Sherlocked: The Architect (Amsterdam)

An oldie, but a goodie

Step into the renowned Dutch architect Berlage’s office. Investigate his rumoured membership to a secretive organisation that guarded some of the world’s most powerful secrets.

We urgently need your expertise to uncover these hidden truths. Will you accept the challenge?”

Gord and I have been toying with the idea of visiting Amsterdam (and the surrounding areas) for some time now. In fact, we had very nearly booked a trip for May 2020, until we realised that we would be paying a premium to visit the tulip capital of the world in the height of tulip season, only to spend the majority of our visit locked in various rooms, with not a flower in sight. So in late 2019, we planned to schedule our visit for October 2020 instead, but I’m sure we can all guess what put that plan on hold.

Three years later, however, that plan became a reality, and we finally found ourselves onboard the Eurostar to Amsterdam. We spent the afternoon exploring the city, but the main reason we seem to travel now is to play escape rooms, and it wasn’t long before we started. Since the Eurostar conveniently deposited us right into central Amsterdam, our logical starting point for the trip was to pay a visit to Sherlocked, starting with their very first experience, The Architect, which opened in 2014. We had actually played Sherlocked’s online version of their second game, The Vault during the pandemic, and while the virtual version fell a little flat, it also left us desperate to try their games in person for two reasons: The lengths Sherlocked will go to for immersion, and the chance to see the building in person.

All three of the games currently on offer at Sherlocked are housed in the Beurs van Berlage, which was the Dutch Stock Exchange at the turn of the 20th Century, and the building is absolutely stunning. The Architect even draws some elements of its story from the history building itself, using the name of the actual architect of the building, Hendrik Petrus Berlage.

We very nearly failed at the first challenge of finding the entrance. Due to the nature of the building, the signage for all of the businesses within the Beurs van Berlage is very discreet, and despite the very clear instructions of where to go, it was a little tricky to figure out exactly where we were meant to be. But eventually we spotted the Sherlocked plaque at the top of the stairs and we knew we were in the right place.

Once we rang the bell, it wasn’t long before we were warmly welcomed by our host, Julia. Julia was very friendly as she led us through to a small area where we were able to stash our bags, before leading us down the stairs to the entrance to the Architect. Along the way, Julia filled us in on the history of the building, expertly weaving the story of the game we were about to play with the real history of the location, to the point where it was a little hard to tell exactly what was fact and what was fiction.

Finally, with a bit of guidance regarding how the clue system works, and the obligatory health and safety warnings, Julia closed the door behind us, and our investigation began.

IMMERSION/ROOM DESIGN

One of the things that stuck with me most after playing The Vault online was the building, and the space definitely didn’t disappoint. We found ourselves in an absolutely enormous office space, which despite being located in a basement was incredibly light and almost airy. Exploring was a bit daunting, due to the size, but it was refreshing to have so much open space to explore. The furniture complimented the architecture, and while my teammates got straight to the puzzling, I found myself at a bit of a loss as I tried to take in everything, despite how sparsely the room was actually furnished.

As we found our starting point, it became clear, however, that the game was actually quite linear in its construction. There were still a few opportunities for splitting up, but they were few and far between. This isn’t really surprising, however, as the underlying focus of the game is the narrative, and as we progressed through the game, that narrative slowly revealed itself. Like any good story, The Architect built in intensity, and about midway through the game, the plot twisted, turning the game from just an ordinary office-based escape, into something quite special. But then Sherlocked did it again, offering a finale that was quite spectacular, especially when one considers the age of the game. The finale did a fantastic job of tying everything together, and most importantly, making us desperate to play their newest game, The Alchemist.

PUZZLES

When I think of early escape games, I think of padlocks galore, and puzzles that don’t fit the story. The Architect is not that. Yes, some puzzles follow the sort of traditional logic we associate with escape rooms, but there was certainly more to it than that. With the size of the space available to play with, one might expect an almost overwhelming amount of puzzle content, but that wasn’t the case. There was certainly enough to keep us occupied, but it was never overwhelming.

While the puzzles found throughout The Architect often only loosely tied into the narrative, with everything that we solved, the story became clearer. The puzzles had a blend of more tactile challenges combined with more traditional padlocks, and even used some very clever tech at points. Due to the linear nature of the game, we sometimes found ourselves baffled by something, at least until we uncovered the rest of the information, at which point it was clear that the puzzles were all perfectly sign posted, and there was rarely any doubt about exactly what we needed to do.

GM/CLUE SYSTEM

Julia was friendly and welcoming, but also perfectly in tune with her hosting. Whenever she did need to chime in with a nudge, this was done through the phone located in the room. While sometimes it was difficult to understand through the phone, it was clear enough that we got there in the end, and this fit the theme better than something like a walkie talkie may have.

Not only was Julia paying enough attention to chime in with a clue or a reminder not to touch certain things when we were being a bit dim, but she was also paying close enough attention to go through a very thorough debrief of our game with us at the end. This was a nice little touch to allow anyone that may have been exploring elsewhere (like me) to catch up on what exactly may have been missed.

ANYTHING ELSE

The Architect is Sherlocked’s first game, and one of the first games in The Netherlands, having opened its doors in 2014. Despite its age, the game holds up well, with clever puzzles, an intricate storyline, and some truly outstanding “Wow” moments.

Success / Failure

Final Rating:

Team: 4 players

Address: Beurs van Berlage, Damrak 247, 1012 ZJ Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Website: https://www.sherlocked.nl/