Crack It – Pirate’s Cove

Crack It – Pirate’s Cove
Location: Bolton
Game Date: 30/04/2019
Team: Amy, Toby & Pris

Theme:
“Aye Aye Captain! Steer Pass the Challenges to Find the Treasure Chest! Step into the world of Pirates to test your abilities and find the treasure chest. You need to avoid traps, solve puzzles and find clues to reach the treasure chest. Once you’ve reached the Treasure chest, the final trap will be triggered- that is the Crunch!”

The theming was good, with each individual cubicle themed with a good pirate style, whilst each individual game is themed well, the main corridor is kept quite plain to not detract from the puzzles within. A good sound track gave some immersion, but this is a challenge about the puzzles, and in its purest form does not deliver a story, just an hour of pure puzzling fun!

Game Play:
Crack it is not techinally an escape room, whilst there is a time limit of 60 minutes, your end goal is not to escape, but to complete as many puzzles in that time as possible (out of a maximum of 12) in a more Crystal Maze style.
The space centres around a central corridor with each puzzle having its own space off the corridor. Once in the room, 2 people are allowed in to attempt the task (in our group of 3 we were all allowed in) Whilst the other team members can watch and assist from the outside (ala Crystal Maze!)
At any time players can switch in or out of the puzzle in play, or if time is ticking you can abandon the puzzle and come back to it at another time.
The puzzles themselves are incredibly varied, logic, physical, critical thinking, observation, skill, dexterity, word, math, sight, sounds….every base is covered within the puzzles, so there is something for everyone to excell at.
There are some classic puzzles (fans of Professor Layton will appreciate a few of them) thrown in to the mix too
Each puzzle was presented nicely on theme and was clear in its logic and they all had lovely ah-ha moments with a couple of nifty twists and turns in them to keep us on our toes.
Flow is a bit of a moot point in this game as it’s not a classic escape room, but the enegy and pace is dictated entirely by your team!
Signposting within each game was excellent and with clear instructions on how to play each individual game we were never left feeling lost!
Crackit is a fun hour, and something a little bit different… pure puzzling joy!

Clue System:
Clues were delivered via our host

Game Host:
Mike was our host, and his enthusiasm & passion shines through in such an unadultered way that it’s utterly infectious. He stays with the team for the entire hour and never wavierd in his enthusiam giving excellent nudges and hints with good humour.

Did we escape?
Well, escaping was not the plan but we scored 13, 500 points!

Website: https://crackitbolton.co.uk
Price:
2 Players £48
3 Players £72
4 Players £88
5 Players £110
6 Players £120
7 Players £140
8 Players £160