peruse it.

Generally the puzzles all made sense, we did get stumped a couple of times but once we were nudged in the right direction it all became clear. One puzzle was frustrating for us and was probably the least enjoyable bit of the room but that was potentially just us over-complicating things as we so often do.

IMMERSION/ROOM DESIGN

I was actually really impressed with the room design here, yes it has the usual pirate themed goodies like hats, swords, bones, and pistols, but they took the design one step further. Once you enter the room they have designed the door so that it basically blends into the wall and you have an element of disbelief as to how you got there – well you would if perhaps you were blindfolded going in (that could actually be a nice improvement).

The feature I liked most about the room I can’t really talk about as it would take away the surprise of finding it yourself. But I think it’s probably a love/hate thing, and personally, I loved it.

All-in-all this room had everything you’d expect to see in a pirate room and arguably a few things you wouldn’t (padlocks, quite a few padlocks). But there was a good mix of padlocks and tech which kept the game fun and unexpected with a good flow through the ‘ship’ from start to end.

The ending was decent, no big song and dance but it was a clear ending and you knew you had achieved your goal.

GM/CLUE SYSTEM

Our last trip to this venue really fell down when it came to receiving clues, fortunately there were no such issues here and Kyle was on the ball with clues and nudges when we needed or requested them.

There was a screen in the room which gave the countdown timer but it was also a space where the GM could send you messages. Unfortunately the screen had a minor error at the start so we couldn’t actually read the clue when it came through, but Kyle rectified this without too much bother.

We’re not sure if there was a secondary clue system in the room or if it was just a system to get your attention to look at the screen, but there was something more ‘on-theme’ in the room that could provide a little assistance.

ANYTHING ELSE

If you’ve done rooms at Escape Peterborough before then this room will be nothing like them. They’ve really upped their game with this room and the only rival for it there is The Cabin. Good theming, decent puzzles (although padlock heavy), but swash-buckling fun.

Success/Failed

Final Rating:

Team: 2 players

Address: 23 Church Walk, Peterborough PE1 1SB

Website: https://www.escape-peterborough.co.uk