Crack the Code – Apartment 9

Crack the Code – Apartment 9.
Location: Sheffield
Game Date 14/10/2017.
Team: Amy & Ian

Theme:
“Annabel Christie, the infamous Sheffield amateur sleuth, has been investigating recent mysterious disappearances. Your team of detectives have also been working on the case and she has invited you to her apartment to compare notes. Can you solve the mystery?”

Theming as good throughout Apartment 9. Apartments never lend themselves to exciting decor, but the design and decoration was done well, and finished to a high standard. The room was large, well lit and clean, with the comfiest couch which served as a cosy place to sit and complete puzzles – we did make ourselves at home!
Immersion was good, and the story developed somewhat throughout, giving a good insight into the secrets of Apartment 9.

Game Play:
A good, solid game that was quite linear. Puzzles lent more towards logical, code breaking, searching and pattern spotting, with a touch of maths (Crack the Code are very generous and provide a calculator for maths puzzles – I wish more places did this as standard)
The puzzles were, for the most part clear and concise, with sound logic and lovely ah-ha moments.
However, there was one puzzle that in and of itself was a great meta-puzzle that combined several different elements, and led to the finale of the room but it was a little fuzzy in one part… this may have been to do with our interpretation of the Sheffield accent (as we’re from Liverpool) or not having the sound up loud enough… but we struggled to hear certain parts, which led to some minor frustrations as we know exactly what we had to do, but just couldn’t quite make the pieces fit. (without going into too much detail!) I doubt anyone from the city itself would have a problem with this aspect of the puzzle, and other than that it was a cracking puzzle that combined a lot of skill sets!
The flow of the room was wonderful and we never found ourselves frustrated or stuck at any point, each clue, puzzle and reveal led perfectly on to the next and the ah-ha moments came thick and fast.
A larger team would be helpful in this room, although maybe hindered by the linearity more eyes could be useful for the latter stages of the room. I would cap at 4 people, 5 if you have never played before!
All in all a very solid, logical game that almost plays itself!

Clue System:
Clues were delivered via a screen

Game Host:
Jo was our game host and was outgoing and amicable. We didn’t really need any clues until the last puzzle, and then it was more of Jo clarifying what we were doing was correct and what we misheard. She did run the game well and it was clear she was paying due attention to us throughout.

Did we escape?
Yes, in a respectable 45 minutes!

Website: http://www.crackthecodesheffield.co.uk/
Price:
2 Players £40
3 Players £48
4 Players £60
5 Players £65
6 Players £72
7 Players £84