Mystery City Games - "Last Night in the Red Light"

LOCATION:  Amsterdam, Netherlands

Mystery City Games - "Last Night in the Red Light"

Photo above is property of ESCAPETHEROOMers

📝 ETR DECODER

🔑 GAME: Last Night in the Red Light
📅 DATE PLAYED: November 1, 2024
🎬 GENRE: Puzzle Hunt, Detective Mystery
🧠 DIFFICULTY (Based on 2 ppl): 4/10
👥 TOTAL # OF PLAYERS: 2-100+ ppl (Ages 6+)
🕒 LENGTH OF TIME: 2-3 Hrs.
💰 PRICE: €35/ pp
☎️ BOOKING TYPE: Private
🔓 ESCAPED/ COMPLETED?: Yes

📖 THE STORY

It's the 80's, and you are a suspended gumshoe hoping to prove your worth and earn your way back onto the force. Your captain has given you the chance to review the evidence concerning a recent death in the Red Light District. Can you follow the breadcrumbs through the winding streets, solve the crime, and regain your honor - and your badge?

🎯 HIT THE BULLSEYE

This game is based on a true tragedy from the 80's that happened in the Red Light District, and you'll visit the scene! We appreciated the realism and sense of history this brought, as well as learning a bit of local lore.
The experience will have you walking around the Red Light District and Chinatown, which is a fun way to get out and about and see a bit of the city. It was a great intro for us on our first night in Amsterdam!
While the bulk of the game works through your paper booklet and the chatbot on your phone, you do get some physical items at one point along the way. We are happy to do paper puzzles, but there is also something very satisfying about the use of physical ephemera. You will also need to examine a number of the things in the actual environment, further localizing the experience.
You can take this game completely at your own pace, so long as you finish before the bars close. (The chatbot tells you at the start when each one closes.) We recommend taking your time to look around and planning to get some snacks and extra drinks at at least one of the venues along the way.

🧩 MISSED THE MARK

The chatbot was a bit slow and glitchy for us, and crashed a few times. The slowness could have been due to the speed of our e-SIM. It has a mechanism to return to where we left off in the game after recovery, which was helpful, but we no longer had access to the full chat history. Having some kind of chapter summary always easily accessible would be helpful in these instances, as well as if you wanted to break the 3 sections up over a longer span of time (e.g, one per night).
We would have loved to have a bit more local info and history woven into the story itself! There is some general historical info and trivia in the booklet, clearly marked and noted as non-essential for gameplay. While we enjoyed reading those, and appreciate that some players might not have an interest in this kind of info, it would be easy to weave more of it in with the chatbot. ("Tell me more!" vs. "OK, what's next?" could let the user choose if they wanted to engage with this kind of additional info).
The 3rd bar was at capacity when we arrived, so we couldn't get in. This is no fault of Mystery City, but just be aware it's a possibility (probably less likely on a weeknight). Thankfully, while we'll have to go back another time to get our drink, we were still able to complete the game without it!

🏹 TAKE A SHOT?

"The Last Night in the Red Light" is an enjoyable way to get out and see a bit of Amsterdam. The puzzles (particularly in the first chapter) are very straight-forward and more geared towards the puzzle-curious, and would be a fun way to introduce some of your non-puzzling friends to this kind of adventure. As a pair of enthusiasts, we approached it as a fun night of drinking and exploring, with a bit of light puzzling. We definitely got to see, explore, and experience some areas we otherwise would have missed!

ℹ️ ADDITIONAL INFO

Mystery City has games in a number of cities around the world, and they do have an office in Amsterdam. However, you don't need to visit it to begin this game (assuming you registered online), as it begins at Bier Fabriek.
When you arrive, show the bartender your booking confirmation, and they'll get you hooked up with your pen, booklet, and drink tokens for beer or soft drinks. (If the first person you talk to isn't in the know, have them check with their colleagues).
You will need a device with working Internet in order to use the chatbot, as well as for navigation and potentially one puzzle that requires outside knowledge.
It takes you to 3 bars over the course of the game, as well as through the city. Be prepared for a bit of walking and time outside.

Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers

BOOK NOW

(If you do decide to try this experience, give us a shoutout or tag us on social media so we know you heard it from "ESCAPETHEROOMers"!)

Disclosure: We thank Mystery City Games for providing a media discount on the tickets for this game. Although discounted admission was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion of the review whatsoever.