Under Pressure, Under Review

As a reviewer, I’ve recently gotten to the point where I can compare more than one room at a venue. This is not to say that until recently I’ve played multiple games at a venue, but I didn’t start writing until 38 or so games were under my belt.

So we decided to give Escapology another try. One thing that I really love about Escapology is that all rooms are booked as Private experiences. Another thing I really love is their customer service. From my own experience, they’ve always been very polite, helpful and accommodating.

Although I would’ve loved to have built up in difficulty at this venue, we decided to try “Under Pressure” as none of us had played a room with that particular theme before (which as you can see below, is rated as high in difficulty). It is the second, most-difficult room listed on Escapology Orlando’s website (behind “Narco”).

One last thing to note, the last experience at Escapology was at their seasonal room, “Saving Santa,” which also happened to be our last time bringing our toddler son with us. So in part, I wanted to see if my perception of this venue was skewed by having to chase our son around the room most of the time.

Venue: Escapology - Orlando

Location: 11951 International Drive c3, Orlando, FL 32821

​Website: https://www.escapology.com/en/orlando-fl/

Cost Per Person: $29.99 (Games are always PRIVATE)

Game: Under Pressure

Difficulty: 8.9 out of 10 (per website); 5 out of 10 (per players’ perception)

Room Capacity: 2 to 8 website recommended; 3 players seemed very optimal

Game Duration: 60 Minutes

“Under Pressure” is aptly named due to in part that you and your crew of U.S. seamen (and women) are on board the Steel Shark towards the end of World War II. You’ve got your eye on a German ship when suddenly your submarine rapidly descends into the sea.

With the pressure mounting, literally, and your oxygen supply depleting, you’ve come to discover that some German “moles” have caused this mishap to occur. Like any good villain though, they’ve given you a chance to survive by hiding the 6 required oxygen tanks throughout your own vessel (along with some puzzles). Find the vessels, administer them where required and escape the Steel Shark!

The story here is a double edged sword. While the setting was unique to us, I felt that the last part of the story was very formulaic with respect to this venue (and you’ll be hearing me say this at least one more time in regards to another aspect of the room). What I mean is, there’s a build up with a cool storyline and then it becomes but the bad guys put some riddles and puzzles in the room for you to get through.

Escapology does a nice job of (at least in the beginning) making the players feel as if they were actually under water in a vessel. Included were some bunks, lockers, dated pictures, gauges and the icing on the cake; portholes with under water animation. This all gave it a very nautical feel.

Picture Courtesy of WorldOfEscapes.com

However, once the game started and we started finding the first of the oxygen tanks, we realized that the giant whiteboard in the middle of the game would be put to use. Now I’ve never been on a submarine, and there very well could be a whiteboard inside, but this correctly led me to believe we’d be dealing with some math!

I don’t hate math. I actually enjoy math. I even enjoy simple arithmetic with some PEMDAS, which unfortunately found its way into one of the puzzles. I’ve taken enough math to never forget to “Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally”, so this wasn’t a big issue for our party of three. I’m just not sure it’s forgivable though, if a group would have to ask for a clue on a puzzle that required them to remember Mathematical Order of Operations. This is unfortunate, because the way the players were required to obtain the numbers for the math was actually very clever and unique (wrenches…that’s all I’ll say).

One of the very first puzzles also dealt with discovery and some careful reading and the slightest hint of math. We all felt that this one was fair and definitely did NOT take anyone out of the game’s element.

So after a few puzzles, we entered the second room which was, well, we don’t really know what it was. Maybe it was the Control Room? There were a few items that sort of indicated that that’s what it was, but we weren’t really sure. It wasn’t that the decoration felt cheap. It’s just that there didn’t seem to be much in this room (aside from the puzzles…and another whiteboard).

It’s the terror of knowing what the world is about, watching some good friends screaming “let me out!”

We also discovered, at some point, a fate way worse than being crushed by the ocean; a cipher wheel! At least for me, one of the problems is determining which direction is the cipher (inner or outer circle). Usually that can be figured out after the first two letters, when the word you’re spelling doesn’t make any sense. However, in this case, I don’t believe the word that worked, made any sense. It also just takes me out of the game. It’s not Escapology’s fault entirely. This is just the gift that keeps on giving though…and not in a good way.

I realize much of this has seemed negative, but we really had a lot of fun solving puzzles. Much of the puzzles were in theme with the room and made use of many of the objects in the room.

I really enjoyed the use of the maritime flags and although I’ve seen these used to created words in previous rooms in the past, the way the translated flags were used was actually quite different in “Under Pressure”. This was appreciated.

And so finally let’s talk about the final puzzle (we didn’t use a single hint on it). The final puzzle was definitely tough, but there was enough instruction to do it. The final puzzle used two collections of items to solve it; items that were found throughout the course of the room. The final puzzle used one group of the found items to order and place a second group of found items (which also happened to be the items most dire to the storyline). There is a third step, but that would be giving it away.

Our group of three was able to restore the oxygen to our vessel and get off board (did the submarine resurface?) in 41 minutes. We foiled the plot of our German adversaries. We did this using 2 hints (both probably would’ve been solved had we waited an extra 30 seconds and thought things out). At the end of the day, we had fun and it was NOT a terrible game, but it’s also not a great game.

We haven’t played the many other games that Escapology has to offer, so I could be wrong, but the flow in each of the two games were very, very similar and formulaic. This includes the layout of the room, the puzzle flow, the length of codes, etc. After playing these two games, I know exactly how many puzzles I can expect in each area and that sadly takes away from the experience as it feels…ok…not going to say it again.

SOME POSITIVES

Our Game Master, Steffi, was on top of things. She was very helpful and didn’t dock us for a clue asked, since she knew I had already found the answer but shrugged it off earlier. She was also prompt in response time and had a great attitude.

Several multi-level puzzles which included math, discovery and observation were pretty fun.

Nice homage to the late, great, David Bowie in the intro video package and one of the greatest songs of all time.

OVERALL RATING

Although this game gets a 6 out of 10 ranking (0.5 lower than Saving Santa), I do believe Under Pressure is a much better and much more adult-oriented game (and both are advertised that way). Saving Santa was ranked on a seasonal/kid-friendly curve which also included my own uncertainty of how the room really was, due to our toddler son, running throughout the room. It also makes me want to come back in the future to try out the MANY other games Escapology has to offer.