This real life escape room went back to its digital roots

There was a time when playing flash games on Newgrounds was pretty much all I ever did.

One of my favorite games was the ‘escape room’, an extremely popular genre that spawned classics like Crimson Room. The goal is to find the key to the door by solving a series of puzzles, and then getting out of the room.

A few years ago, someone decided to bring this experience into the real world. Ever since, real-life escape rooms have been booming around the world.

One of them is now changing the rules of the game. Sherlocked, a thriving escape room in Amsterdam, is now going back to its roots by using an escape room app to train their players before they even get in.

By downloading the app, players get to work with some of the objects they find in the physical escape room. This way they’re prepared to use them when they’re playing the real life game.

The app is freely available for download, even for people that didn’t book the real game — even though it works best combined with the real life experience.

I’ve tried the physical room myself, and got stuck on the final part where I had to open a century-old safe that uses a very intricate locking system. If only I would’ve paid more attention during the game…