The Architect

This feels like a decently done classic (gen 2) room. The puzzles aren't that hard. There's technology, but nothing spectacular. The setting is nice, but maybe underutilized. All-in-all a nice room for beginners, with some good gameplay. Experienced puzzlers likely won't be blown away.

Room was spacious and beautiful but the puzzles didn’t follow the theme and didn’t necessarily fit into the story.

A genuinely interesting theme that fits perfectly with the beautiful and atmospheric building. The huge space was sparsely decorated but that only helped with the flow as we weren’t being distracted by superfluous toot. I don’t think the puzzles were particularly challenging but they were fun and well suited to the theme. We loved the whole feel of the room and place, which is maybe why we’re forgiving of the amount of time we spent (wasted) playing on old tech and completing unnecessary puzzles. It just didn’t matter and every minute was fun.

This room was a lot of fun, there were gimmicks, gadgets, and a few locks. The puzzles were not difficult on the whole, but some require critical thinking for sure. I'm looking forward to doing their other rooms.

Good fun room to get us into it before their other rooms. Enjoyed the gameplay, some great puzzles and good communication skills required.

This was an excellent classic escape room, with great use of technology for its age. As a team of two, we loved this, had a great GM, and look forward to doing more of Sherlocked's rooms in the future. The integration of the story into the setting was a particular highlight.

Having this in a historic building was so good and perfect for the story. Most of the puzzles flowed very well until we got stuck towards the end then once we were able to get through, it felt a little rushed and anticlimactic.

The Architect focuses on puzzles rather than set or story, but as you might expect from an older game, signposting and design aren't quite as smooth as more modern games. There's some unusual and clever elements to it that make it more interesting than a generic room. Overall this is a fine but not an outstanding game - I'd feel OK telling friends to play it, but it wouldn't be at the top of the list.

Very nice Gen 2 room with a fun combo of keys and tech in a historical building. While the puzzles show their age, I think this remains worth playing for a few creative puzzles in a historical building (but I'd max out the player count to make it more financially worth it per capita!) Sadly, the flow completely broke down for us about 2/3 of the way through the room leaving two of us literally sitting around for several minutes with nothing to do, so I can't give this top marks. This might have been a "love" for me except for a really negative experience during a "split up" about 2/3 into the game. There are 3 or 4 puzzles that need to be solved by one half of the party while the other half is just sitting around waiting - it was a full few minutes just sitting around, which was a real bummer after 30 minutes of a lot of fun. The game was also "broken" because the most important word in an English handwritten note could easily be interpreted as three distnct and logical English words (an S looked like an F, and a G looked like a D). This held us back another few minutes until finally the GM corrected the reading of the word. This misunderstanding was NOT intentional or a planned puzzle, and the GM agreed that the note should be rewritten to be more clear. It's sad we don't know how much the flow would've been better if the word had been legible, but I suspect there still would've been waiting around on the other side. Suggestion: for the side that has nothing to do, why not give them a bonus puzzle (maybe with a 15% discount code if solved?), or a special treat like the opening of a box with "aged chocolates" or "aged wine" (sparkling juice) which could be enjoyed in the nice ambience while waiting - this would be a nice touch and fit with the theme of a high-end secret society room. Those who get to solve the puzzles in the split-up room could partake with the others at the end of the game. This small detail would've easily pushed this into "love" for me.

It is an above average room, but pales in comparison to the Alchemist. The set is large with lots of reveals, but nothing really special.