TL;DR A satisfying escape game, elevated by a great story and beautiful acting which had us discussing what ‘really’ happened long after we left. If you like an theatre-escape game hybrid, you’ll love this

After developing a taste for story-led puzzle adventures at The Drop, I was wondering where my next hit would come from.

Enter House of Irene Adler, another escape room-immersive theatre hybrid that invites you (on behalf of Sherlock Holmes no less) to investigate the suspicious death of Irene after falling from a hot air balloon.

We arrive down a cobbled alley to Irene’s lodgings and are met by the landlord, Mr Hall who informs us of Irene’s passing. He’s pasted the newspaper clippings of the horrific event on the hallway walls “as a tribute”, which seems creepy. We ask to see her dressing room and the door shuts, it’s on.

The first thing to say is the sets are detailed and beautiful, with a lot of genuine and often delicate-looking items, which made us a little more careful than we might be in a standard escape game.

The detailed sets also made the world seem slightly more like a real stage and us, actors, kind of like a role-player game (or RPG). This feeling was extended in some of the puzzles, there was lots of written details and a puzzle device that was communicating with various characters via written message using an almost steam-punky ‘vacuum tube’. This made the experience feel less linear and closed-world than an average escape room as we were able to choose to lie or tell the truth, select who to speak to next and put together clues in whatever pattern or order we saw fit to offer solutions to the mystery in our own words.

Of course, there were also some of your more familiar escape room puzzles with locks, a dexterity puzzle, beautiful hidden spaces and some fabulous reveals. The experience is in an old office block in an archive, and this has been used to great effect, but I wouldn’t like to say much more…

The puzzles and adventure is interspersed with beautifully live-acted vignettes that added to the suspense and urgency of our mission. There was one moment where I grabbed my friend’s hand out of alarm, but it was never truly scary.

This is highly recommended, a satisfying escape game, elevated by a great story and beautiful acting. It brings Irene to life as a complex heroine with many facets and had us still discussing what actually happened after we left.