REVIEW: Sherlocked, Amsterdam

This week, I am joined by fellow writer and guest contributor Andy Hutchings as we let you in to the wonderful, mysterious world of Sherlocked in Amsterdam.

S Sherlocked is one of the many escape rooms that have been popping up all over the world. “Escape room? What is this? I pay somewhere just so I can leave it again? Are you high?” I hear you, I hear you…and no I’m not. Escape rooms are actually a whole lot of fun. The concept is simple, you get locked in a room with a small number of your friends and you rely on your wits to solve puzzles to get you out again. The reality? Well that could be a lot trickier. Puzzles can be quite Crystal Maze-esque in that they’ll challenge you in a number of ways and you’ll really need the support of your team to crack the mystery.

A  I happened upon the project during a casual browsing of Kickstarter. It was the first time I’d heard of a puzzle escape room in a live context, and having enjoyed the escape rooms as a video game genre I thought it was worth a look. The video was enigmatic and promised big. Backers like to see exactly what they’re getting, but obviously the entire concept behind Sherlocked prevents them from showing it. The other slightly dubious step they took was to tell us all that construction was already on the way, and they were raising the funds for ‘refinements’. In the past, people have been dubious about projects which already have the funds to complete as it raises questions about why the money their being asked for is needed. The campaign went well enough for them to raise the 4,000 Euros needed, and so whatever extra bells and whistles they wanted to add to the room were added. Don’t mistake my scepticism, I wanted the project to succeed (I even backed it) as it had all the trimmings of a unique experience and the styling of their page gave me high hopes for a fun, challenging and story driven experience.

S We have decided to judge our Sherlocked experience based on three essential criteria: Puzzles, Atmosphere and Story.

Puzzles: To be judged on the variety of skills required, the complexity of the puzzles and how easy it was to figure out the tasks requirements. Atmosphere: The skill with which the story was presented and conveyed, the authenticity of the sights and sounds and the impact this had on the experience. Story: Does the story enhance the experience? How is it engaging?

 

Puzzles:

S: I was really surprised by the range of puzzles personally. Without giving too much away, they really engage in all of your senses and make you think very hard. Most of the puzzles were easy enough to do (although I can think of one exception that took me forever and I’m still feeling heartbroken about… sorry sweetie, spoilers.) Some of the puzzles it was a little tricky figuring out what we needed to do. As the Games Master can contact you on the phone, we did need one or two little prompts every now and then but not really an unreasonable amount considering there were only 2 of us playing a 3-6 person game. Figuring out what you needed to do was half the fun anyway! 9/10

A: I’d say the variety of puzzles was excellent, with a little something from every puzzle genre out there including riddles, lateral thinking, physical puzzles and hidden objects. The variation in difficulty was excellent too but I’m going to have to deduct one point for a puzzle I solved by accident without really understanding what I was doing, and another point for having a puzzle that was physically impossible for a group of two. Whilst I recognise that the room says full well it’s designed for groups of 3-6 people, they do permit pairs which makes it a tad unfair having a puzzle that can’t be solved with less than 3. In fairness the GM realised this an skipped us ahead when we demonstrated that we knew what we had to do but couldn’t do it, but in an ideal world the situation would never have arisen. 8/10

 

Atmosphere:

S: The atmosphere was completely beyond spot on. We were met at the entrance after a little bit of waiting by our host Victor. He lead us in and downstairs and the air of secrecy to the building right from the off made it feel very atmospheric. After making use of the facilities, we were lead into a small corridor that precedes the game space. Here there were lockers and we were prepared for our experience. Even at this stage we were surrounded by props and scenery and it was very easy to believe we were in a special space ready to undertake something secret. Inside, the room is filled with authentic props and everything, right down to the soundscape, made me feel like I was part of a big adventure. 10/10

A: The atmosphere was excellent, and the games designers fully utilized the historic building that Sherlocked takes place in. The GM took great care to deliver the story before we went in, even using it to explain the presence of practical necessities such as security cameras so nothing within the room broke immersion. The low lighting was atmospheric. I also enjoyed the soundscape that went on whilst we slaved away at the puzzles. I can’t determine whether it was intentional or not, but it felt like every time we spent a while on a puzzle the music from Sherlock that plays whilst he’s thinking intensely came on. I can’t describe the motivation this gave me to suddenly triumphantly crack the case. The design of the room was very well balanced between items that were part of the adventure and set decoration, which created several wonderful moments when we realised that something innocuous was actually hugely important, and something prominent was completely unrelated to any of the puzzles. Overall, the cosmetic design, soundscape, lighting and hosting all created a quite immersive atmosphere that led to the intensity of the experience. 10/10

 

Story:

S: I personally felt the story was incredibly engaging and very well presented. It really created a sense of urgency when approaching puzzles and added an extra layer of motivation. The plot was presented in a way that genuinely added to the atmosphere, even if the story itself lacked conviction in places, and I felt that made up for any shortcomings. As we were unsuccessful in cracking the mystery (although SO close) I’m left wondering and desperate to try again!  7/10

A: Now here, I must grumble. Unfortunately I must do so without giving away any spoilers, so here we go: the premise of the story was interesting and it made the game make sense in a real world context. However, it had two fairly major flaws. Firstly, it utilized a character from literature that makes no sense in the context of the game whatsoever. There was enough material in the real life characters and the building to spin a great story, adding this character was not needed and it raised an eyebrow from me in how much it really, really didn’t fit. Secondly, the premise was set up but there wasn’t a great follow through on it. Maybe it’s the nature of these games that if you don’t complete them then you don’t get the intended ending, but it would have been nice to have had a negative ending for those who didn’t complete rather than none at all. Points for involving the entire building in the story and for giving clever justification to a lot of the context that we’d usually have to suspend our disbelief in order to accommodate, but serious minus points for adding a character completely out of their context and for failing to have an ending for some of the people who play. 3/10

 

Overall, our verdict is, if you’re in Amsterdam… go. It’s a central location and a really quirky and memorable hour of your day.  Besides, the amount of love and dedication that has gone into this project, it genuinely feels really rewarding to support it.