The London Pouroboros takes in some of the very best of these; each soaked in history, and somewhere we promise you will form incredibly happy memories. It being London, we also expect you will discover a live band along the way too at some point. This really will be like taking a pub tour of London with a local, just without the kebab at the end of the night.

Time Taken: ~1 hour +
Played On: 6th November 2021

The ouroboros or uroboros is an ancient symbol depicting a serpent or dragon eating its own tail… Therefore the Pouroboros game, set in London pubs, must be about drinking a never ending, infinite amount of beer, right? Well I need no excuse!

Ahead of the Kickstarter Pouroborus campaign run by Enigmailed, the creative genius behind Undeliverable and Chocolateral, we were sent a copy of the Pouroborus ‘Deluxe Coaster’. This is an add-on to the key campaign, but fairly representative of what the finished product will look like. That said, as with any early access copy please take our review with a pinch of salt, as the final product may be slightly different.

In this edition we’re playing, the answers are not pubs but famous iconic UK landmarks. That said, we couldn’t resist actually playing the games in pubs because, you know, never-ending beer.

Now that’s out of the way… How did we get on?

Puzzles in Pubs

This game was played over three beautiful quality drinks coasters with cork backing. We decided to give the game a go over a couple of rounds of drinks at our local. Despite the drinks, the coasters held up really well, making them lovely keepsakes to take home once your pub shenanigans are over. They were even eye-catching enough that some of the bar staff asked us about the game we were playing – perhaps puzzle coasters like this will become a staple of pubs in the future, eh?

On each coaster, we had three puzzles to solve. Each puzzle gave a single word which, when combined together gate a What3Words code with an iconic UK location on it.

In terms of types of puzzles, our coasters had a wide ranging mix of different things to suit different players – so our recommendation would be to bring a team on the bigger side when you want to play this, as more heads are better than one.

We encountered some familiar puzzles, such as word association, missing letters, nonograms and anagrams, and some less familiar puzzles that involved twisting and turning the coasters around and thinking outside of the box. Overall, we did find the experience on the harder side, but we’ve found that many of Enigmailed’s experiences are a learning curve – so the Pouroboros Deluxe add-on is definitely one for seasoned puzzlers!

But on the flip side, that’s one of the reasons Pouroboros sets itself apart from other London scavenger hunt type experiences. It’s a level up in difficulty, sure, but the creators have done a lot with such a small space on a drinks coaster. Players will be truly challenged!

Since we were playing an early access version there were no clues available. But, the day after we checked our answers with the creator and it all fell into place. Only a few wrong answers (yep, I’m embarrassed to say!) but that’s what happens when you drink and puzzle. Those playing the live version will of course have a hints page to check their answers against, lest they put the wrong What3Words and up in the ‘wrong part of London’. Wherever that is. I’ll leave that one up to your imagination.

The Verdict

A challenging experience to elevate your new pub crawl around London with mates. We had a lot of fun, and I got to combine two of my favourite activities: solving puzzles with hanging out at the pub with friends of a weekend. If you want something a little different, especially as we come out of lockdown, it’s well worth a try.

To play Pouroborus, or the Deluxe Coaster version we have here, you can back Enigmailed‘s latest Kickstarter here.