ESCAPE ROOM REVIEW – THE QUICK AND DIRTY
Play if… you enjoy anything and everything Sherlock.
Avoid if… you don’t like to be touched.
THE BASICS
Escape Room Live Alexandria:
Address: 814 King Street, Floor 2, Alexandria, VA 22314 (click address for Google Map)
Contact and Website: 800-616-4880
http://www.escaperoomlive.com
hi@escaperoomlive.com
The Room – Sherlock Holmes: A Matter of Time:
Description (from the company website): Sherlock has summoned you to his study to assist on a case he has almost finished. You arrive to find him missing yet know he was recently there… the scotch glasses still have ice in them. Can you discover where he is in time?
Difficulty (1-10): 7/10
Time Limit: 45 minutes
Cost: $28 + tax per person but use ERGUYS15 when booking to save 15% off per ticket.
Identifier: R1 – Original Room
Party Size: 8-10
Staging Area: Escape Room Live Alexandria has a large, open space complete with cow skin rugs and couches with ample seating located in the middle of all the rooms, so there is plenty of space to hang out if you get there early. The requisite restrooms are in the back and the decor includes extremely wacky artwork.
Metro Access/Parking: King Street metro w/ a .7 mile walk (or take the free King Street Trolley to Columbus Street); street/garage parking.
OUR EXPERIENCE
Logistics:
Description: A recreation of Sherlock’s office, including a desk, fireplace, and bookcase. The decor was all appropriate for the time period.
Understanding of the Mission: Find Sherlock Holmes!
Did We Escape: yes
Time Remaining: Around 10 minutes
Our Suggested Party Size: 6-8
Did the room challenge the entire team? hell yeah. There was a lot to do and people could work independently until everything started coming together at the end, and it was probably more challenging due to the pre-room celebrations.
Members of our team (other than the ERG): Marie, Dave, Ryan, Jared, Becky, and the person in the white beard.
Worth the time and money? Indubitably
Where to Eat/Drink Before/After: It’s Old Town, but we recommend:
- Red Rocks, which is about .5 blocks away
- Daniel O’Connell’s Restaurant & Bar, about 8 blocks away
Our Scoring:
| JASON SAYS: | MIKE SAYS: |
| Overall Expectation (Summary) | |
| I expected Sherlock Holmes, and I sure got it. This is probably one of the most unique rooms I’ve been in. As Mike says, it didn’t disappoint. I don’t want to give anything away. It’s well worth going to. | Sherlock Holmes is another of my favorite literary characters.
I will admit to being a bit bummed when I found out that Jason was doing this room with his volleyball team, but at the last moment someone backed out and I was offered her spot. The room didn’t disappoint. I think this is in my top 3. |
| Story (Rating) | |
| Sherlock requested your help; you got there and he’s gone. WHERE’D HE GO??? Well, that’s what you have to find out! He left you some (clever) clues to the puzzles in his (well-decorated) office and you need to figure them out and find out his location.
Rating: 7/10 |
I liked the backstory on this one, but probably because we had a really good GM (see below).
Rating: 8/10 |
| Mission (Rating) | |
| I wrote this after Mike wrote his. That said, what he said.
Rating: 8/10 |
I had no problem with the mission… who WOULDN’T want to find Sherlock Holmes?
It was fun playing his assistant. I felt like Dr. Watson. Rating: 8/10 |
| Puzzle Diversity (Rating) | |
| Several standard locks to open, but an equal amount of uniqueness in the remaining puzzles. One of the puzzles definitely stuck out as being one of my favorites; another as one of the hardest.
Rating: 7/10 |
It wasn’t all the same type of puzzles to solve and I loved at least three different puzzles in this room, so they are stuck in my memory (hard to do when you’ve done as many rooms as we have).
Rating: 8/10 |
| Puzzle Complexity (Rating) | |
| You had a few of the basics (locks, deciphering), but you had a few other ones that were multi-faceted and required some extra eyes on them to break. Two clues were really unique and extremely challenging.
Rating: 9/10 |
The puzzles I worked on were challenging. While I was doing those, it seemed as if some of the other members of our team were flying through some of the other puzzles.
Rating: 9/10 |
| Flow/Cohesiveness/Uniqueness (Rating) | |
| This is one of the few rooms we’ve been in where the clues actually made sense along the story line and how the room was designed. It had your typical combo/key locks, but also some clues that required teamwork and some critical thinking. (Hey, you paid to be locked in a room for 45 minutes; get over it.)
The decor lent itself to the story and was well done. Rating: 9/10 |
The clues and puzzles were all well done and related to the theme or mission of the room. One of my favorite puzzles was in this room since it relates to a hobby of mine (that’s all you’re getting out of me).
Rating: 10/10 |
| Fun/Amusement (Summary) | |
| I’m not sure where to start here. At first, I was a little pissed that my team were mostly drunk, but when I realized that it just meant I got to do more than usual, I was ok with it. Seeing the puzzles and story unfold was pretty cool. | I did have some frustrations at different points when I was working on a puzzle alone, but it was a lot of fun and a room that I recommend often. |
| Game Master (Summary) | |
Awesome. Before you go into the room, you’re taken to a small alcove outside the room and given the skinny on 2 things:
This is only as good as the Game Master wants it to be, and our Game Master was ON POINT! Thanks, Eric! His enthusiasm made it so much better. |
Eric was awesome! He explained the rules and then really got into outlining the mission. Right before we went in, he had us huddle up and do a little “cheer on 3” with our hands all in the center.
Was a great way to get us all working together. I had never met a lot of the other “detectives” before, so it was a good way to break the ice. |
| How Helpful Were Any Clues Given, if any (Summary) | |
| We only needed one, and – yes – it was helpful. We were able to break through pretty quickly after getting that clue. | As soon as the GM started giving the hint, I knew what to do before he was even finished providing it. |
| Anger Level Score | ERG (pronounced URG, as in “we should have known better”) Score |
| Rating: 2/5 Fists, but not because of the room. I recruited Mike into this one because one person on the team couldn’t make it (I was doing this with my volleyball team at the time) and all of the remaining team members were drunk. Mike and I did the bulk of the work.
So, nothing relating to the room proper. But I doubt I would have figured out that one puzzle without some help. |
We progressed through the room pretty well, but we were stumped by one clue. Once we got that help, I felt a little stupid because I considered a train of thought that – had I kept at it and did not get distracted (DAMN YOU, Red Herring!), I think I would have gotten the solution.
Actually, on second thought, I’m going to add 2.5 more FacePalms because that was probably the combined alcohol level of the rest of the people in the room. You should have warned me, Jason… friends don’t let friends work with other friends who drink (to excess) and do Escape Rooms. Rating: ?♂️ ?♂️ FacePalms – 2/5 |
ESCAPE ROOM GUYS’ OVERALL SCORING: 8.3/10
Both Escape Room Guys list A Matter of Time in their top 5 escape rooms to date. The room blended together a great theme and challenging puzzles along with a room that was greatly decorated to enhance the overall experience.
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