Yo Ho Ho
Your end will be exceedingly bitter! You know it; the curse is now being fulfilled.
You tried to obtain Blundr’s map to safely slip through the Raging Waters, but the job at the tavern didn’t go as planned.
You fell into the hands of the same pirates you had just brazenly tried to rob, and now you rot on the lower deck of their ship, in a slave cell. Such is the perverseness of fate, my comrades, very perverse!
Your tormentors are reveling in their joy, unaware that the ship has just sailed into the tentacles of a deadly trap.
When we planned our trip to Poland we had originally only planned to visit Poznan and Wroclaw but after a conversation with an escape room friend, we decided to add on Bydgoszcz – primarily to play some of the games at Wyjście Awaryjne (translation: Emergency Exit).
We had arrived at Wyjście Awaryjne bright and early on a Sunday morning and had three games lined up. We’d already visited a pyramid in Shadow of the Pyramids and saved the city in Operation: Metro. So next up was a visit to some pirates, in the newest game at this venue, Sea Tales.
Because we had already played a couple of games we were able to skip over most of the health and safety briefing and just went straight to the mission briefing which took place outside of the room entrance. Wyjście Awaryjne are one of those venues who love to decorate the hallway and the entry door, so it was quite a cool place to be.
I must admit, I didn’t understand much of the story, but having now played the game, I think it’s probably a similar story to the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie, maybe?
This game is technically available in English, but there were some times where our GM, Jakub, had to chime in to provide translations to help us progress, but more on that later.
We entered the darkened ship, and not for the first time found ourselves in the brig. After some dialogue which was in Polish and I assume explained our mission in more detail, the lights came up and it was time to break the curse.
IMMERSION/ROOM DESIGN
There’s no doubt about it, the reason this game is so highly rated is most likely down to the set design. It really is an impressive set, complete with all the usual things you’d expect to find in a pirate-y world. There was a fun sense of adventure, some good reveals and impressive use of space.
One design style we noticed in a few games in the city is where they create a fake floor to raise up the base of the game. It doesn’t sound like much but it enables them to add an extra level of immersion to the space.
The lighting was dark at times but generally we could see what we needed. Ambient noises were also fine, the only issue was that we were obviously supposed to be in a storm so the occasional thunderclaps sometimes clashed with dialogue from either the game, or our host.
We really do appreciate that this game was available to play in English, as our Polish language skills are beyond limited. They had tried their best to make it work in English, but at times it made it a struggle to play. Right at the start there was something in Polish that was fundamental to the game, but it took a few minutes of us looking confused for the GM to chime in and offer a partial translation. It’s odd as it was just a piece of paper so it could have easily been swapped out for an English language version and we’d have had no issues.
Sadly these translation issues had us doubting the game, especially when we found more Polish language, and it slowed us down and did dampen our experience slightly. Don’t get me wrong, it is still playable in English, and it is good fun, but it’s likely a little rougher than the Polish version.
PUZZLES
I’m not sure where this games lies on the difficulty scale at this venue, but it is a longer game than their others (90 mins) so I would assume that is reflective of the difficulty and amount of content to get through. We played as a team of two, and it kept us busy but also felt like a good number of players.
There were moments where we could split up, but it felt like a rather linear game where one puzzle led on to the next, and they had to be completed in a certain order; observation, wordplay, teamwork, audio, pattern recognition, and logic were all noticeable puzzle types.
The puzzles all fit around the pirate theme and some had cool use of tech, but there was on particular puzzle that felt like a lesson in frustration and I really hate seeing these in escape rooms – they feel like a time-sink. Even our host commented on how he hated that particular puzzle. Don’t get me wrong, it was fair and we solved it, but that doesn’t mean we have to like it.
Solving the puzzles resulted in a tech trigger for pretty much every puzzle. Actually there was really only one padlock in the game that I can recall. It’s interesting that they worked hard to have a mostly padlock free game, but then chose a modern padlock for the one padlock they did have. It would have been very easy to swap it out for something more ‘theme appropriate’.
GM/CLUE SYSTEM
Jakub was a great host and really worked hard to make us feel welcome. Outside of the game we managed to have little chats here and there, but in the game he was on the board with any help we required – although in this game it was mostly help with translating content that we needed.
Any help (or translations) came over a speaker system from Jakub and they were generally enough to get us back on track. The only issue we had was when we were listening to the story or translation and thunderclaps kept going off so we missed what was said.
ANYTHING ELSE
I can see why this game is so highly rated, and I think if it was fully playable in English we would have had a better time. Still, it’s clearly a beautiful set and had some really cool moments, so if you’re in town and looking for a game – this is one you shouldn’t miss.
Success/Failed
Final Rating:
Operation Puzzles Room Design GM/Clues Excitement
Team: 2 Players
Address: Plac Teatralny 4, 85-069 Bydgoszcz, Poland
Website: https://wyjscieawaryjne.pl/
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