MoviEscape Stockport – The Sherlock Holmes Mystery

The Story:
Sherlock Holmes has been kidnapped!! You have one hour to work out  who kidnapped Holmes and his associates.

Wary that the room was advertised with the warning ‘This room is suitable for all ages however please be aware that it is the hardest game!’, our first impressions as we entered were good, with a typical Victorian lounge laid out before us. Fireplace, hatstand, Victorian wallpaper all present and correct. Good start.

A blackboard also stood in one corner which we promptly learned that we could use to record our finds as we went along, and we hoped this would give us an indication of just how far along we might be. I don’t recall there being a timer present though, so we soon realised that it was negligible how much help this idea actually was.

We scoured the room and quickly gathered together what objects we thought might be clues, managed to work out a couple of fairly simple four digit codes… and then slowly ground to a halt. I realise this room was advertised as Moviescape’s hardest, but we honestly found that to be quite the understatement.

Clues were delivered by using a telephone in the room which was keeping in with the theme, and we found ourselves having to ask for them more than we’d ever done before in an Escape Room to the point where it was just getting embarrassing.

Even when we were given the solutions, I felt that some were more than a slight leap of logic and still continued to struggle making sense of them.

Alas, the poor blackboard didn’t get a great deal of use from us, and we didn’t even manage to open the locked door into the next room. Maybe it was just us having an off day, maybe it was just us being rubbish, maybe it was both… but one thing I can say for certain is that we failed miserably.

Did we enjoy it? Well, I think it had potential, but it needed some kind of signposting within the room, rather than having to constantly rely on phoning for clues for puzzles that seemed almost impossible without help. Hard puzzles are ok, puzzles without logical solutions and no pointers are another matter.

Despite failing, I didn’t dislike the room, but I’d have to say that this is probably my least favourite of Moviescape’s offerings.