LOCATION: Laconia, New Hampshire, USA
Photos above are property of The Escape Room Experience
Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers
📝 ETR DECODER
🔑 GAME: CSI Murder Mystery
📅 DATE PLAYED: September 30, 2021
🎬 GENRE: Detective
🧠 DIFFICULTY (Based on 2 PPL): 7/10
👥 TOTAL # OF PLAYERS: Up To 8ppl
🕒 LENGTH OF TIME: 60 Mins
💰 PRICE: $30/PP
☎️ BOOKINGTYPE: Private
🔓 ESCAPED/ COMPLETED?: Yes
📖 THE STORY
There's been a murder... It's 1972, county prosecutor Adam Phool's body has been found in his home. There are numerous suspects ranging from all of the enemies he's created to even his own wife who happens to be half his age! Your chief has just called you in to put you on the case. Can you narrow the suspects down to figure out who the killer is?
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🎯 HIT THE BULLSEYE
There were many suspects, each with a motive, different characteristics and back story. There's also a white board used in the room. It truly feels like we are detectives trying to crack this case.
The usage of a simple "X" and "check mark" was great for the players to keep track of who we've eliminated and who's left. The puzzles gave clear direction as to who should be eliminated once we figured out the solution. This was a clever way to introduce the puzzles within the storyline.
If you like opening locks then you're in luck. There's a TON of locked up chests and drawers for you to crack.
🧩 MISSED THE MARK
There seem to be a disconnect between the set designs as one minute we're in the precinct's interrogation room and the next we're in the victim's home. But all the materials that we would see at a precinct (i.e. the white board) was set up in the victim's home. It would also be great to see an outline of the body of the victim in the apartment so it actually feels like a crime scene.
We wish there was more for us to do in the interrogation room as we only utilized it for the briefing, figure out the entrance to the victim's home and one other puzzle towards the end. The interrogation room had some cool vibe and props that could easily be utilized for more puzzles. It could also easily become a team effort thing where one side starts off in the interrogation room and the other in the victims and they have to pass information to each other in order to solve puzzles in their rooms.
Some puzzles felt like they were just giving information away where as others took a lot longer to decode. The easier puzzles sometimes got us to wonder if it's really that easy or were they red herrings.
🏹 TAKE A SHOT?
Overall, "CSI Murder Mystery" is very much to the board game "Clue". There are many characters in play with various motives, weapons and alibis. Some information will be found only through reading where as others are logic/Math/Riddle type of puzzles. There's a lot of puzzles in this room so we would suggest 3-4 players at least as it's quite spacious. As we are both huge murder mystery fans, we really enjoyed as the killer slowly surfaced with the information we found through solving the puzzles. Do you think you have what it takes to catch the killer?
Additional Info
Street Parking Available (metered)
Lobby area with seats
Games available for purchase
Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers
(If you do decide to try this game, give us a shoutout or tag us on social media so we know you heard it from "ESCAPETHEROOMers"!)
Disclosure: We thank The Escape Room Experience for comping our tickets for this game. Although complimentary admission was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever.
