iDventure Unfinished case of Holmes - Escape Room Game for Home

So at first, we had absolutely NO CLUE what to do. We spent probably 25 minutes trying to understand how to even begin (and we have done every single escape room game there is so we definitely know what's up!), then finally asked for a clue. Once we had that half clue (you can get the start to a clue without reading the rest for no time penalty), we were able to get started but then, we literally didn't use half the puzzles! There were whole pages and extras we didn't use. We were baffled when it told us we'd "won" after about 80 minutes since we had so much left to do (or so we thought). The issue, we think, was that we had basic knowledge of geography so we just knew a couple of answers without having to figure out the clue - though the game literally tells you to use Google Maps. So we did but apparently, we weren't supposed to...? Baffling.Also, a lot of the answers are one of a few on a page so if you wanted, you can literally just type in all of the possible answers until you get it right. We did that for one of the clues, though we did figure out the other three which were like this. For example, pretend you know the answer is one of the numbers listed on a page and there are four numbers on the page. The puzzle suggests you solve it to figure out which one is correct - but why? The game allows you to type in all four until you get the right one with no penalty. So... why not just do that? Dumb.There were a couple of decent puzzles in here (literally a couple: 2) - one sort of based on sudoku and another logic puzzle but the rest were just awful and as I said, you didn't have to solve at least half of them. We weren't even sure what two of the pages/puzzles were for at the end after we'd apparently gotten correct answers from, you know, having general knowledge of the world.

There's a reason why the case is unfinished. It's too frustrating and boring to do. You'll notice all of the reviews mention the great hint system - that's because it's needed. We found ourselves using hints for all of the puzzles because they were so cryptic. After about twenty minutes, we had reached our frustration max and quit playing. This feels more like homework than fun.Also, it looks like this was translated into English and some of the translations are hard to understand. They kept mentioning an envelope but there was no envelope in sight. We weren't sure if something was missing or if it was translated wrong.

The game was fun to play with the whole family. It was nicely designed and printed on high quality materials . The fact that it provides physical clues distinguishes it from purely electronic games. However, it still provides good interactive support and guidance through the app. This game requires you to put some effort in solving the clues and has interesting cryptographic puzzles.

Total fun! We played this at an adult Halloween party with 3 couples. While I will admit 6 people is too many to play the game, it works out okay if the host/hostess is busy with food, serving, etc... and others continue to go in and out of conversation to join the game. Somehow even without full concentration, we managed to finish almost right on time. Everyone seemed to enjoy the puzzles even if some didn't quite make as much sense as others. It was an entertaining game and something different. We combined it with a Victorian themed costume party which added to the fun.

This was one of the best escape room games I've done. I've done Exit and Unlock versions of home escape rooms, and those are good, but this is a step above - some of the other reviewer's frustrations seem to be that the puzzles can be quite difficult, but I found that to be refreshing. Also, the quality of the materials was excellent.. Yes, there are few grammar mistakes, but nothing that prevents you from completing the puzzles. FYI - We used no hints and I think it took us around 3 hours which is over time, but we don't really worry about time when we play home escape rooms anyway. If anyone at IDventure is checking these reviews, I I, for one, would purchase the others that are available from their website - I don't see them on Amazon.

The game was fun to play, the printed materials are of high quality and add to the enjoyment.Puzzles are interesting and difficulty is increasing, we had hard time on some of them.I found combination of the online flow and physical clues to be really great - it created the "Mystery Room" feeling.It is recommended to smaller groups, since the flow is linear.

A good game. We still prefer the Exit Games. The advantage of this though is it can be passed on to other people when you're finished with it.

This game is a one use game. It is for a party, which the description did not make clear.I return this game because it was not what I was looking for

We played this a few nights ago with a group of 4 adults of mixed gaming experience - two are keen puzzlers who have played many similar "Escape Room at Home" games, while the other two are only occasional game players - but we all managed to get involved in solving the case, and I'd say it engaged us all for around 90 minutes. This makes it good value for an evening's entertainment compared to the cost of, say, going to see a film.Inside the box you find a number of pieces of evidence to help you investigate an unsolved case - photos, journal entries, maps, newspaper clippings etc. - they're printed on paper or thin card rather than any substantial physical items, but the graphic design is attractive, and the printing is glossy and high quality. As we've played similar games in the past we knew what to expect but, if you haven't, do not open any envelopes until instructed to do so! We did spot two minor mistakes in parts of the text, which was a shame, but none of them were game-breaking. The puzzles themselves were varied and satisfying to solve - the solution to each one helping to further develop the narrative of the story.The game requires you to use a companion app on an iPad or tablet alongside the physical items contained in the box - the app itself does not contain any puzzles, but you use it to enter the solution to the puzzles and ask for hints if required. My only slight criticism here is that the initial setup and downloading the app was a bit more complicated than it needed to be - requiring the creation of a (free) account on a website, redeeming a voucher code that comes inside the box, and then selecting and running the appropriate game. So, before getting your guests to sit down ready to play the game, I recommend you give yourself 10 minutes or so in advance to get this all setup first. Once loaded, the app worked absolutely fine though.Overall, I'd happily recommend this game - it was fun to play, the puzzles were well thought-out and presented, and offered just the right level of challenge. I think four people was a good number of players - there's a fair amount of content in the box, but the puzzles need to be solved in a relatively linear order, so if you had many more people than that I think they might find it hard to all remain engaged in solving the currently active puzzle. If you overlook the minor niggles surrounding a few typos and the initial difficulty in setting up the app, this is definitely one of the best "escape room at home" puzzle experiences currently available.

This is Comparable to other Escape Room style games but interacts with an App on a tablet. The App tells you if you're correct and can also give hints (for a time penalty).It was challenging without being impossible. On occasion you had to solve some steps to get an answer that then appeared themselves as questions so the chronology was not 100% but having already solved them then shot through the section.I'd say 3 or 4 players as a max because otherwise you don't all see the information. The game suggests teaming up and playing against a team which would work well if you have two rooms and 6 or more players.The aim was to finish in 2 hours we did it in 2.5hrs so it was good value for money.Had cause to email the manufacturer and they were extremely helpful and answered my query immediately.

I have a pretty high IQ and am a huge Escape Room fan, but this was just gruelling to complete. The sudoku puzzle was decent enough and we flew through that. We enjoyed the origami puzzle too, but my God, the rest was draining and the hints were pointless. We were so fed up after by the end of the cogs part we just threw in the towel on the final puzzle.Worth noting we played it on Expert mode - perhaps standard would've been more fun! Definitely aimed at advanced puzzlers who want to test their wits, as opposed to a fun part game though!The quality of the set is excellent though, so I marked it up a star for that alone.

We have done many of The Exit games and real life Escape rooms but just couldn’t get on with this one. We played on Standard mode so I don’t think it was the difficulty holding us back.It was a combo of things... some things were lost in translation eg looking for a girls name not used in English or just vague language eg being asked to enter the first ‘parameter’ of the formula a=b+c+d... is it a, is it b? Turns out you don’t need to know c and d so wasted a lot of time there. The shiny card doesn’t help either as part keep slipping off each other as you are trying to read them. we gave up on the cogs as we couldn’t actually turn them.It would be difficult to play as a group as generally you are only looking at one thing at a time. 2 players is plenty and no reason not to try it alone.I’ve given it 3*s as I liked the concept and it’s good looking but generally quite frustrating I’m afraid.

Played this at Christmas. This doesn't really appear to have been tested out properly before release.We had two separate teams. So I printed or a second set and took a lot of time cutting out puzzle pieces, unfortunately even though it was printed out 100% scale it doesn't really work for the size dependant puzzles. Secondly, the audio didn't work on iPads, Android and apple phones worked better for the accompanying app.It wasn't totally clear what pieces of the puzzle you were allowed to access and at what time.