A missile is on its way to Brighton and you’ve only got 60 minutes before it lands.
Luckily you have the keys to your Grandad’s old Cold War bunker, but it is not in good shape. You’ll have to use your hour wisely to fix up the bunker and bring it back online in order to survive!
In this game, communication is king because your team will be split at the start, with half taking a different side each and only a small opening to communicate and pass items between the two halves.
 60 Minutes
 2-6 Players
10% Escape Rate
 £26 per player
 Brighton, East Sussex, England
 No dedicated Parking, Pay & Display available
 https://www.pierpressure.co.uk
 Pete, Nate, Andy, Molly
 September 2020
 Escaped – 49.49
Immersion
Pete
Nate
Andy
Molly
Having completed “Loot the Lanes” earlier in the day, we were pretty excited to return to Pier Pressure and experience their most recent room, Broken. A room which was developed by Pressure point escape rooms in Ashford, and is set within an aging nuclear bunker that is divided into two halves. Teams who play this room are immediately seperated into two and forced to communicate only through two small gaps in the wall that seperates them.Â
As with the other escape rooms at Pier Pressure, we were pleased when the immersion of the room started at the point we were collected from reception by our games master. Two of us were collected first and locked away in one half of the bunker, and a few moments later the other two were quickly locked into the other side. If you’re locked up first you can have some fun at this point, we hid behind the gaps in the wall as the other half of us were being locked up and jumped out at them! Once securely locked away into the bunker, a video setting the scenario and outling your objectives is played in each half through the screens mounted on the wall. It described how a missile is heading your way and you have to secure yourselves in the bunker before impact!
Video over, you get your chance to have an explore around the room. Both halves look pretty similar. The walls are corrugated metal, each features a small shelving unit, some fitted cupboards and wall fixtures such as warning lights. It definitely has that industrial, built at home bunker feel to it and there can be no ambiguity about where the game is set. We did feel however, that there were no “props” so to speak. Most of the items you come across have a purpose in the game which meant some areas of the room felt a little empty. It would be nice to see some of the shelves a little bit more stocked with supplies for instance. Regardless, what does come across through the story and setting is the atmosphere. Things start relatively calm but as the timer gets closer to zero the vibe convincingly starts to change.Â
Puzzles & Challenges
Pete
Nate
Andy
Molly
The room in which bunker is located is definitely one of the smaller rooms we have played, and when you consider that it is split into two halves it means there is a lot of game packed into quite a small space. Don’t get me wrong the challenges in this room will give you plenty to be getting on with for an hour, but the room definitely relies on a fewer number of more difficult challenges compared to Loot the Lanes varied set of puzzles. It’s easy to understand why the difficulty is rated a little bit higher.Â
Given the theme, it will be no surprise that the first set of challenges must be completed while you and your team mates are seperated into two rooms. This inevitably means passing clues and visual information to each other as well as completing tasks together which can only be achieved with information from both halves of the bunker. We have seen this type of room before at HMP The Clink, but the game here definitely requires a much more collaborative team effort. Whats more, no one half has a massive amount more to do than the other, so you all feel included in the game. Once completed, this first set of tasks will ultimately lead to the team being fully reunited.Â
Once together again, the first two puzzles are relatively easy and we were able to solve them pretty quickly. One more technical challenges left us stumped for a short while, but frustratingly this is because we had overlooked a basic visual cue and nothing to do with the tech! It now seems very obvious. One of the more time consuming elements of the game we found to be a little confusing, and we imagine this is where a lot of teams lose time in the game. Â
Games Master
Pete
Nate
Andy
Molly
As with our other Pier Pressure experience, our games master was able to maintain a character in her dealing with us before going into the room, without actually saying all that much! She definitely set the scene.Â
Once locked inside, communication moves to a digital screen and is delivered via text instead of talking. Unlike loot the lanes, we were not asked if we would want the clues to be handed over freely or to request them and there were a few occasions where we would have rather had a bit more time to figure things out. Of course, we probably think we were closer than we actually were, so we should be grateful. The clues that were delivered were definitely very clear, we would prefer a slightly more subtle nudge in the right direction, but we were not handed any answers.Â
Value for Money
Pete
Nate
Andy
Molly
We’re still not complaining too much about the £26 fee here at Pier Pressure. Although if we are being overly picky, its not as good or expansive as the other room we completed. However, for the quality of the experience here and the complete and utter immersion, you will be happy to part with your cash! As with other rooms in Brighton, there isn’t really any where on street to park your car. We found London Road multi storey to be great value at £10 for the full day.Â
Enjoyment
Pete
Nate
Andy
Molly
We had a great time escaping the bunker. It was the last session of the day and rounded off what had been an all round awesome day in Brighton. Thanks in no small part to Pier Pressure’s rooms. Of the two rooms we completed on the day, we preferred Loot the Lanes, but this was still one of the best executed escape rooms we have completed to date. Unfortunately, LTL was going to take some beating and we might be a little harsher on Broken just because we played it straight after! We’re lucky to have a mix of experience levels at Rate The Escapes when it comes to escape rooms. Those in the team who are a little newer to these games, enjoyed this just as much as the more experienced players, despite the more difficult challenges. We secured the bunker at 49 minutes and 49 seconds with just over 11 minutes remaining on the clock.Â
Total Score
1 thought on “Pier Pressure : Broken”
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I was quite sad to hear that the northerners were bombing you in this Brighton Escape room at Pier Pressure. I hope that you got out of that bombing and secured the mission in the end.