Eureka Escape: Cabin Fever (Penzance)

Never trust Doris

Accidentally forgotten at the end of the cold war, no one really knows whether Doris Decker is still in the secret communications room in the basement of the Exchange. You have been sent to Penzance by the Home Office to find out.

Thinking that the enemy has finally arrived, a deranged Doris rushes out, switching off the generators that power the ventilation system. You are locked in this escape room with only 60 minutes of oxygen…

Naturally, when you’re on holiday in Cornwall the first thing you do is to have a look and see where the local escape rooms are. We were staying near St Ives but decided to make the short (and very picturesque) journey by train. This took us straight into the heart of Penzance and then it was a short walk from there to our first venue of the day, Eureka Escapes.

It’s worth noting that Eureka Escapes don’t have any toilets on site, so make sure you arrive prepared for that! When we arrived, we descended the stairs of the building to the basement where these guys are located and were greeted by our GM for both our games, Berri. This venue is a bit different from most in that it didn’t seem to have a waiting area at all, so we were greeted on the stairs and then shown straight to our first room (Death by Prescription). Once we finished that game we were able to pretty much go straight into the next room, Cabin Fever.

IMMERSION/ROOM DESIGN

As with Death by Prescription, our room briefing was via a TV in the room itself and this covered both the health and safety stuff and also our mission briefing. This is a bit of an interesting room as from the name ‘Cabin Fever’ I wrongly assumed that it was going to be set in a cabin, but actually, it’s more of a bunker (as per the room story), and as the room is actually located in a basement, it fits.

The room itself is not really one of those places where you’d really want to spend a lot of time- it’s a typical basement that has a bit of a ‘dank’ feel about it. When we first entered the room, it seemed like there wasn’t really much in this space that was going to keep us occupied for the full 60 minutes, but there were a few twists and turns along the way that kept the game interesting.

I think the biggest let down for me with Cabin Fever, as it was with Death by Prescription is that there was no ambient noise or apparent sound deadening between the spaces. This made the experience quite a quiet one and it lacked any form of immersion in that sense. I very much lose the immersion in a game when I can hear another team escaping their game, or the GMs talking in the next room.

PUZZLES

Cabin Fever played out in a mostly linear way, but there were some puzzles that could be solved in any order. There are also things that you come across early on but are not needed until much later in the game – which delayed us a little while we tried to work out what we were doing with them.

This game contained the usual puzzle types you’d expect to find in a cold war-themed room; searching, observation, logic, wordplay, decoding, and a little maths. This room wasn’t heavy on the searching, but some of it was very sneaky and height certainly plays a part in how easy you find the items. An observation puzzles difficulty was also variable depending on your height. Liz couldn’t see this thing at all so it was fortunate that I’m a little taller.

Another puzzle seemed to rely on brute forcing it which felt wrong so we weren’t sure if we were doing it right. But I think our biggest bugbear with this game and one that we both felt very frustrated by was that we were directed to something, but there was more than one item in the room that matched this description and we got hung up on it for a long time before we finally had to give in and request a clue – which then resulted in something very sneaky/small. With a small tweak to this puzzle, it would have been a lot less frustrating.

There was also a bit of ambiguity later on regarding the name of something and whether it should have been included in something we needed, but we tried the options with and without and eventually, got the correct solution.

GM/CLUE SYSTEM

If we needed any clues in this game (and we did), there was a screen in the room and a numerical keypad. All we had to do was dial 999 and press enter. Berri was obviously paying attention as it didn’t take long for a clue to appear on the screen (with a noise to get our attention). Generally, the clue was just cryptic enough to get us back on track.

When not displaying our clues, the screen also displayed a timer to show how much air we had left. Just to make sure we knew how much time we had, there were also 15-minute warnings.

ANYTHING ELSE

This game feels like it was made for the surroundings it is in. It won’t wow you, but nothing felt out of place. Puzzle wise there was nothing too complex, although we found one of the search puzzles a bit sneaky, and another puzzle had too many options and made it too easy to get distracted.

Cornwall games aren’t really built for enthusiasts and cater more to the tourist market. But if you go in not expecting to be blown away, then you’ll probably have a good time.

Success/Failed

Final Rating:

Team: 2 players – escaped in 34:55

Address: 43-44 New St, Penzance, TR18 2LZ

Website: https://eurekaescape.co.uk

*Disclaimer: we weren’t charged for this experience, but this has not influenced our review.