Bridge Command - "Bridge Command"

LOCATION:  London, United Kingdom

Photo above is property of Bridge Command

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Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers

📝  ETR DECODER

• 🔑 GAME: Bridge Command

• 📅 DATE PLAYED: April 26, 2025

• 🎬 GENRE: Sci-Fi, Adventure, Space

• 🧠 DIFFICULTY (Based on 2 ppl): 8/10

• 👥 TOTAL # OF PLAYERS: 4-14 ppl

• 🕒 LENGTH OF TIME: 120 Mins.

• 💰 PRICE: £40-£60/ pp (pending on the day and mission)

• ☎️ BOOKING TYPE: Public

• 🔓 ESCAPED/ COMPLETED?: Yes
  

🎭  THE EXPERIENCE

We wandered up to an almost imperceptible door in a bright blue arch in an innocuous-looking brick wall in Vauxhall one grey Saturday afternoon, not really sure of what we were stepping into, but on the other side of that door, everything changed.

The inner sanctum felt like an area full of promise. A rack of uniforms, sealed and ordered by size. A mysterious clock and a ramp, leading to a glowing doorway, that pulsed enticingly.

We confirmed that we were here with the crew at the desk, and asked to “suit up” which we did. From that moment, you really felt you were being prepared for something out of this world.

Our guide arrived, gathered us up and gave us our mission patches and officer stripes, and informed us of what has been happening “out there” and thus what our mission would entail. Then, we stepped boldly forward, into the teleporter, where we were, quite safely, transported 22 lightyears into the future

Your first port of call is the Quarters, where you can mingle and prepare with a choice of beverages from the bar. Your chosen “fuel” will be presented in a branded bottle, which you can take with you on board.

We met various other Starship crew members here, all there to make sure we’re prepared for our mission, and then it’s on to our briefing room from the commander, given via intergalactic video-call where we learn more about our mission. We’re then onward into our trusty starship, and this is where things really become real.

Video above is property of Bridge Command

🎯  HIT THE BULLSEYE

• From the moment you walk onto the ship, it's clear that an extraordinary level of effort has gone into creating a believable, atmospheric environment. The set design is truly exceptional—every surface, screen, control panel, and sound effect evokes a fully operational starship and its bridge. It's the kind of environment that makes you feel like you’ve stepped into a science fiction blockbuster or well-loved sci-fi TV series. There are multiple areas, including medbay, office, and a fully functional toilet, so that if the g-forces, the mission anxiety, or just your pre-mission beverage get to you, you can “go” without breaking the immersion.

• Suddenly, you’re not in central London anymore, but about to navigate the stars. It’s explained that this ship requires maintenance, monitoring, and precision control, so you will need to be assigned roles. From Captain, through comms, engineering, weapons, and scientific analysis - there’s something for everyone to do. Being our first space mission, we weren’t fully sure what would be expected of us, but we chose roles we thought sounded like they played to our earthly strengths, and once you’re in position, your roles are walked through in a kind of tutorial scenario, learning what to press and when, and what you’re looking for on the myriad of screens and blinking lights. There’s no dumbing down of the immersion here - you will be overawed by the complex terminology, realistic radar and diagrams, and various crystals and fuses that power the whole thing. Warp Drive Quantum Polarity Hub, anyone?!

• Before too long, it’s time to “blast off” and boldly go where, well, others have gone before for sure, but as this experience has multiple missions, ships, and the teams will be different every time you play, then I’m confident no two missions will ever be the same. This is also hugely due to the incumbent crew, who are so fully immersed and confident in the world that it feels like they can handle any question, scenario, or lacklustre crewmate, and get people working together and getting the most from the experience. Either via telecoms or while actually on board with you, they skillfully guide the mission and provide support and insight which steers the story to a resolution - what that might be is dependent on the behaviour and willingness of the entire team to engage fully. As these are public games, unless you have filled the slots with your friends, you are at the mercy of those who join you on the day.

• For anyone with a deep love of sci-fi culture and drama, I expect this is a dream come true to be able to live out your fantasy of being on board a starship, taking orders and being part of the crew that “always seems to save the day” despite all the peril and hurdles you will face along the way, including enemies, ship damage, systems that need to be monitored and balanced, and incoming transmissions and data that need to be handled!

• It’s all brought together by a very impressive computer system that responds to the team’s inputs and decisions, and throws up said challenges and data very well, at least during our mission, which was to find a defector from a group of pirates, give them safe harbour if we felt it right to, gather intelligence on the band of pirates, and if necessary, eliminate them.

• My husband was in charge of weapons. As a fan of “shooty computer games” this appealed to him, but I was less than impressed when he owned up to having shot at our own shuttle, which I was in command of the engineering for. This role led me to leave the main bridge with a few other crew now and then to “blast off” separately and provide backup as a rendezvous or to fight alongside the main ship. Whilst a neat additional part of the plot, this sometimes felt a little like we missed a lot of the main action, as we couldn’t actually see what was going on aboard the bridge, and at one point they warped off and left us stranded, with very little to do! We weren’t allowed back in until we had safely redocked, which, whilst accurate, felt a bit lonely. My husband reports that things were much more involved in the main bridge, with sparks flying and smoke appearing at one point when the main ship took damage. Otherwise, it was business as usual with the Captain shouting out orders, monitoring everyone, and crew-mates dutifully pressing buttons and reporting items on their screens to get the bigger picture of what we were heading for or what was playing out.

🧩  MISSED THE MARK

• At times, I had to admit to feeling rather lost, not really knowing what was going on, and just balancing systems on one screen when we took damage or were using our warp drive too much, just by jabbing at buttons as necessary. Sci-fi terminology and character names bamboozle me at the best of times when I’m a passive observer, but when you’re faced with having to actually partake in the scenario, it was quite boggling! However, I was happy to just observe at times, and be swept along by the responses and interaction of the other crew, as they immersed themselves with different amounts of gusto, into the scenario. Our chief pilot seemed to have his own agenda, spinning the main ship off in all sorts of directions and not taking it at all seriously, whilst a crewmate who had been on many missions before, and earned multiple stripes, had quietly taken a comms role, allowing others to step up, which I thought was valiant, but maybe under his captaincy we could have had more structure and certainty.

• As a lover of escape rooms and puzzles, I would certainly have welcomed more physical tasks, such as having to find logbooks containing data on the ship, work out passwords, solve logic puzzles, or have to do some sort of battle with locks or entry systems during our 1.5-hour mission. Whilst the set was impressive, for us in the shuttle at least it didn’t really yield much interaction, and we were pretty much glued to our particular screens pressing buttons on them, which started to feel a bit too much like my day job, to be honest! Whilst the underlying tech is good, there’s not much way to know if your actions are having any effect, especially as part of the isolated shuttle crew.

🏹  TAKE A SHOT?

It was frenetic, certainly immersive, and wildly confusing at times. Still, it certainly was an experience I will never forget. I am certain that those who return time and time again get something new out of it every time, mostly due to the fact that when you book, your mission is logged so you can be guided towards a new one on your return, hence earning more stripes and having many different roles you can try. Two people in our team were awarded honours for their roles, which was great for them!

If there was an opportunity to return but have a mission involving less tactical fight and flight, with more active things to do in terms of searching, solving, and analysing, I’d be back there like a shot. Say for example, you are a crew that just has to fly skillfully to a certain region, land, analyse a species, mineral or similar, and use items on board the ship that you have to find, puzzle out and use logic and teamwork to progress, that would most certainly appeal to me. Where the goal is to figure things out and solve some sort of quandary or help save a species through solving their problem, and not just fulfilling a need for speed and “pew-pew-pew” - I wonder if this would give the experience wider appeal and feel more satisfactory to some?

Whatever you feel about sci-fi, stepping into the world of Bridge Command for a couple of hours is totally worth it to just take in what has been achieved and to spend time role-playing and acting out those “save the world” fantasies. Like with many immersive experiences these days, you really do get out of it what you put in. And this one is a joy made possible by the amazing team behind and inside it, and is certainly boldly going where no immersive experience has gone before in terms of adapting and amending the experience so that it grows and evolves - I think this is one of those things that will be around for light years to come.

Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers

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Disclosure: We thank Bridge Command for comping our tickets for this game. Although complimentary admission was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever.

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