Other World Escapes: Chipshop (Portsmouth)

Don’t forget the salt

Nestled at the end of Lion Lane sits The Red Herring – a chip shop designed and ran by the brilliant Eustace Whitmore. Darkened every day by his brother’s shadow, Eustace made a secret pact. Some say, he lost his soul. Some say, he lost his mind. All say, inter-dimensional travel is not for the faint-hearted.

We were fresh out of completing Journey to Xibalba, and were able to go straight into our second game of the day at Other World Escapes, Chipshop. This time our gamesmaster was Philip and he met us outside of the room entrance where he proceeded to give us the mission briefing. Quite impressively, he managed to tweak the story to loosely make it follow from from Xibalba.

Normally when I go to a chip shop, I leave with something that is covered in grease and likely to shorten my life expectancy. Fortunately I was under the impression that this chip shop was a ruse and a cover for something fishing. So, knowing that I wouldn’t be leaving with a battered sausage and chips, it was time to enter The Red Herring.

IMMERSION/ROOM DESIGN

I’m ashamed to say that I have been in many chip shops in my time, but if nothing else this makes me qualified to say that The Red Herring looked like a chip shop. I can’t really recall any ambient noises, but I’m not sure what ambient noises one would normally get in a chip shop anyway.

The space starts off quite cramped but does then open up a bit. Either way, larger groups may tread on each other’s toes at times, and accessibility could be limited in places. For the most part this was a well lit game and we had no issues seeing what we needed, but there were times where it was a little darker and a torch was provided.

This was an interesting game and had a few twists that you wouldn’t expect in a chip shop. There was one part later in the game that really slowed down the pace and left me itching to get on – but it served a purpose so it is what it is.

PUZZLES

I am very pleased to report that despite the name of this chip shop (The Red Herring), there were no real red herrings that we encountered. The puzzles made sense and fitted the theme (even with the twists) and generally involved; searching and observation. It’s hard to describe the other puzzles types but really it was a lot of observing your surroundings and then putting two and two together to solve the puzzle.

Some of the puzzles were quite fun and I could see a lot of people enjoying one aspect of this game. Equally, it could swiftly descend into chaos if people get too carried away.

The game was quite open in the earlier stages of the game and we could work on different things at the same time. But as the game moved forward it became more linear with one puzzle leading on to the next.

The only real gripe I had with this game was the final puzzle. I gather from our GM that it used to be much more involved, but it broke a while ago so they modified it so it has the ending it has now. It was still a kinda fun ending, but just felt a bit anticlimactic and it sounds like the original ending was much better.

GM/CLUE SYSTEM

I think we gave Philip a pretty easy shift in this game as everything clicked and made sense so we didn’t actually need any help. If we did need clues they would have been audible and would have come from the ever classy, ‘Billy the Bass’ on the wall.

After the game we had a good chat with Philip and it was clear that he was watching us closely so I’m sure had we needed any help it would have been delivered quickly. There was also no limit on clues so if you really do get stuck, you can get as much help as you need.

ANYTHING ELSE

I would guess this was one of the earlier games by Other World. It’s still a fine game, but perhaps showing its age in places. One or two twists, and a convincing set were ultimately let down by a weak ending.

Success/Failure

Final Rating:

Team: 2 players – escaped in 40mins

Address: 239 – 241 Commercial Rd, Portsmouth PO1 4BJ

Website: https://otherworldescapes.com/