Sherlock's Home [prev. Castiglione]

Staff are probably students, they were having technical issues with another room, by the sounds of it, it happens all the time... There was no one there to greet us after we finished and our timer wasn't stopped, the one staff member was on break and had to guesstimate our time, we actually still ended up beating the high score despite that... the room was apparently one of their easier ones but when we booked the site said it was one of the harder ones... room was fun and had cool elements but the staffing/other rooms have issues and the difficulty rating is incorrect, we actually decided not to come back, even with the 50% off voucher they gave us for beating the record.

Exceptionally easy room

Came in with low expectations, and took it slower than I did my other rooms cause I figured it was easy, so got a decent amount of use and time out of it. Was fun in general and room was better than expected. I like how we were solving mainly one puzzle at a time, but I will say, if you get stuck, you don't have anything else to do. Lucky for us all we get 5 hints each so it's not the end of the world. Would've liked more Sherlock themed puzzles in the room, and the puzzles were mainly just puzzles for the sake of it. I liked the designs inside - again - would've just liked for them to tie into the narrative more. Overall, fine/good room, not as great GMs.

Not the best but far from the worst at this venue, Sherlock's Home felt like a room in the need of some critical thought, feeling a bit messy throughout. Another theme at The Great Escape that is named off a popular IP but the room doesn't relate at all. There was no Sherlock related content nor did it even lean in the realm of detective, not unexpected given their other games but still would be disappointing if that is what you're playing looking for. After reading some of the other reviews it appears they may have adjusted a few things to help this room run better. We didn't receive random sheets or anything like that and everything appeared to have a purpose. In saying this there were some puzzles that were needlessly hard, we had to sort Chinese Zodiac themed bird cages which, again, do not relate at all to the supposed theme. This puzzle was far too difficult and resulted in a less than satisfying solve even once we did work out how to complete it. The Game Master after the game informed us they have never seen it solved without a clue, a clear sign of a puzzle in dire need of some revision. The last room was a bit of a mess with tech that didn't work properly and another portion we didn't really solve but fluke the only one necessary to open the door. A couple of red herrings left us a bit frustrated and the bookcase wallpaper felt tacky and cheap. Not a room I'd head back to in a hurry.

After reading plenty of negative reviews about Sherlock's Home I went in expecting the worst but actually ended up enjoying myself through most of it. The room does have some glaring issues like theming, inconsistent tech and set design but I found the overall flow to be pretty decent. The room itself has no real correlation or even vague connection to Sherlock Holmes, it's just a strange, needlessly dark space that looks like a library, whiskey lounge and red room had a child. A couple red herrings and some mental gymnastics with about 800 birdcages were the main obstacles but I found them to be a decent difficulty spike in an otherwise straightforward room. I don't know what else to say, it was weird but I had fun. Sue me.

Such a brilliant time! The puzzles were compartmentalised which was nice but there was an interesting amount of backtrack puzzles. Everything worked smoothly and care had been taken to maintain the equipment. We found the puzzles slightly too obvious but still rewarding. The staff were lovely and made an effort to create the atmosphere. Definitely coming back for the others.

Honestly one of the worst I’ve played. We played this room by accident as my friend confused it with Lost in Melbourne. Cheap, puzzle are confusing and don’t have very good flow, weird storyline, requires you to crawl back and forth to the first room to view your time or ask for a clue (which you will need to do), and intercom was super quiet and made it hard to hear clues

Game master was not following progress and was not helpful when requested.