Room Escape Artist

Pirate’s Booty II: The Lost Ship is one of the best games in Boston. Here are our other recommendations for great escape rooms in Boston.

The search for more booty.

Location: Boston, MA

Date played: October 2, 2017

Team size: 2-10; we recommend 4-6

Duration: 60 minutes

Price: $30 per ticket

Story & setting

In this sequel to Room Escapers’ first game, Pirate’s Booty, a disgruntled former employee of the Cape Cod Treasure Hunters hired us to plunder a recently rediscovered pirate ship. With a hurricane bearing down on New England, we had an hour to liberate an estimated $1 billion in gold or face the wrath of the storm.

Pirate’s Booty II: The Lost Ship was largely set on a pirate ship. While portions of the set were recycled from Room Escapers’ first game, this was an entirely new experience. New puzzles. New narrative. New game.

Puzzles

Pirate’s Booty II: The Lost Ship upped the puzzle difficulty. We had made fairly quick work of Room Escapers’ earlier games, but in this one, we really earned our victory.

Additionally, there were bonus bags of treasure hidden throughout the escape room.

Standouts

Pirate’s Booty II: The Lost Ship got the action going quickly using a technique that Room Escapers pioneered last year in Naughty or Nice. It’s a good trick. The encore wasn’t a bad thing, but if you’re familiar with their most recent offering, you’ll also see it coming.

The set was a big step up from their previous room escapes.

There was whole a lot to do. Pirate’s Booty II: The Lost Ship kept us busy.

The hurricane game clock fit right in.

The in-character hint system was effective and well integrated into the escape room.

We particularly enjoyed the more tangible and thematic puzzles, of which there were many.

Finding gold was an entertaining way to expand the adventure and encourage participation without requiring every team to solve the game to 100% completion.

This was a funny escape room. Room Escapers has an enjoyably unsophisticated sense of humor and they are not afraid to use it.

Shortcomings

A few puzzle flow and gating issues sprang from having access to puzzle components and clues related to them too early. With a large team, someone inevitably wasted a lot of time investigating an item that was completely useless at that moment. This was frustrating.

In the escape room briefing, our gamemaster introduced us to a guide book. He flat out told us to read it from cover to cover. The guide book game mechanic generally causes frustration, especially in large team games. Room Escapers did it better than most by giving us multiple copies and thus avoiding the usual guide book bottleneck. That said, we still had to read and retain information that we might want to apply later, which wasn’t particularly fun. We also continually had to retrieve guide books as we progressed throughout the ship. Every time I encounter one of these guide books, I find myself wishing that the clues were more integrated into the set, rather than tacked on with a book.

There was a climax to Pirate’s Booty II: The Lost Ship, but it fizzled a little. There’s opportunity to do more with it.

Should I play Room Escapers’ Pirate’s Booty II: The Lost Ship?

Room Escapers has come a long way since they set sail with the original Pirate Booty. Each subsequent room escape from them has been more interesting and ambitious. Pirate’s Booty II: The Lost Ship continued that trajectory.

This escape room was fun, funny, and kept us busy until the very end.

Newbies should go in ready to make use of the well-integrated hint system and experienced players should attack this ship humbly yet aggressively. There was a lot to do. It was fair, but it was not easy.

Puzzle hard or you’ll walk the plank.

Book your hour with Room Escapers’ Pirate’s Booty II: The Lost Ship, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.

Full disclosure: Room Escapers comped our tickets for this game.