Rated Arrrrrr for Reverie
Location: Bad Steben, Germany
Date Played: June 21, 2024
Team Size: 2-6; we recommend 2-4
Duration: 75 minutes
Price: From €29.75 per player
Ticketing: Private
Accessibility Consideration: All players must enter a small space and briefly crawl
Emergency Exit Rating: [A] Push To Exit
Physical Restraints: [A+] No Physical Restraints
2024 Golden Lock Award Winner
"Framed as a shared lucid dream, The Tale of the Heartless Pirate served up a swashbuckling saga filled with adventure, laughter, and awe. With this impressive debut, Dream Labs succeeded in crafting a truly end-to-end immersive experience."
REA Reaction
I don't know whether I've encountered another escape room that was both as ambitious and as meticulously polished as The Tale of the Heartless Pirate.
Upon our arrival at their facility, a Dream Labs technician explained that we'd be participating in a lucid dreaming experience, then escorted us to a polyhedral DreamPod which would shepherd us into our selected fantasy. The world that ensued was as cohesive as it was vivid. In all too many escape rooms and immersive experiences, the premise of a dream or a psychedelic trip is an excuse for an incoherent sequence of random scenes. In contrast, Dream Labs utilized dreaming to clearly define the magic circle, as well as provide a neutral overworld.
Image via Dream Labs
The Tale of the Heartless Pirate was clearly the work of obsessive perfectionists with the skills and resources at their disposal to ensure that every tiny detail was near perfect. I don't use the word "perfect" lightly, nor do I think it's possible to achieve absolute perfection. Yet, I'm not sure whether, in the 600+ escape rooms I've played, I've encountered an experience in which each dimension was so finely tuned relative to what it was trying to achieve.
The production design throughout The Tale of the Heartless Pirate was inspirational. Every surface within the walls of Dream Labs was thoroughly developed, with a sharp contrast between clinical white research facility and warm, wooden pirate world. The latter looked old and weathered without ever actually being dirty or splintery. The set was impressively yet not irresponsibly expansive, and each new space we passed through was efficiently used. Beyond physical production, The Tale of the Heartless Pirate was an audiovisual marvel, with lush original musical scoring and lighting that was picture-perfect from every angle. Our interactions with a fantastic actor further brought the world to life.
The Tale of the Heartless Pirate was designed in partnership with THE ROOM Laboratories, and their style shone through strongly. In my review of Ghosthunter Brandon Darkmoor, I debated the distinction between explicit puzzle and narrative task. Regardless of which label feels most appropriate, the interaction design throughout The Tale of the Heartless Pirate pushed even further in that direction of hyper-streamlined, creative actions that fit both environment and narrative. Even as a hardcore puzzle enthusiast, I still appreciated and enjoyed this style. And thinking more broadly, I believe that experiences in this style and at this caliber have the potential to massively expand the audiences drawn to escape rooms.
Dream Labs is located in the middle of nowhere, and that nowhere happens to be an adorable little village in northern Bavaria. A 3- to 4-hour drive from either Berlin or Munich, this is not the easiest escape room company to get to. Since my visit, Dream Labs has already opened their second game, a tech-heavy cyberpunk adventure entitled Metropolis 2099, and their third and final experience is in progress. It was well worth the long drive even just to play The Tale of the Heartless Pirate, and with 3 experiences hopefully all at a similarly high level, Dream Labs will be an escape room destination worth traveling any distance to visit.
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