Portable plundering
Location: Boerne, TX
Date Played: August 27, 2023
Team Size: 2-12; we recommend 2-6
Duration: 75 minutes
Price: $39 per player if played at Boerne Escape Rooms; $500 to rent for 3 hours of off-site use
Ticketing: Private
Accessibility Consideration: Someone needs to be able to lift and move somewhat heavy chests.
Emergency Exit Rating: [A+] No Lock
Physical Restraints: [A+] No Physical Restraints
REA Reaction
I’ll admit that I was skeptical about playing a mobile escape room that could fit within six chests and one skeleton mannequin. I worried about the loss of environmental ahas, the absence of immersion, and the unabated proliferation of locks. I’m pleased to admit I was wrong, and not just because this experience came with a pleasant soundtrack of pirate ditties and sea shanties. This game is worth playing at Boerne Escape Rooms or wherever they are hosting it.
The puzzling experience captured in these six boxes was remarkable. It accomplished things that I didn’t know could be made mobile. Alongside the puzzles themselves, it was just as enjoyable to discover how a standard escape room construction might be reconfigured to fit in this presentation. Although this game didn’t have the immersive advantage of an atmospheric environment, the puzzles carried their weight. We were mentally exhausted at the end.
The only thing I was right about was the dauntless number of locks. Big locks, small locks, key locks, special locks. Locks as far as the eye could see. It was mostly okay. My only wish was that a few were better clued to connect with their inputs. There is never any joy in guessing which 4-digit lock a code is meant to open. Not even on a deserted island.
Having established this as a worthwhile game regardless of its housing, I can say I would consider this as an entertainment option for a party or corporate event. It’s an easy theme to create your own ambiance for (deserted island? Pirate costumes? Rum drinks??), and it’s dense with quality puzzling. If I lived near enough to Boerne to charter this service and hadn’t already played it, I’d tell my husband to read this review and then make some plans for my next birthday…
Who is this for?
- Puzzle lovers
- Pirate fans
- Any experience level
- Players who don’t need to be a part of every puzzle
- Anyone within a 20-mile radius of Boerne, TX, seeking to host a unique pirate-themed event
Why play?
- For a dense puzzling experience against a pirate-y soundtrack
- As a centerpiece or addition to your own event near Boerne, TX
Story
While out and about on the sea, our ship shrank (not sank), stranding us on a deserted island. Fortunately, Pirate Patrick himself had been marooned here long enough to 1) lock up his magic ring in a series of chests and 2) die. That ring was our only hope.
Note: I’m not even 50% sure I got that story right. There was a dead pirate, a series of chests, and a magic ring.
Setting
This is a mobile game that customers can either play at Boerne Escape Rooms or rent as a hosted experience to be played at their own events. In both situations, the core set elements are a dead pirate and a series of high-quality, heavily-locked chests.
We played it at Boerne Escape Rooms, where the game is hosted in a dedicated though sparsely decorated room that was open to a hallway and all of its sounds. Fortunately, a delightful pirate-themed soundtrack drowned out most of the noise. We were left to imagine our deserted island surroundings, though an ocean-colored curtain provided a reasonable hiding spot for the gamemaster.
To stage this game at your own event, the company requires at least 10′ x 10′ of air-conditioned space and provides two gamemasters to manage setup and gameplay. More space would be helpful if playing with a bigger group; even with just two of us, we found prop and space management to be a significant task. Also, if you’re hoping to enable multiple play-throughs of the game for different groups of people at your event, choose a space where non-players won’t be able to overhear the experience.
Gameplay
Boerne Escape Rooms’ Pirate Patrick’s Lost Loot was a mobile escape room with a moderate level of difficulty.
Gameplay involved observing, making connections, and searching.
Analysis
➕ The puzzling experience was necessarily yet still surprisingly dense. There was more to do than we expected, covering a wide variety of puzzle types.
➖ The gamespace didn’t have a door, which allowed sounds from the rest of the business to float in. The soundtrack obscured this enough for me, but my partner was distracted.
➕ Sea shanties. Who doesn’t love a sea shanty?
➕ We were impressed with the reveals as we opened each chest. Objects were well-presented and intriguing, and there was even a bit of unexpected magic. This all gave us a satisfying sense of discovery even though we were literally just opening chests.
➕/➖ We had to lug the chests around a fair amount for various reasons. I enjoyed the physicality. My teammate worried that we were going to break something.
➖ There was an odd inconsistency in cluing locks with codes. Some locks were well-clued, whereas we had to try some codes in multiple locks.
➕ We encountered an unusual type of lock that was a neat little puzzle in itself.
➖ One mechanical puzzle had flimsy parts that were difficult to keep in place. These were an anomaly in quality compared to other game pieces.
❓ The gamemaster stays in the room behind a curtain. This was another by-product of the mobile alter-ego of the game; all of the other rooms at Boerne Escape Rooms have an out-of-room gamemaster. If you play the game off-site, two gamemasters accompany it, but I’m not sure if the curtain is included.
Tips For Visiting
- There is a parking lot.
- To reserve this as a mobile game, make sure to select “Mobile Package” on the booking page, NOT Pirate Patrick’s Lost Loot.
Book your hour with Boerne Escape Rooms’ Pirate Patrick’s Lost Loot, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.
Disclosure: Boerne Escape Rooms comped our tickets for this game.
