Escape Room Review: A Pirate’s Curse at Escapology
The Attraction’s Magazine crew was recently invited to attend the grand opening of Escapology’s Sunset Walk location in Kissimmee, Fla. While there, we were given the chance to try out a few of their rooms including the all new Batman: The Dark Knight Challenge (Review here) and a pirate themed room entitled A Pirate’s Curse. Here’s our review:
In A Pirate’s Curse, players take on the roles of treasure hunters who have found the long lost pirate ship, “The Soul Catcher”. On “The Soul Catcher” is said to be a great treasure that was once sought by a Captain Goldbeard. But there is a curse (A Pirate’s Curse!) that says only the rightful owner of the treasure can claim it and anyone who stays past sunset aboard “The Soul Catcher” will have their soul, well, caught. And this is where you, the players, now find yourselves; searching for the treasure aboard “The Soul Catcher” with (who would believe it) exactly 60 minutes left before sunset.
If this premise sounds a little convoluted, that’s because it is. Every escape room needs an excuse to have a bunch of people solving puzzles in a tight time frame, but this one even had us working to puzzle it out before the game had even begun. “So we work for Captain Goldbeard?” “No, we work for ourselves.” “So, we’re here to steal Goldbeard’s treasure?” “No, he was also trying to steal the treasure.” “So, whose treasure was it?” “I don’t know, some other pirate’s (similar to the Captian Spoopy Bones escape room).” Ultimately, the pirate theme is not an uncommon one among escape rooms which means that unique twists on the theme are difficult to come, by so we don’t blame them for trying to take a novel approach.
The props and scenic design of the room paid off on all of the pirate themes and tropes you might expect. Skeletons, rum, skeletons with rum, treasure, maps, and treasure maps. The design and quality of the props and scenic were quite nice and as good or better than other rooms we’ve seen at previous Escapology games.
As for the puzzles, they were hit and miss and followed familiar styles that we knew from other Escapology rooms: scavenger hunts to collect and combine similar objects, substitution codes, etc. I did spot at least one unique puzzle I hadn’t seen before, so I’ll give props for that, but mostly the puzzles were tried and true staples of the escape room genre.
There were a disappointing number of puzzles in which the solutions didn’t really flow logically or we otherwise had issues with. Along with the puzzles we solved through wit, there were puzzles we solved through brute force (narrowing down the options and then trying them all), dumb luck (apparently we accidentally stepped in the right places at the right time), obvious solutions (the code being an easily guessed word without even attempting the puzzle), breaking the game (Pushing the big green button that says “Push to Open” which we weren’t informed ahead of time was a legal requirement for a locked door and not a part of the game), asking for a clue (and just being told the answer) and at least one puzzle where the solution was accidentally left revealed from the previous group’s game. This was the grand opening of the room and location, so hopefully many of these issues can be sorted as the employees get more familiar with the game. Of note, our game master for the experience was very friendly and able to tell when we were getting frustrated or on the wrong track, so was able to keep us moving forward and talk us through the solutions we missed after we finished.
In the end, our group of variously experienced players escaped with about 20 minutes to spare. Escape rooms are fun and ultimately this experience was enjoyable and the issues and hiccups we experienced were not enough to ruin our experience, but definitely stopped it from being an all time favorite. Escapology has always offered a consistent experience and it’s many locations along with their varied themes and scenic design means these rooms offer a good starting place for someone wishing to try out an escape room for the first time and see if the hobby is for them. Enthusiasts and those looking for a greater challenge may wish to try elsewhere.
Escapology: Sunset Walk is open seven days a week and currently offers eight different themed rooms. Check out our reviews of their Batman and Star Trek themed rooms as well. For more information on Escapology, to find a location near you, or to book a room visit Escapology.com.
