Escape Hunt Basingstoke: Blackbeard’s Treasure

GM was enthusiastic and professional, but room lacked any difficult puzzles.

Did this one with some colleagues even though I had done the Reading version previously. Rooms were much too small for more than 2, possibly 3, people so several people missed out on puzzles.

This was the first escape room that we ever did. Whilst we did not escape and found the concept confusing as we weren't sure where to begin or what to do we enjoyed the set, as ultimately we returned to this site and completed them all. It was very story driven and family friendly. 

This is the first escape room my team and I ever played! We thourougly enjoyed it, although we didn't escape 🙁 We were new to escape rooms and this room started off our escape rooming journey. Safe to say it got us hooked on the hobby 🙂

The set was really well done and the hosting was good from the team, they use funny accents which really set the vibe for the room.

Very easy room. Arrived at the centre to be told the sound was broken - bless the host as he tried his best to fill in for the missing audio!

The room was just very plain, easy puzzles and red-herrings that just distracted you from the point of the game. Very anticlimactic ending too which left a dampener on the whole experience.

These rooms are located in a city full of experiences that are so much better then what Escape Hunt has to offer, spend your money at one of those venues instead

Probably best pirate themed room we have done. Well themed, nice mix of puzzles, and great hosting! 

I have been looking forward to playing this game for some time and enjoyed the theme and the aesthetics of the room. Although we managed to escape within the time, we found a lot of these puzzles to be quite frustrating and there were a few red herrings which we didn't appreciate. Some of the EH rooms are good but a lot of them rely on illogical puzzles and there's never a HUGE amount to do!

We were quite dissapointed with this room. Whilst the setting was very good (inside of a pirate ship) and there were some nice touches, the puzzles were very straightfoward and the room was extremely worn. A number of the puzzles didn't quite work because of over-use. Despite that, we were out of the room in just under 35 minutes and left feeling like we hadn't really got our money's worth.

I'd avoid this one and maybe try one of the other rooms at Escape Hunt.

Thanks so much to Bronwyn, their hosting really added to the experience for us. We enjoyed the room so much more because we felt they were genuinely taking notice of what we were doing.

Thanks for making our experience great. 

Our team found this a bit too easy. We'd just got going and then suddenly we'd escaped. There was a puzzle in here which I did really enjoy though (can't say more than that or I'd spoil it) and the theming was good. I'd recommend this more for beginners

Ridiculously simple room, the hardest part of it was the music puzzle which was near impossible if you're not a trained musician

A little light on the puzzles and some things were questionable, but on a EH scale it wasn't too bad. 

Poor hosting not reflective on host herself, customer service and friendliness was good. Seemed to lack training/knowledge and was running 2 games at once which meant clues/activation of puzzles upon correct answers was delayed. Host didn't know correct answer to the puzzle when asking where we went wrong. Clue was incorrect as solution had been changed and the host was unaware. 

Easiest escape room ever done got the record in 25 minutes. Very linear and easy to work out but was very fun and a great room. Probably the best at escape hunt but feel escape hunt has very few puzzles within their rooms and a lack of creativity 

Extremely well themed, I love the little pirate touches. Some simple puzzles become extremely memorable due to the theming, some more interesting puzzles. 

A Cut-Throat, Cut-Short Crusade

We were looking at the leader boards in disbelief because of the record-breaking times…but that would all soon make sense.

Story

Raid Blackbeard’s cabin for his treasure, but abandon ship before it sinks.

Puzzles

They fit the theme nicely, but one or two were frustrating to complete.

Mise-en-scene

The room looked swashbuckling enough, that’s for sure. I believed we had stepped onto a pirate galleon.

Final Comments

What a disappointingly short game! Where were the rest of the puzzles? The ending especially felt rushed and uninspired. We had over 20 minutes left on the clock. When you could be paying up to £25 per person, Blackbeard’s Treasure just isn’t worth the money.

Quite a hard room. Enjoyed elements of this room and the host was amazing. My only criticism, maybe between the H&S and gameplay parts before the room. Maybe walk away and come back because I had to stop myself laughing when the hosts voice suddenly changed

At the time I played this I would've rated it low, I hated tech games but I've grown to love them so would enjoy playing this game again. One flaw with the piano as I think you have to have a taste for.music or previously played an instrument to understand but other than that, a really good room

Just OK - I've done worse... 

As others have said lots of the puzzles are broken and if you struggle with musical puzzles this game has a particularly difficult puzzle with poor hosting making it more difficult.

Broken puzzles, maglocks not reset and red herrings and puzzles “to slow you down”. Lovely host but unfortunately the game at £30pp felt overpriced 

A decent enough game that looked pretty but I felt was let down by the GM constantly talking to us on the mic. "You'll need that later", "No need to apply force to that!" (We weren't) as well as coming in extremely quickly with hints for a couple of things where we had barely had any time to consider a solution. One of the physical puzzles I solved in 3 seconds - not sure if by chance. One hint came at the end at the same time we had realised what to do, and even though we still had 20 minutes remaining on the clock.  Maybe these shiny chain venues are so used to "normal" players that the default is to spoon-feed players. Either way, doesn't inspire us to try more Escape Hunt rooms.

Not a bad room. Fairly easy.  Visually pleasing.

Be warned, there are puzzles in this room that no longer work and are therefore no longer part of the game. Rather than removing them from the room, these puzzles are still in there. We had to be clued from the GM a couple of times as we were trying to solve puzzles which were no longer part of the game. We were told to ignore these and move on.

Uncomprehendable. 

It was ok and it looks great, but it's quite easy and there's a sound puzzle, which I'm not a huge fan of.

Not Escape Hunt's best game but we loved some of the more story-based puzzles and had a lot of fun.

Brilliantly themed and set up room - there's no mistaking it's a pirate ship! The surroundings and puzzles were perfectly on theme.

This was only our second or third room so most of the puzzles were new to us, but still easy enough to complete as a team of 2 newbies. There was one task that we just could not do - even with a clue from the GM we just could not recreate the sound correctly, in the end we asked for help again, eventually reaching a solution. But good luck with that if you're like us and completely tone deaf. Also, when we went back and did the room next to this one, we could still hear that particular task, that sound haunts us 😂

Overall, brilliant room, brilliant theme, brilliant puzzles, brilliant GM. 

Positives first: The room looked brilliant and the theming was great. Our games master was responsive and helpful. Some of the puzzles were interesting and innovative and very satisfying to solve.

BUT several elements were broken, and the structure of the game was quite illogical. Quite a few things in the room we never figured out what they were for or how to use them and we completed the room without them. It’s not clear if they were red herrings or just broken so not in use. But it’s frustrating to have spent ten minutes trying to work out how (for example) to move two balls through a maze on the wall only to ultimately complete the room without ever doing it. There were a few things like this. Also there was one puzzle which required us to use our sense of smell but only 1 of the 5 smelly things actually smelled of anything so it was impossible. We got there in the end but only by random chance.

On the whole a mediocre experience and not very satisfying because the room just didn’t seem to follow a logical route to completion. 

Some tough puzzles. The look of the room probably is better than the puzzles themselves

This game had some fun puzzles but it also left us wondering what to do a lot of the time. We spent the first 15 minutes finding things but not entire sure what to do. Once in the second room we found things flowed a bit better. I would go back and play another of their games but I did feel a bit frustrated during the game sometimes when things didn't seem to be moving anywhere. That being said the physical design of the game was appealing and we did have a fun time overall 🙂 

We returned to EscapeHunt as a team of two to celebrate Saint Valentine, as it seems to be a new tradition for us! Blackbeard Treasure was to the same quality level as The Last Vikings, really atmospheric with great decors and our host, Captain Michael, was on point! Similar to The Last Vikings, all our clues were given in character. "Hey matey, things tends to fall when on the sea, maybe check the floor" type of clues. Very similar to the Last Vikings, the puzzles were very hands on and only a few code locks within the room. The puzzles were of very varied difficulties, that would fit both experienced players with a 0 clues completion and new players who want to experience various types of puzzles that escape games can offer. One puzzle though was surprisingly made harder that it should have been as all the hints were already present on the piece of paper that you receive to solve it. Another great room for Liverpool! Highly recommend for anyone who hasn't tried EscapeHunt yet. Looking forward to try their 'Cowboys' room and the future Alice In Wonderland. 😮

I loved this! It was brilliant. It was possibly our best ever time and we made it onto this months leader board! So it was an easier room, in my opinion. (possibly adapted for Covid?) 

Well i just know where to start. Im not sure if i nearly walked out of this room due to the room itself or due to the Game Master operating the game. Perhaps a bit of both 

On first impressions, the theming and decor of the room was great. Lots to look at, some puzzles immediately available and a great sized space. After about 20 mins of progress we got to a sticking point. We knew exactly what we had to do but we couldnt execute it. Sadly, it was an Aural puzzle and both me and my teammate are tone deaf so we literally had not a hope in hells chance of ever being able to complete it. The games Master saw us struggling for several minutes and then asked if we wanted a clue. we said yes and she started waffling on about another puzzle that wasn't related and didn't need solving yet. 

15 minutes later she is still on the intercom trying to give us clues but quite frankly, they were abysmal. Tried telling us there were 3 notes only we needed, turns out there were 5. She even tried walking us through it by telling us to start with the 4th. turned out to be the 8th. She gave us 12 instructions, turns out only needed 7. If you are not able to complete sound based puzzles, then you're sc**wed in this room, especially if you have a Games Master that clearly hasn't got a clue. 

As for the room itself, so many props were damaged or broken. I know that a sinking pirate ship is not going to be perfect, but when there is a difference between being with the theme or plain broken then there is an issue. 

At the end of the room (thankfully we got out without walking out) i told the GM about things being broken. I even took a supposed "fixed" item to show her and was greeted with her response of "well thats your opinion". Clearly not when im holding the prop in question. 

I would not recommend this room

**DISCLAIMER - The assistant manager overheard our displeasure after the game, apologised on behalf of the GM (who we found out is actually leaving, and offered us to play another room Free of Charge, of which we found to be a good room. See my review of Our Finest Hour***

Another visit to Escape Hunt! Yet again the theme is really immersive!  I did prefer the other two rooms I’ve done here, a few things felt a bit worn out or broken even though the room was new, but it is still worth a visit!