A wonderful set
GET ON THE TRACKS OF THE MAYA
The moon is high in the sky as you secretly sneak to an abandoned excavation site on your journey through South America. The best researchers have been searching here for years for the golden skull of the last Mayan ruler – unsuccessfully. You’re lucky and the archaeologists’ huts are still standing. You open one of the rickety wooden doors and enter the dark hut.
You’re on your own and soon you’ll make an amazing discovery that will change everything – the adventure begins.
I’m a sucker for a temple raid, so of course, our second game at Hidden in Hamburg’s Cap San Diego location was possibly the one that I was most looking forward to. We took advantage of the short break between our games to explore the Capt San Diego itself, investigating the exhibits and watching some educational videos and making note of what we might want to see more of in the break between games two and three, but it wasn’t long before we made our way back to Hidden in Hamburg’s puzzle-laden reception area to enjoy a cold Fritz Cola while we waited for the time we had booked The Golden Skull to roll around.
Right on time, our GM, Lin He, entered the waiting area to begin our health and safety briefing. This was curtailed slightly, as we had already had a thorough briefing prior to Master of Time, but there were still a few key things to go over. But with the formalities out of the way, it was time to bid adieu to reception, and make our way through the door to South America.
IMMERSION/ROOM DESIGN
Once you find Hidden in Hamburg hidden within the Capt San Diego, it’s easy to forget you’re on a ship, and it’s even easier to do so once the games begin. Lin He closed the door to The Golden Skull, and we stepped into the dimly lit hut of an explorer’s camp. From the darkness, the voice of someone, almost like a narration, floated over the airwaves, firmly cementing our mission in our minds.
The narrative and the puzzles flowed smoothly from one thing to the next. The ambient background noises helped to focus on our tasks, and the sometimes parallel puzzle paths allowed us to divide as necessary. The strategic use of lighting ensured that we could always see what we needed to, but also helped to subtly guide us from location to location seamlessly. The set itself was beautiful, with plenty of chunky, tactile props to play with.
While The Golden Skull isn’t a heavily narrative driven game, the story is ever-present, and the puzzles fit well within it, helping to drive the mission forward, all the way to the satisfying conclusion.
PUZZLES
We played four games in total at Hidden in Hamburg, and one thing that was apparent by our second game of the day was that the company certainly has some favourite puzzle styles. All of the games seemed to have an almost formulaic approach to puzzle design, with certain styles appearing over and over again throughout the games. (Don’t worry, the puzzles within the games are varied, and the styles don’t repeat within the same game. Nor are the puzzles from game to game exactly the same. It’s just that when playing more than one game at Hidden in Hamburg within a certain time frame, you’re very likely to notice certain similarities).
Those similarities mean that players can expect to find challenges to their team work and communication, plenty of puzzles requiring a certain amount of logic, codes, ciphers, pattern recognition, spatial relations, and of course, an element of scavenging. Whatever the challenge, however, the puzzles were fair, and satisfying to solve, resulting in some lovely “Ah-Ha!” moments.
GM/CLUE SYSTEM
Lin He was lovely from our introduction straight through to our final escape. But we did give him an easy time, as the puzzles throughout The Golden Skull were so intuitive that we didn’t really need any intervention or help throughout our game. But despite this, I have no doubt that Lin He was paying close attention to our progress, thanks to our brief chat following our successful escape.
Of course, not all players are alike, nor will everyone find the puzzles as logical as we did, so help is on hand if needed. There are no screens within the Golden Skull, nor were we given walkie talkies, so players that need clues will likely find themselves listening out for the voice of the gods, filtering down from the heavens with clues should they need them.
ANYTHING ELSE
The Golden Skull wasn’t quite my favourite game at Hidden in Hamburg, but it was definitely my favourite aboard The Capt San Diego. With a beautiful set, an adventurous narrative, and plenty of pleasing puzzles, what’s not to love?
Success/Failed
Final Rating:
| Operation | |
| Puzzles | |
| Room Design | |
| GM/Clues | |
| Excitement |
Team Size: 4 people – 31 minutes
Address: Cap San Diego – Museumsschiff Überseebrücke, 20459 Hamburg, Germany
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