“YOU’D make a great surveillance officer. Have you ever considered joining the FBI?”
It’s not every day you hear those words. But then again, this isn’t your average day out.
SPYGAMES test your physical abilities and spy stealth[/caption]
I was deep inside SPYSCAPE, a new immersive experience in London’s Covent Garden.
First opening in New York, it is one of the top ranked attractions in the city and if you’ve ever fancied yourself the next Bond or Black Widow, this place is your training ground.
Designed with help from ex-British Intelligence and leading psychologists, SPYSCAPE (and its adrenaline-pumping sibling, SPYGAMES) makes for an all-round exhilarating physical and mental challenge.
It’s part team games, part personality test, part sweaty workout.
Whilst SPYGAMES tests your reflexes in physical team challenges, SPYSCAPE analyses your mind, assigning you the spy role that best suits you.
By the end of the afternoon, I’d walk away with my own personalised spy profile – revealing exactly what kind of secret agent I’d make.
I kicked off my mission with SPYGAMES, where teams of 2-5 people battle it out across a range of heart-racing physical and mind-bending challenges.
After strapping on my interactive wristband and creating my spy avatar (a cute cartoon version of me), my partner and I joined forces to create our gaming squad.
As we headed down the corridor illuminated by neon lights, what followed was a series of physical challenges that burned enough energy to have me ditching the evening gym sesh.
Our first task? Cipher Sequence – a frantic code-cracking game that tests your speed and foresight.
Precision, foresight, accuracy – all key skills for a secret agent[/caption]
Glowing squares illuminated beneath our feet – the task was to eliminate all squares by strategically jumping on them in the right order.
My speed and response time were my best skills, but it turns out I’m more stealth than strategist.
My foresight cracked under time pressure, and let’s just say my score didn’t make the leaderboards…
But I soon bounced back with Peak Protocol.
This was a full-body stealth and agility test that had me scaling walls like Tom Cruise clinging to the Burj Khalifa (give or take a few thousand feet).
You may not be high-up, but holding on is harder than it looks…[/caption]
Chasing my teammate around the climbing wall like a Mission Impossible montage, my climbing skills came in handy for this task.
I racked up a whopping 14,552 points and landed in the top 12 per cent of players. Not bad for a desk jockey.
Having discovered physical tasks were my secret strength, I may or may not have convinced my teammate to take me on in a 1v1 speed race.
Stealth Matrix was the most cinematic game yet – a full on laser-dodging mission that made me forget who I really was and go full spy-mode.
Stood at one end of a pitch-black room, suddenly neon green lasers crisscrossed the space like something out of Entrapment.
Super stealth – dodging these laser beams was a-near impossible mission[/caption]
I charged in with confidence, but my long legs betrayed me.
One wrong step and I triggered a sneaky laser pointed at my ankle, blowing my cover in seconds.
But after slaying the physical tasks with stealth, it was time to get my brain analysed.
We moved from SPYGAMES into SPYSCAPE – an interactive Spy museum that analyses your spy-chology as you wind your way through its rooms.
The spy-themed museum was fascinating[/caption]
You begin by answering a series of questions and puzzles that quiz you on everything from social skills, to how risky you are.
The questions were designed with the help of British Intelligence’s former Head of Training, as well as top psychologists – so your secret agent skills are assessed with some serious precision.
I then jumped into a secret booth that tested my lie-detecting skills.
Closely watching video interviews, I had to decide if the individual was telling the truth or a lie.
Top tips for spotting a liar – this behaviour can be a dead giveaway[/caption]
After scoring top marks, a voice boomed over me “Ever thought about joining the FBI?”. Yes, mysterious speaker voice, quite frankly I have wondered.
After walking through displays of real-life spy stories and tales of code-cracking breakthroughs, I faced my next task.
Receiving instructions over a telephone, I conducted surveillance over a series of cameras.
Sharp observation is key to becoming a successful spy, after all.
I received careful instructions over the telephone[/caption]
I was confident in the camera surveillance task![/caption]
Finally, I entered the last room to receive my complete spy profile.
My every move had been tracked, my skills observed, my answers analysed. And now, the results were in…
I was an AGENT HANDLER – somebody who runs, manages and oversees agents. So basically the spy of all spies – pretty cool, if I do say so myself.
My top skills were balance, foresight and precision – I guess it’s time I start climbing those buildings…
Agent Handlers are composed, curious and empathetic[/caption]
Tickets for the SPYSCAPE experience are £23 per adult and £20 for kids. SPYGAMES costs the same for 50 minutes of gameplay instead.
Or you can combine both experiences, like I did, for £35 per person.
