Wyjście Awaryjne: Shadow of the Pyramids (Bydgoszcz)

Choose wisely…

The year is 1936. Near the Egyptian city of Tanis, amidst ancient ruins ravaged by time and nature, Nazi troops were unexpectedly spotted, just beginning archaeological excavations. Alarmed British intelligence concluded that the Nazis must have uncovered something valuable, having entered a foreign country with such an unusual military expedition. But what could possibly be hidden in such a desolate and isolated location? The British government has asked you, a group of local scientists and archaeologists, to venture into the area and investigate the Nazis’ intentions. The German forces must not learn of your presence, so remember: your sole goal is to gather information and immediately relay it to command. According to the plan, you were to meet with British agents, hastily dispatched from Cairo, to launch the operation together. Unfortunately, a sandstorm prevented you from contacting them. The situation has become extremely risky, but you decide to begin your reconnaissance, hoping that these agents will join your mission in the meantime.

Will you uncover the Nazi secret hidden in the shadow of the pyramids?

When we booked our trip to Poland, Bydgoszcz wasn’t one of our original stops. But thanks to a recommendation from an escape room friend, we replanned and made it our first stop. Shadow of the Pyramids was supposed to be our first game in the city, but that was another thing that changed as it became our second game, having played Superheroom at Mr Lock the night before.

If you’ve never visited Bydgoszcz before, you really should, it’s a beautiful little city. Wyjście Awaryjne is very easy to find as it’s right by the river and located next to what I believe is the most famous sculpture in the city. What you may not realise though is that the venue is on the fourth floor, with no lift and plenty of steps to conquer!

After ascending the steps, we entered the venue and it was a very pretty site. The first corridor you enter is where the rooms are located, and the theming for the games spills out in this fairy light lit corridor. The waiting room is just around the corner and this is where waited while our host, Jakub, finished getting our room ready.

After locking our personal items away in the lockers, Jakub returning and proceeded to give us our health and safety briefings, and a very small insight into our mission briefing. We then followed him back to the ‘pretty’ corridor and we entered Shadow of the Pyramids.

In the room, Jakub gave us a short mission briefing before leaving us to receive a more thorough briefing from our commander officer over the speakers.

IMMERSION/ROOM DESIGN

Writing this review having now played three of the games at this venue, I think it’s clear to see that their set design skills are certainly not lacking – and that’s the case for Shadow of the Pyramids too. Really good first impressions, and it didn’t dip as we progressed through the game.

Being an Egyptian themed game you can probably guess the set design choices that you’ll encounter, rocks, stone, Pharaohs, statues, and plenty of surprises to boot. One thing that was not in abundance was sand on the floor, and that’s something we really appreciated!

Early on in the game the lighting was perhaps on the darker side but it was still just light enough to see what we needed to solve the puzzles. As the game progressed it felt like the lighting actually improved, and there were plenty of lighting sources we could have utilised if we needed a brighter look at something.

I enjoyed this game, probably more than I expected to. The spaces we encountered were very well decorated and there were plenty of interesting ways that we interacted with them. The ambient noises helped to set the scene and the volume was at just the right level.

The ending of the game was also a bit of fun. I don’t want to give anything away, but choose wisely.

PUZZLES

Regular readers of our blog will probably recall that we often loathe playing Egyptian themed games. For some reason we always struggle with these games and we’re not really sure why. So playing Shadow of the Pyramids was a risk, but we were willing to take it.

I’m pleased to say that we actually enjoyed the puzzles in this game, and I can’t recall anything we didn’t like. In fact the only moments where we struggled were because of our own stupidly in not checking something fully.

We think the reason we usually struggle in these games is a mental block with a certain type of puzzle – which fortunately was not present in this game. The puzzles that were present were enjoyable to solve and fit the theme; searching, observation, teamwork, pattern recognition, logic and spatial reasoning.

It shouldn’t really be a puzzle type, but for some reason to us, it is. If a box opens, always check it thoroughly to take out everything in it. In our defence though, at one point two things triggered at once, and due to our positioning in the room we only noticed one.

This is one of those ‘padlock free’ games, so if you don’t like padlocks, this is a game for you. Lots of tech and lots of cool moments make this a joy in the world of surprise.

GM/CLUE SYSTEM

Jakub was a wonderful host, who fortunately for us spoke perfect English! He also was very thorough to ensure that this game was fully reset and playable in English – we had no issues with language at all.

Clues came over the speaker system from Jakub, who I believe was playing the role as HQ. We never had to actively ask for help, but Jakub always chimed in at the correct time to get us back on track, way before any frustrations set in.

ANYTHING ELSE

This is a rare thing for us, an Egyptian themed game that we didn’t crash and burn! Shadow of the Pyramids has an impressive, although not huge space, and a solid sense of adventure. It’s also padlock-free which I know a lot of people will appreciate.

Success/Failed

Final Rating:

Team: 2 Players

Address: Plac Teatralny 4, 85-069 Bydgoszcz, Poland

Website: https://wyjscieawaryjne.pl/