Pier Pressure: Smuggler’s Secret (Brighton)

The smuggled a lot of fun into this room

Enter a mysterious world of secrets.  Local miller, John Olliver, is not what he seems.  Where is he getting all that gold?  He’s definitely been up to no good.  His cottage looks rustic and full of interesting nooks and crannies but what is it hiding?  Can you discover what the miller has stashed away?  Is he even a miller?  Could he, in fact, be a smuggler?

It will take an intrepid gang of adventurers to explore the miller’s cottage and uncover its secrets.  This escape room game is full of hidden puzzles, sneaky surprises and dastardly secrets.

If we ignore the iconic pebbled beach, the first thing that comes to my mind when someone mentions Brighton to me is escape rooms. Brighton is home to a few companies with impeccable reputations for excellent games in the UK, one of which is Pier Pressure. What makes Pier Pressure particularly unique for me is the fact that all of their games (at the time of writing) are steeped in local history. Whether it’s a recreation of Brighton Pavilion in Pavilion Perplex, the Lanes from Loot the Lanes, the mods and rockers in Modrophenia,  or the ‘90’s raver scene in Raver Quest, each of the games somehow ties directly into Brighton. Even Broken was tweaked to include these details when it was relocated from Pressure Point to Pier Pressure. Smuggler’s Secret is no different, focusing on the history that seems to pervade many seaside towns, Brighton included.

Typically, Smuggler’s Secret opened not long after our last visit to Brighton, but we were eager to find the time to make the trek back to the seaside to check it out. It would be ten months before that chance finally presented itself in the form of a conference Gord was attending in Brighton, and what better way to make work travel more fun than planning in an escape room in your free time? After a day spent shut away in other dark rooms for Gord, and one by the seaside with an ice cream for me, we made our way across Brighton to a different location to the one we were used to visiting for Pier Pressure to have an adventure: an absolutely amazing building located at 94 Gloucester Road.

Upon arrival we rang the bell, and were greeted by our host, Jonah, who looked suspiciously like a privateer of some sort. We were swiftly ushered inside, made to feel very welcome, and shown to the lockers where our belongings could be deposited for safekeeping before encountering the first challenge: reaching the game itself. Jonah led us through a maze of doorways and stairs, but it wasn’t too long before we found ourselves outside a rather unassuming looking door.

IMMERSION/ROOM DESIGN

We stepped through the door at the top of the steps, and through to another world: that of a rustic looking cabin. Jonah offered up a little more background regarding our investigation into the local miller who owned the cabin, but without much further ado, the hourglass was turned and we were off.

Accompanied by the dulcet tones of sea shanties we set about to uncover the secrets of the miller, and there were plenty of secrets to be had. The game was well paced, and one challenge flowed through to the next with ease. The set tied everything together as we progressed from challenge to challenge, with plenty of chunky, and dare I say magical, things to play with and explore. All of the elements of the set, story, and puzzle design just seemed to fit, allowing us to become fully immersed in our task.

PUZZLES

Smuggler’s Secret is a first for Pier Pressure, in that it is the first game they have designed to be playable with different difficulty levels. One option is the Family Version, a suitable adventure for families with children 8+. The other is what they class as their Pro Version, recommended for those 14+,  or of course, the more experienced escapers (We chose Pro). I can’t speak to the puzzles in the Family version, but the puzzles in the Pro version of Smugglers Secret were a delight, and exactly the sort of thing we expect from a Pier Pressure game: clever, challenging, but still perfectly fair. I gather there isn’t really much difference in the puzzles themselves between the two versions, and the variance between the two has more to do with additional guidance/signposting than “easier” puzzles, though there may be a few of those too.

One of the things I loved so much about Smuggler’s Secret was the attention to detail. The only physical padlocks barring the way were on things that one would logically lock up and were secured with keys, rather than codes. This resulted in puzzles and tasks that were far more tactile and required more lateral thinking to figure out how to interact with the elements of the set than you come across when simply solving something to result in a four digit number.

Of course, players will still need to bring their logic brains into the game, as well as keep their eyes open as there were plenty of challenges that relied upon your powers of observation, and the ability to thoroughly search a room. Simple physical tasks, some spatial relations, and wordplay all made an appearance, but there was so much variety in how challenges were presented that there really was something in this game to appeal to the strengths of everyone on the team, no matter what those strengths might be.

GM/CLUE SYSTEM

From the moment he opened the door to welcome us to the venue, Jonah was not just our GM, but a Captain, and remained in character throughout the welcome banter, the Health and Safety spiel in the corridor, the long trek up the many stairs, and straight through to the debrief, helping to drop us into the world of Smuggler’s Secret and keep us there for the duration of the game.

Alongside excellent hosting, integrated clue delivery methods help to keep the immersion, ensuring that your game always feels more like an adventure and less like a game. That’s why there are few things I like to see more in an escape room than an integrated clue system. (Which might be one of the reasons I love Pier Pressure so much.) Every game we have played at Pier Pressure has ensured that clues fit into the story in some way, and Smuggler’s Secret is no exception. I don’t actually want to go further into detail with this and ruin it for anyone else, but suffice it to say that the choice here is fully integrated and totally charming.

That being said, we didn’t actually need to use it, as we found the puzzles throughout the experience to be quite intuitive. However,  thanks to the thorough debrief of all of our achievements we received following the game, I am positive that had we hit a stumbling block, Jonah would have been straight through with a clue as he knew exactly what we were up to at all times.

ANYTHING ELSE

Smugglers Secret was a total joy to play. While we played the Pro Version and found it to be exactly the right balance of challenging and fun, I feel confident in saying that the Family Version would be a perfect introduction to escape rooms for the little ones, and no matter which version you choose, it’s an fantastic activity if you need a break from the beach.

At the end of Pier Pressure games they give out little cards that show your achievements in the game, it’s a lovely little memento. We were awarded ‘Top Logicians’, ‘Eagled Eyed Searchers’ and ‘Clueless Wonders’.

Success / Failure

Final Rating:

Team: 2 players – escaped in 28:46

Address: 94 Gloucester Rd, Brighton and Hove, Brighton BN1 4AP

Website: https://pierpressure.co.uk/