Review: Captured LV | The Pirate's Chamber

RATING: 3 Keys RESULT: Win REMAINING: 4:53

Has your treasure been stolen again? Don’t hate the pirate, hate the game.

Story

Captain Bruce Bowing and his crew of pirates have stolen a treasure from the Island of Magu. Your team’s mission is to recover the treasure. You have found Captain Bruce’s ship and have gone aboard, but you were captured and are now being held, prisoner. You need to retrieve the treasure from Captain Bruce’s room and escape his chambers before they notice you went missing. Don’t lollygag; you have 60 minutes… tick-tock, tick-tock.

Despite the near impenetrable defenses of the Island of Magu, Captain Bruce Bowing has made off with the treasure of its people. Thankfully they were able to catch up to Bowing’s fleet and board his ship and search for the gold that is rightfully theirs. But that seemed easy, too easy.

It’s a trap!

Residents of Magu have been captured and thrown into the hold of the ship of one of the world’s most notorious pirates. It seems they are destined to die here, their corpses withering away to just another plastic skeleton like all the rest. Worst of all, they’ll never be able to recover the treasure and restore honor to the Island of Magu. Or will they? It appears their captors have left them alone, giving a small window of time to find the treasure and escape with their lives.

Scenic

Captives begin blindfolded. When the coast is clear they are free to remove the ocular hindrance and let their eyes adjust to the dimly lit surroundings of the maritime prison. The walls are covered in framed portraits and paintings. Is this a prison or an art gallery?

Seems like an awfully odd place to leave captives. Despite the ambient lighting, a well used chest of drawers, and more plastic skulls than one can shake a hook at, the surroundings feel less like a chamber deep within the belly of a ship and more like a room in a strip mall populated by pirate themed items.

Aside from some handcuffs, the only thing that really screams oceanic prison is the gate preventing captives from progressing further into the hold of the ship. Thankfully, what lies beyond the gate feels much more like a captain’s chambers. With old wooden tables, several locked chests and maps of the seven seas, it appears to be the war room where Captain Bowing plans his maritime takeovers.

Puzzles

This adventure is relatively low tech, but the puzzles are where The Pirate’s Chamber – The Moonlight’s Secret really shines. Although buccaneers will encounter plenty of combination locks in their quest for Captain Bowing’s stolen treasure, the various puzzles that lead to their keys and codes are wide ranging and make excellent use of well worn pirate tropes.

Despite many puzzles’ connection to the pirate world at large, we rarely felt like we were completing actions that would be required for the specific tale that we were supposedly engaged in. Even for pirates, known for their penchant to hide treasure, we couldn’t help but feel that many of our tasks were merely puzzles for puzzles sake.

We found a few puzzles to be a bit clunky as they involved too much code translation for our taste. But as the adventure picks up wind, the pace evens out and the maritime tasks flow naturally, like the finest grog. The final few puzzles add up to a satisfying conclusion that literally leads buccaneers to discover The Moonlight’s Secret. Whether that is enough to justify this adventures awkwardly long name is up to you.

Overall

Despite the fact that The Pirate’s Chamber – The Moonlight’s Secret never made us feel like we were actual captives on a ship sailing the high seas, it still offered up plenty of creative swashbuckling fun. For us, the narrative was more of a general backdrop to the tasks at hand, than a driving force for the actions we needed to take. But the vague pirate vibe was just enough to set the right tone for our adventure.

Captain Bruce’s room is surprisingly small, but still manages to pack plenty of creative puzzles that will keep elder pirates entertained while still appealing to those first testing their sea legs.