Split-Start Armageddon Fun
It’s 2049, and the power driven North has decided to strike the South with a collection of nuclear missiles. 4 decades ago your late grandfather foresaw this disaster and built a small bunker hidden deep in the woods, using his expertise in nuclear warfare. With the missiles launched, you have 60 minutes before impact. This bunker is your only chance for survival.
Here’s the thing though… it’s BROKEN!
We’d just completed Murder on the Dancefloor so were feeling nicely warmed up for our second game at Pressure Point, Broken. For some reason we didn’t actually know anything about this room except the name, so it was a surprise to us when we were separated before we even got into the room and led in through two different doors – yes, as you may have guessed, this is a split-start room..
On difficulty scale I believe this room is rated as the hardest they have at Pressure Point (I could be mistaken), and we certainly struggled more in this room than we did with the others. Either it just didn’t click with us as much, or our communication skills are just poor.
PUZZLES
Arguably the most obvious ‘puzzle’ with this room is the need for communication. As you are split in two different rooms you need to ensure that you are able to communicate well as a team or you’ll never succeed. Ignoring that, there was a nice mixture of puzzles, a little searching (but really not much at all), observation, and a hefty dose of logic.
Padlocks are a love/hate thing and this room did have a fair number of them, but they fitted in the theme so we really didn’t mind. I think if an apocalypse was coming and I had a bunker, I’d probably padlock everything too!
IMMERSION/ROOM DESIGN
So often you do a room and are told you have 60 minutes to escape before something bad happens, so it was nice to see a different take on this where you have 60 minutes to make the room you’re in safe. Ok, one could question why if you had a bunker you would split it in two, but leave this disbelief at the door and the room is set up quite nicely to convince you are in a bunker.
There are little bits that they have done with the room to help immerse you and the ending was particularly fun. I think we were close to failing but fortunately Liz got her own way (she had actually paid attention to the story) and we survived.
GM/CLUE SYSTEM
The clues for Broken come in through screens in both rooms, which also show how long you have left until the missiles land. As expected, our GM, Mike was on the ball with clues as and when we needed them and as soon as we requested a clue it was delivered to the screen. Pressure Point don’t give you unlimited clues (you get three) so we were sure to only use them when we needed them, and we did a couple of times.
There was in a way a secondary clue system that helps guide you through aspects of the room and offers a nice amount of signposting when needed.
ANYTHING ELSE
Personally I think this was my least favourite of the rooms at Pressure Point; that’s not to say it is bad, I just had more fun in their other rooms (and they set the bar high). They keep the suspense going right up until the end as it is possible to complete everything yet fail due to a wrong choice.
The ending was solid and it was very obvious that you had completed/failed your goal. There’s nothing worse than when you complete a room and come out saying ‘is that it?’ – none of that here, we knew we had finished and survived (yay)!
Success / Failure
Final Rating:
| Operation | |
| Puzzles | |
| Room Design | |
| GM/Clues | |
| Excitement |
Team: Two players (fixed the bunked in 49:53)
Address: 1st Floor Offices, 2C New Rents, Ashford TN23 1JH
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