Bridge Command: Bridge Command

Obvious first addendum of “this is not an escape room, do not go in expecting it to be, they say so on their website etc et” 

…. But seeing it pop up here, how can I NOT say it’s my favourite thing I’ve ever done? It’s incredible, just genuinely incredible. Someone else has already left an excellently detailed overview, but if I can convince you to go in vibes alone: 

I have never felt cooler than running full pelt down a long, long hallway, seeing the stretch ahead of me has filled with smoke from a sparking, broken canister, calling out “CAPTAIN, FUEL CELLS ARE DOWN, I’M GOING IN” and bursting through it like a cloudbank, twisting fuel cells in and out of their docking chambers, until I see power reignite, and we jet away from the firefight we were sorely, sorely losing. All while in a sick jumpsuit. 

Bridge Command raises the bar of what an immersive experience can be by a ludicrous degree , and the staff are both incredibly committed to the world they’ve created, and are just so, so nice. The immersion is so high, when we stepped onto the ship we would be piloting, two of my teammates started crying from joy. It’s just that good. Go play Bridge Command. (We recommend the final slot of the night for peak vibes - nothing like arriving to an empty starship all to your crew and your crew alone)  

I loved Bridge Command when it was at Colab, and we played a few times before the pandemic hit. It is almost unrecognisable in its new guise, where a serious amount of cash has been splashed to build a high-tech set that looks like it could be from a TV show. 

Once you get there, you change into your ship jumpsuits (they probably have every size and then some) and are transported to your ships. Before you get your induction, you can stock up on your beer, wine, or cocktail of choice, which you can take with you—in an ingenious way—throughout the game. 

You can choose different scenarios (and two different ships), and this time, I think we went for a military one. The storytelling has gone up a notch, too, and you genuinely feel as if you are in a spaceship, and your actions really impact what happens in the story. 

While I often had no idea what was going on in the rest of the ship, I did have a lot of freedom in my role as comms manager and was pleased to have a use for the drama GCSE I scraped 25 years ago. That said, you don't need to have any drama/improv skills, but I always find these things much more enjoyable if I can give the actors something they've never had to work with before. 

All this won me a promotion to officer, which, in theory, should impact how the story progresses when we book next time. The team records what stories teams play, and the decisions and actions you take do have consequences later on, which gives it super replayability. 

One thing to note is that if you aren't a big group, you're likely to share your booking with others. This worked out well for us this time, as the people we were with were fun, but if you don't like that sort of thing, then you'll have to see if you can fill up the slots with your own group. 

There were no accessibility issues with the role I played. Unsure about the others!