If, like me, you have been plagued by adverts for Phantom Peak for a while and want to know more well I’m here to help enlighten you as I finally took the plunge and went along. Phantom Peak can be best summed up as Immersive Theatre meets escape room and I had no idea what to expect when I went along.

Phantom Peak says it is the world’s first fully immersive open world adventure but what does this mean and what does it look like….. well allow me to talk you through my experience.

Arrival:

I arrived rather early on a rainy afternoon and was disappointed to find that essentially everyone was simply waiting out in the open on a street corner in Canada Water. There was no shelter and many of us were just looking a bit lost! Come opening time we were all ushered into a courtyard and given a talk by one of the residents of Phantom Peak (more on that later) essentially about how to behave inside. We were told to head inside and wait for the opening ceremony. We then queued up and were split into 3 teams identified by a wrist band….. I was team metaphysics.

The Opening Ceremony and The Lead up To It

Once inside we had access to the main part of the town. At this point there was a bar that was open as well as a couple of food options. We decided to get a drink at the bar and have a wonder around to try to acclimatise. At this point we still felt very much in the dark but it was clear already that every where we looked there was details about the town and potential clues to information we might soon be seeking out. We then got a seat on the upper level and settled in from a good vantage point for the opening ceremony to finally find out what we were going to be doing there!!

Thanks to the Mayor we soon discovered that there was a new arrival now running the town – Jonas and we had arrived in time for the convention – Jonacon! However not everyone was happy with his arrival. We were then told to go to a website and answer a few questions which included things such as if we were happy to be in confined spaces. I am also told that if you answer no to this question then all of your tasks and routes are kept to the ground floor, and as there wasn’t a huge amount upstairs so I assume you wouldn’t miss much.

Let The Games Commence

We were quickly given our first quest and we discovered that the quest took us all over Phantom Peak and we were soon interacting with the performers as well as taking part in games and puzzles to get our next clue. Each quest had a theme to it, for example I had get to the bottom of Sherlock Bones v Mowiatey in one quest and a bake off themed poisoning in the next! The performers themselves were brilliantly engaging and so full of energy. Their characters were easy to spot and I particularly enjoyed that they all had gender neutral names, which I assume is for practical reasons meaning anyone could step into the role but also it is a win for inclusivity. I would say that if you are nervous about interacting with the performers then it may not be the event for you, although the performers were wonderfully easy to engage with and you can go from one extreme to another- from simply getting the answers you need to having a full blown conversation with them, as I observed others doing.

The clues were fairly easy to solve and one suggestion would be to have a difficulty choice for each hunt but despite this it kept me on the move and practically jogging to keep up with my husband. We stopped a few times to join in other activities and to get food and we managed to get through 3 quests. There were also a few times, more towards the start of the evening where there were a few bottle necks, queuing to get the next clue from certain town folk or use some of the machines but as the evening went on these bottle necks seemed to dissipate. The town itself is large with an indoor ‘Old Town’ area and an outdoor area which is supposed to have a Venice feel. Going in February we tried not to linger too much outside but in the summer this would have been a great spot to sit down with a glass of wine in hand.

I also struggled to try to work out how each quest fitted into the bigger picture with Jonaco and the lives of people at Phantom Peak. Even going back onto the website now and reading some of the lore most of that went over my head and didn’t come into my time at Phantom Peak at all.

Throughout my time at Phantom Peak they were also running the Jonaco Olympics where you could join in to try to earn points for your team. My husband was thrust unknowingly into one of the games which resembled an egg and spoon race, except the egg was in a hard hat on your head!! There was lots going on to get involved with off the beaten path of the quests should you choose!

I am reliably informed that should I return to Phantom Peak and use my phone that the website would remember which quests I had already been on and make sure that I wasn’t sent on any repeat adventures.

Food and Drink:

Including the opening and closing ceremonies you get 4 hours at Phantom Peak but in reality this is more like just over 3 hours of game play – which is still a very good stint. This does mean that you have time to stop for food and drink! A large glass of wine was £8 and a pint was £6.50. They also had gluten free beer, non alcoholic beer and wine as well as Jonaco cocktails for £9.50. Food wise you had a choice of burgers (around £12), hot dogs (£10), chips (£5- £8.50), Mac and Cheese (around £7) as well as other sides. Most of it can be made vegan or gluten free as well which is great to see. For a London location the pricing seems fairly reasonable and the food was quick and hit the spot!

The Closing Ceremony

Once our time at Phantom Peak was nearing its end we were told that the Closing Ceremony was about to start. This was possibly one of the weaker parts of the evening as it focused on parts of the story I had been unaware of, until that point. That being said there were clearly Phantom Peak fanatics in attendance as they were loving the ceremony and very into the unfolding plot. It did leave me feeling as if I had missed something but some of the other puzzled faces around me showed I wasn’t the only one.

In Conclusion

When asked would I return again I don’t think I would, whilst I enjoyed my time there I don’t think a return visit would really add onto my experience. It is great for a fun evening out with friends but don’t expect to be too challenged or your thirst for the back story to be fully quenched!!

You can find out more about Phantom Peak and book tickets here.

If you like this review you might also like my review of The Room Where It Happened, Brunch at The Musicals and Restaurants In and Around Theatreland.