Phantom Peak: Phantom Peak

By | September 30, 2022

by Phantom Peak (website)

Surrey Quays Rd, London SE16 7PJ

East London

Languages: EN

up to 270 mins
different
Wheelchair suitable - contact the venue for details
Welcome to Phantom Peak, known far and wide as the Venice of the West! In this fully-realised steampunk mining town, nothing is what it seems…

What is hiding in the vestiges of the mines? What does the charismatic founder of corporate JONACO really seek in this sleepy town? Was the Blimp Crash really just an accident?

Dine, shop, play games, go sightseeing, collect clues… explore the town and uncover its mysteries at your own pace for up to five hours in an immersive open-world adventure the likes of which you’ve never seen before!
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Overall rating

Rated between 4.5 and 5 out of 5

based on ratings from 22 users
combined with 4 pro reviews

Your review

Player reviews

Phill Pritchard experienced rated this:Rated between 4.5 and 4.5 out of 5
Riot Games rated this:Rated between 5 and 5 out of 5
Fiona Smith experienced rated this:Rated between 4.5 and 4.5 out of 5
Played: 31 May 2024 Team size: 2 Time taken: 4 hours
originalcleverimmersive

So unique and fun, just get stuck in and go for it! Wished I could have seen and done more as there were other really fun things happening. Actors were impressive and made it what it was.

Smith² expert rated this:Rated between 5 and 5 out of 5
beautifulvalue for moneygreat hosting
A great day out. I was skeptical about how immersed I would actually feel when there is so many other people about. But the way they have organised it has really pulled it off!I cannot wait to come back. 
Anonymous expert rated this:Rated between 3.5 and 3.5 out of 5
Team size: 3 Time taken: 4.5 hours
originalgreat hostingrepetativevery easy
For what you pay, this is great value for money, and a good time to spend 4.5 hours in our nation's captial.

Doing 1 or 2 trials is easily achievable, getting 3-5 is possible, but unfortunatley they all get a bit samey. There's more walking from one end to the other than there actually is puzzle-solving. There are puzzles to solve, but nothing when compred to an Escape Room. Phantom Peak is not an escape room.

If you do not fancy interacting with the story/character, this really will not be for you. But if you go with the mindset of interactive well with the actors, you can and will have a great time.

Would I rush back? No. A new "story" is not enough to make me want to do more trials, as I cannot see how these trials will be super-varied, other than having unique interactions with the staff.
Would I go again? Yes.

The food is good quality too!


LouT rated this:Rated between 3.5 and 3.5 out of 5
Team size: 8
immersivestory-drivenfamily friendly
Hosts are great. Fun experience but could do with a few more puzzles. 
Emma N experienced rated this:Rated between 3.5 and 3.5 out of 5
Played: 17 Mar 2024 Team size: 6 Outcome: Successful escape!
immersivestory-drivengreat hosting
Mixed review form our group of 4 adults and two kids 9/10 . The “husbands” weren’t so impressed, not so much of escape as a scavenger hunt. Little to really work out rather than just go to right place and they didn’t particularly want to talk to the characters! The rest of us got into the spirit a bit more. Love the theming there and characters are amazing. We had one trail went a bit wrong with the tech (still not sure how) but we did manage 3 trails. May go back another season.
Jen Wells (Get Wells Soon) expert rated this:Rated between 5 and 5 out of 5
Played: 31 Oct 2023 Team size: 2 Time taken: 4 trails Outcome: Successful escape!
beautifulimmersivestory-driven

Weird, wonderful, exhausting, entertaining, daft and downright ridiculous, Phantom Peak is an immersive experience not to be missed.

Is it an escape room...? Well, no... but this should by no means put escape room fans off going because it has so many elements of the theatre and story element that we love in escape rooms.

How to describe it then? It is an immersive town that you can explore at your own pace with live actors who you interact with through trails (accessed on your phone) to bring the experience to life. You can do as many or as few trails as you like and can have a drink/eat your way through the food menu/play games at your leisure. There's an opening and a closing ceremony to tie the four hour experience together but this really is something where the more you put in, the more you'll get back. If you're not keen on interaction and on throwing yourself into a role, then this might not be your cup of tea but if you are game for speaking to characters and immersing yourself in this platypus-obsessed world, then you are on to a winner.

Going over Halloween meant that we were there for the Lunar Festival and the town was suitably themed for spooky season. The decor really is superb and the actors go out of their way to make the whole experience feel genuine.

The trails themselves require very little puzzle-solving and a bit more of a challenge would be very welcome but the object here is to immerse yourself in this steam punk world and go on a few adventures along the way. It's a totally unique experience.

Karen Peers experienced rated this:Rated between 4.5 and 4.5 out of 5
Played: 24 Oct 2023 Team size: 3 Time taken: 3 trails completed
funnyimmersivegreat hosting
Dan Getliffe experienced rated this:Rated between 3.5 and 3.5 out of 5
Played: 13 Oct 2023 Team size: 2
value for moneyoriginal
This was good fun - not really an escape room but an interactive trail-following adventure where you meet different characters along the way. I find these experiences difficult to get immersed in, and a part of me gets stressed that I won't see all the trails and find all the secrets in the town. However, if you can get past that (which I eventually did), there's fun to be had here from the little pieces of info that you do find around the (quite big) area. Tech is used pretty well, and was impressed with the food, although there was a lack of variety in sweet options (summer might be better). My main issue is with the trails - they are not really puzzles. More, go to A and speak to B, what did B say?, then go look at C, what is written on C, etc. It's not particularly difficult to solve so you are more just wandering back and forth the same bit you've been up and down 10 times already, then entering the obvious into your phone. I think it's fine and I can see why they've set it up like that, but I was expecting a bit more. There are worse ways to spend 4 hours though, and I think it's worth doing once - set design is immaculate and actors are great so worth it for those alone. Not enough here to encourage repeat visits for me however (how is it going to be that different from time to time?). 
Steph Norchi experienced rated this:Rated between 5 and 5 out of 5
Played: 15 Apr 2023 Team size: 2
immersivestory-drivengreat hosting

Fantastic experience. Totally unique from anything I have done before and hillarious from start to finish. The actors were all amazing and I was completely immersed. Well worth a visit if you fancy something different!

elfgrunge experienced rated this:Rated between 5 and 5 out of 5
Played: 9 Sep 2023 Time taken: 3 Trails + 2nd Place Film!
beautifuloriginalimmersive
d.green26 expert rated this:Rated between 4.5 and 4.5 out of 5
Played: 10 Oct 2022 Team size: 3
immersivestory-drivengreat hostingquite easy
StaceyF expert rated this:Rated between 5 and 5 out of 5
originalimmersivegreat hosting
Lotsa Locks experienced rated this:Rated between 5 and 5 out of 5
Played: 28 May 2023 Team size: 2 Time taken: 3 quests completed
immersivestory-drivenfamily friendly
🏆Annagramma expert rated this:Rated between 4.5 and 4.5 out of 5
Played: 22 Apr 2023 Team size: 2 Time taken: 2 trials complete in 4 hours Outcome: Successful escape!
immersivestory-drivenepic
Viv Cassidy rated this:Rated between 5 and 5 out of 5
Played: 18 Dec 2022 Team size: 2
value for moneyimmersivegreat hosting
jakea256 expert rated this:Rated between 5 and 5 out of 5
funnyimmersivestory-driven
Wesley Mead expert rated this:Rated between 5 and 5 out of 5
Played: 19 Dec 2022 Team size: 2 Time taken: Two sessions (13 Wintermas quests) Outcome: Successful escape!
beautifulimmersivegreat hosting
Joe Brown expert rated this:Rated between 5 and 5 out of 5
Played: 13 Aug 2022

Awesome immersive experience, will be returning in the future for other expansions

🌵Juliette B expert rated this:Rated between 5 and 5 out of 5
Played: 5 Nov 2022 Team size: 2 Outcome: Successful escape!
beautifulvalue for moneyoriginal

Not an escape room, and not really that puzzly, but definitely an experience. Enjoyed both the summer and Halloween runs so am very much looking forward to seeing where they take it next! 

stairs expert rated this:Rated between 4.5 and 4.5 out of 5
Played: 9 Oct 2022 Team size: 5 Time taken: 5:00:00 Outcome: Successful escape!
immersivestory-drivenfamily friendly

Brilliant, story-driven, character-interaction-led immersive theatre in a rich world full of lore. It's not an escape room and there are no puzzles to solve, just stories to discover and side-quests to complete.

Only criticism is that the experience is led by a mobile app (which, to be fair, worked flawlessly), which necessarily removes you slightly from the otherwise incredibly immersive world. But that's a minor downside, and I can't think of another way it could be facilitated.

Reviews by escape room review sites

Phantom Peak is a wacky place that has a strange obsession with Platypuses, and it works. The cool Wild West Steampunk vibe, cool machines, great cast, and obscure missions all come together to form the perfect family/friend/work/romantic experience.

I absolutely loved our time, and I will absolutely be returning, but there were definitely a few niggles here and there which will hopefully be ironed out as the experience expands. For a start, we heavily relied on my phone, which meant the battery ran down quickly. Luckily I had packed a portable charger, but even then I was down to 30% when we left. For such a phone-heavy experience, I was surprised by the lack of charging stations in the town – I can imagine some rentable power packs would be a big hit here!

Slightly longer review than normal, and for something that isn’t actually an Escape Room… But the crazy immersive open-world adventure of Phantom Peak was one of the highlights of our year.

The City Adventurers were keen to experience the steam punk town Phantom Peak and their part treasure hunt, part immersive theatre, part escape room adventure. It was so good we headed back there the next season with a bigger team and are planning more return visits 

Get lost in the immersive world of Phantom Peak, as they open for 5 hours usually between the times of 5pm to 10pm on Wednesdays through to Sundays (Saturday & Sunday have a 11am – 4pm slot). The gates open to this open world right on time, so we recommend being early to maximise your time here. You may question is it worth 5 hours? Our answer would be 100% worth every single minute you can be here, if anything 5 hours isn’t enough and multiple visits would be needed to explore everything and solve each mystery. 

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