A tad dark…
It’s knocking, it’s throbbing, it’s calling you. And before you know it, you’ve entered the old villa, which has been abandoned on the outskirts of town for years. You follow the creepy noises up to the attic of the old house and then – silence. In front of you stands a mysterious game. It will cast a spell over you and you will begin to play.
But already after the first move you realize that this is no ordinary game, but a very dangerous one. It takes you on a magical journey – and if you don’t finish the game in time, this journey will be your last. You tremble and dare the next train…
Our third game on board Cap San Diego (yes, this venue is on a very sizable boat), having just played Master of Time, and The Golden Skull was to be The Forbidden Game. We had a little time to kill between games so we popped out to the museum part of the boat – which you get free access to if you’re playing an escape room, and then returned to the lobby closer to our game time.
While waiting in the waiting area we made sure to have a refreshing drink of Fritz Cola and check out the various puzzles dotted around the room. With our brains warmed up and suitably sugared it was time to get down to business. This game had a bit more in-character interaction at the start than we had experienced in other games, but after a short intro and glimpse at our mission, our GM, Alexa, left us to it.
IMMERSION/ROOM DESIGN
First impressions of this game: it was dark. Very dark. So dark that we couldn’t really do much to start with. Now there was clearly an area where lanterns could be stored yet for some reason there was only one lantern present for our game, this meant that we had to share it between the four of us – not ideal.
The game started off in a rather cosy space, and then progressed to another cosy space, but after that it opened up (a little), and as a team of four we didn’t tread on each other’s toes too much. Then again, with the lack of light there wasn’t much we could do independently anyway.
From what we could see, the room design was good and the spaces we encountered changed as we progressed through the game, which kept things interesting. There was even one moment in the game that was unexpected and we certainly didn’t see coming! The use of space within the rooms was also rather clever and Hidden in Hamburg had obviously put some thought into this.
The ambient music and noises being played at all times helped to immerse us in the experience and it felt believable that we were in a house, not in the hull of a rather large boat (and don’t worry, we felt no movement in the boat either so those of you with sea-sickness should be ok).
PUZZLES
The first puzzle in The Forbidden Game was the darkness, and that is never a puzzle we like! Eventually the game did get brighter, but by that point I think we were just a little bit frustrated and starting to not enjoy our experience.
Other than the darkness; searching, observation, logic, colours, pattern recognition, and wordplay made up the majority of the puzzles. As I mentioned in a previous review for Hidden in Hamburg, they have their favourite puzzle types so expect to see similar puzzles with just a different story fitted around them.
The puzzles were generally fair, although one puzzle towards the end annoyed us because we missed something in the moment, and it was arguably very simple. The other puzzles varied in difficulty but none were too challenging, and some were very simple and quick wins. This is probably one of those games with something for everyone (except light).
Hidden in Hamburg like to get a mixture of padlocks and tech, and that’s what they did here – and fortunately everything worked (well except for the lantern that we had issues with that was quickly swapped out by the GM).
GM/CLUE SYSTEM
Alexa did a good job in her introduction and in playing her part to make the game more enjoyable. She was also on the ball with clues, which came in character over the system system. Well done again to the German education system, there were no issues in translation to English (phew).
ANYTHING ELSE
Due to the ‘difficulty by darkness’ factor, The Forbidden Game was our least favourite Hidden in Hamburg game. It was fun in places, but not being able to see for a good chunk of it just felt like it was designed to slow teams down with no real narrative to explain why.
Success/Failed
Final Rating:
| Operation | |
| Puzzles | |
| Room Design | |
| GM/Clues | |
| Excitement |
Team Size: 4 people
Address: Cap San Diego – Museumsschiff Überseebrücke, 20459 Hamburg, Germany
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