The Escape Room – Sherlock Holmes: The Scarlet Case

The Escape Room – Sherlock Holmes: The Scarlet Case.
Location: Stoke
Game Date: 20/03/2018.
Team: Amy, Ian & Michael

Theme:
“Your team has been recruited by the legendary detective Sherlock Holmes for a mystery case. The owner of the Scarlet Diner, William Garnet was found dead in his own establishment, whether it is a homicide case or a suicide the truth remains unknown. However there are traces of clues and unexplainable evidences left behind the scene leading Sherlock Holmes to suspect that the death of the diner owner is a homicide case. Your team as the Baker Street Irregulars needs to uncover the mystery and bring justice to this town.”

Theming was good, and gave the feel of a diner, but seemed to get a little more sparse as the game went on. The space was plenty big enough for the maximum team size, and the lighting was good (save for near the end of the game where there seemed to be a lot of glare on everything)
The room wasn’t massively immersive, it was clear we were in a puzzle room but there were some puzzles that fitted nicely into the theme and setting.

Game Play:
A strictly linear game that used lots of classic puzzle tropes, and consisted mostly of logic and observational puzzles, there was a bit of overkill on the jigsaws though, this seemed like just a time killer.
The puzzles were in and of themselves all very well thought out with some minor logic leaps, but nothing that can’t be got over with some critical outside the box thinking. There were a couple of very nice puzzles that were a joy to solve, and one that was a real team effort, with each on of us inputting something into the solution of the puzzle.
The final puzzle was a tricky one, and it needed observation and memory from what we had solved and discovered before.
Ah-ha moments came nicely and were satisfying when a puzzle was solved.
The flow was good, most of the puzzles were well signposted and it was clear of what we needed to do at each stage.
Not a game for the faint-hearted, as you will need all your brainpower to escape, especially the tricky final puzzle!

Clue System:
Clues were delivered via a hint button, then the host comes into the room to deliver the clue.

Game Host:
Liam and Anne were our hosts, and it was lovely to catch up with them again (after seeing them at ERIC!) – they were prompt coming into the room and excellent with the hints and nudges they delivered.

Did we escape?
Sort of.. we got to the last puzzle with about 5 minutes remaining but couldn’t crack it… so we had a few extra minutes and managed to crack it with lots of hints from Liam! I’m counting it as a win 😉

Website: http://www.theescaperoom.co.uk/Stoke/
Price:
2 Players £44
3 Players £60
4 Players £72
5 Players £80
6 Players £90