LOCATION: Soham, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom
Photo above is property of PerpleXed Escape Rooms
Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers
📝 ETR DECODER
🔑 GAME: The curse of Captain Kraken
📅 DATE PLAYED: July 17, 2022
🎬 GENRE: Adventure, Pirate
🧠 DIFFICULTY (Based on 2 ppl): 8/10
👥 TOTAL # OF PLAYERS: 2-7 ppl (Ages 10+)
🕒 LENGTH OF TIME: 60 Mins.
💰 PRICE: £20/PP
☎️ BOOKING TYPE: Private
🔓 ESCAPED/ COMPLETED?: Yes
📖 THE STORY
You are the only remaining members of your Pirate Crew having boarded someone else’s ship whereupon a terrible battle ensued. You avoided death, but have been captured and thrown into the ship’s brig to await your fate. But the bad luck doesn’t end there. The ship has struck something, and you hear the crew cry out that it is taking on water! She will sink in about an hour’s time but you get the feeling they will not be concerned with letting you out, and rumour has it the Captain is - well - cursed! Can you work together to save yourselves from going down with the ship?!
🎯 HIT THE BULLSEYE
This unassuming venue lies in rural Soham, in the out-buildings of a family-owned Farm Park. On arrival, we wondered if we had come to the right place, as we got out of the car and went to say hi to some alpacas, who were watching us curiously. But yes we had, as a friendly face appeared to greet us and introduce themselves as our GM :)
The escape room space is still in development so no outer signage yet, but the lobby is the cutest space with a sofa and table, locking cabinet for valuables and more, where we were warmly welcomed. Both of us stopped dead on entry and exclaimed “wow” at the same time, we were that impressed by what lay before us!
After the standard “rules of the room” and the all-important background story (punctuated now and then by various neighs, baas and moos), we accepted our mission and entered the room.
The first part of the game is to find your way out of the brig, and with very little of anything in there with you, well, you have to prove how smart you are! The rest of the “ship” is also extraordinarily beautiful - with amazing decoration, realism, a vast array of unusual and spot-on props, pictures and items. I honestly just wanted to admire it all but we had a job to do!
The puzzles revealed themselves as we explored, quite linear in progress but with each step being logical and authentic. We admitted defeat and asked for one hint, which was given in suitable character, and confirmed that it was us not examining something well enough, and not the puzzle, that was the issue.
There was something new to discover at every turn, and we had so many a-ha and ohhhhhh! moments throughout :) One particular piece of engineering we have never seen before, and plenty of surprises!
We finished in good time (new top of the leaderboard!) but still felt we had a good long adventure and spent our remaining time admiring the props and the effort that has gone into the room.
🧩 MISSED THE MARK
We honestly had nothing whatsoever to say that was negative about this room or the venue.
🏹 TAKE A SHOT?
We consider this an absolute must-play room, and totally worth making the trip to if you find yourself in or near the area. The venue itself is astonishingly beautiful - and fascinating, with a wide range of animals, kids' activities and more to be explored should you be able to spend more time there, which I heartily recommend! The room will delight anyone who loves Pirate, nautical and adventure themes, beautifully decorated immersive rooms, clever puzzles and hi-tech rooms, and also animals! From a small team of Escape Room enthusiasts turned game designers, this is an absolutely incredible first outing and just blew us away with the amount of thought, hard work, amazing aesthetics and brilliant puzzle design that they have produced. Marvellous. We can't wait to go back and play their second room which opens in September - check the website for more!
ℹ️ ADDITIONAL INFO
The venue is only directly accessible by car (although from the train or bus into Soham you could walk - roughly 20-25 minutes and an easy walk). Car Parking is free and plentiful.
The theme dictates a naturally dimly lit environment (which adds amazingly to the atmosphere), but can make it hard to see some things clearly. This said, the small lights throughout the room can be picked up and used wherever you want to see details, and the owner took our note on board to provide a brighter light for those who may want it.
The room is all on one level but has tight spaces - the rest of the venue is on fairly flat ground and accessible.
There is a cafe on site, open during the usual opening hours of South Angle Farm Park, and many other activities and attractions to take in while you are there, so leave time to take it all in, or make sure you plan to return! See http://www.southanglefarmpark.co.uk/ for more.
If you need to play the room outside or normal opening hours, or last minute - they are open to discussing this.
Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers
(If you do decide to try this game, give us a shoutout or tag us on social media so we know you heard it from "ESCAPETHEROOMers"!)
Disclosure: We thank PerpleXed Escape Rooms for comping our tickets for this game. Although complimentary admission was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever.
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