G-Factor Group: The 7 Mysteries of Pharaoh (Athens)

Nothing fancy, but a fun game

Egypt – the last independent state of the ancient world was conquered by the Persians.

Only a resourceful officer could protect the Pharaoh.

The Chamber of Secrets was the final exam on the way to the highest rank.
Would you be the ablest of Pharaoh’s officers?
The Chamber of Secrets wasn’t just a test, Papyri, treasures and blueprints for rare mechanisms could enrich anyone who conquers the Pharaoh’s trials.

You are trapped with your team in the Secret Room. You have one hour, Can you make it?

James and I had left the women for the day and decided to play a couple of escape rooms with just the two of us, or that’s how it started, but it ended with us eating lots of Greek pastries for breakfast and then playing three escape rooms – a great day! We had already played Through the Mirror and Freedom for Sale, so the last of the games available at G-Factor group was The 7 Mysteries of Pharoah.

We had a great time in Through the Mirror but a less than fun time in Freedom for Sale, so we were really hoping that The 7 Mysteries of Pharoah was going to leave us ending on a high (spoiler alert: it did. Well, more so than Freedom for Sale).

After a break between games we were ready to tackle the room. Liz and I often have a bit of a hard time in Egyptian themed rooms but we’ve no idea why. So I was really hoping that the curse would be broken as I was playing this game with James instead of Liz. Our GM took us to the entrance to the room and proceeded to explain our mission briefing, so with that and a few other room specific instructions we were ready to begin.

IMMERSION/ROOM DESIGN

In a weird way it felt like a novelty that an Egyptian themed room didn’t have sand on the floor. I can’t say I mind either way but it seems to be a quick and easy go to now for an Egyptian themed room to add sand to make it more immersive, but at least we didn’t end up with sand in our shoes.

The room itself felt very much like it could be a tomb, it was dark (at times) and everything felt solid. It genuinely felt like most props and items in the room were made out of brick or concrete – this is a room that is built to last! It had the usual decoration that we have come to expect from an Egyptian room and nothing in there particularly stood out from other games we played.

In terms of floor space, I would guess that this is probably the smallest room at G-Factor Group but there was still a good use of the space and we found ourselves going backwards and forwards on regular occasions as we solved puzzles.

PUZZLES

The puzzles all fitted the theme and interestingly I can’t recall a single padlock in this game, pretty much everything relied on some form of mechanics or tech. Actually, I think I remember talking with the GM and he said that this is basically an automated room that can run itself. I could be mistaken, but I’ll go with that for now.

The puzzles generally fitted into; audio, observation, spatial relations, minor searching, and pattern recognition and all with an Egyptian vibe about them. We clicked much more with this game than we did with the previous one and mostly flew through the game. I say mostly, as there was one puzzle that was quite unique, or at least we hadn’t seen it before and we made one assumption that we shouldn’t have, which hampered our progress.

GM/CLUE SYSTEM

Clues for this game were via a walkie-talkie system, it mostly worked ok although at times we found it quite hard to hear what was being said so we had to ask for it to be repeated numerous times. When we needed a clue we simply had to request it and our GM would be on the case, never leaving us waiting for long.

I’ve got no problem with walkie-talkies when they fit the story and work, and I guess if we were exploring an ancient tomb then we may have walkie-talkies to keep in touch, so that works. It would have just been nicer if they were clearer to understand.

ANYTHING ELSE

We played this game on a whim and we’re glad we did. There was nothing mind-blowingly special about it, but it had fun puzzles, some cool tech, and a clear ending – although that ending could easily be improved with just a few minor tweaks.

Success / Failure

Final Rating:

Team: 2 players – escaped in 35:57

Address: Αθηνάς 43, Kallithea 176 73, Greece

Website: https://gfg.gr