Hayotje

Ticking all the boxes for a superb experience

Doctor Watsons is an escape room located in the Arminius church in the center of Rotterdam. Given this location, it's fairly easy to reach Doctor Watsons by public transport. From Rotterdam Centraal the Arminius church can be reached by foot in 10 to 15 minutes. Instead, one can also take trams 7, 8, 23 and 25 from Rotterdam Centraal and get off at Museumpark. This trip will take about 5 minutes. Despite its location in the heart of Rotterdam, Doctor Watsons can also be reached quite easily by car. Even though there is no parking facility at the property itself, the public garage ‘Museumpark' is located two minutes from the Arminius church. The hourly rate at this garage is €2,- with a maximum day rate of €20,-. Discounts can be enjoyed when reserving a spot online (e.g. park 5 hours for €6,-). To get to the ‘Museumpark' garage, follow the signs ‘Centrum S113' from highway A13 and subsequently head in direction of ‘Erasmus MC'.

Currently, Doctor Watsons offers two experiences, L'Architecte (designed in collaboration with Sherlocked Amsterdam) and La Residence. Both experiences can be enjoyed in groups of two to six people and last about 90 minutes. We booked the 20.00 to 22.00 timeslot with a group of five persons for La Residence. The correspondence from Doctor Watsons (e.g. booking confirmation, reminder) is rather generic and does not fit the theme of the experience. As these little details really add up to the experience, I consider this to be a minor point of improvement.

Upon arriving at the Arminius church, you will find the entrance to Doctor Watsons at the back of the church, which can be accessed from the left-hand side. From here we were picked up and led to the church's basement by our host Timo, who also is the owner of the place. The basement features a spacious lounge with some seating, toilets and a cabinet for storing all your valuables, such as phones, wallets, and bags. The lounge has a vintage atmosphere, which completely fits the backstory of Doctor Watsons' experiences. I definitely consider this to be a pro. Water and freshly brewed (excellent!) coffee are complimentary. After offering us a drink, Timo proceeded with an introduction of the experience. La Residence is about the last preacher of the Arminius church, who had his doubts in religion and the existence of God. The tale goes that the preacher was working on brewing an Aqua da Vida, or elixir of life. Unfortunately, until today nobody knows what happened to him. Recently, however, a bottle with his initials was found in the sacristy room of the Arminius church. There are suspicions that the preacher left a description for brewing the Aqua da Vida in his sacristy room. It is the aim of the team to find the description and brew the Aqua da Vida, as such enabling eternal life. This should all happen within 60 minutes.

The room itself is superb. The room is decorated beautifully featuring vintage furnishing that completely fits both the story surrounding the preacher in search for an Aqua da Vida as well as the location of the room inside a church. This also holds for the props that have been used in the room. Several small props have been fixed into place, which might be experienced as a minor con. It is clear, though, that there has been a great attention to detail during development of the room. Just like the décor, the puzzles and riddles perfectly fit and support the story line, which I really consider to be a pro. The puzzles are not too easy and have been thought out very well. Visual clues provide hints in a cryptic manner causing one to really think twice (or even thrice). The puzzles are diverse and require quite some brainpower to be cracked. Additionally, each of the puzzles has its own link to the story, which I really consider to be a pro. Padlocks, combination locks, and even locks with keys, are nowhere to be seen in the room. Instead, technology is at the heart of each of the puzzles. This leads to innovative puzzles that still aren't too difficult operate. This is one of the factors that sets Doctor Watsons apart from other escape rooms and consider this to be a huge pro. Over-all, I can conclude that the puzzles are of very high quality. In case the host notices the group is stuck at a point in the game, (s)he may provide hints. The provided hints contain concrete pointers regarding the action to undertake, without revealing the solution to a puzzle or riddle. The room features a good mix of linear puzzles, that need to be solved sequentially, and non-linear puzzles, that can be solved in parallel. I felt that this balance between linear and non-linear puzzles was good. Even while working on a linear part of the story line, I had the idea that different parts of the puzzle could be solved in parallel. The room does not feature a timer with the remaining time. Therefore, be sure to take your own watch with you for timekeeping purposes. Rest assured though, as the host will announce the remaining time if you're close to running out of time. Our team consisted of five persons, which seemed to be ideal given the size of the room. We managed to solve all the puzzles and riddles, and successfully brew the Aqua da Vida, but slightly ran over the allotted time. Fortunately, Timo was so kind to not stop immediately when we ran out of time, but allowed us to finish as he noticed that we were very close. We really appreciated that gesture. We noticed that during the game, the room tended to get warm, though this might have also been caused by the high outside temperature (around 30 °C).

As a team, we really had a great time while unravelling the mystery surrounding the Aqua da Vida in the Arminius church. Doctor Watsons ticks all important boxes for a great escape room experience: special location, good story, and innovative puzzles. The location, in the cellar of the Arminius church, is superb and really sets the scene for the story. The room perfectly fits the story and the innovative and technologically advanced puzzles have been designed with the story in mind. In combination with kind host, Timo, all these factors set Doctor Watsons' La Residence apart from other escape rooms. Considering this, I rate La Residence with a 8.5. Even though I haven't played L'Architecte here (I did play it in Amsterdam), I'm pretty sure the quality is as high as La Residence's. Therefore, I would definitely recommend anyone to visit Doctor Watsons and either play L'Architecte or La Residence.