Clue HQ Harrogate: CSI: The Panic Room

We spent an exciting hour here on a lovely bright Monday morning ably assisted by the very cheery and helpful Bethany. As we usually play in a larger group, and this is billed as Clue HQ Harrogate’s most difficult room, I was a bit anxious that we wouldn’t get out in time, and there certainly was a lot to do! But fortunately with a few prods in the right direction nothing stumped us for very long and in the end we got out with time to spare! A really well designed room with lots of cool tech, some puzzles obvious and familiar, some less so, and a huge variety of types of task. Even though it was one enclosed room, the theme made this work perfectly, and the sense of tension heightened with each passing minute in a very authentic-feeling way. We particularly enjoyed the big set-piece series of puzzles which we solved towards the latter half of our time in the room as these felt really tactile and realistic. Not too many padlocks here, and every one felt like it fitted in the environment (the Panic Room of a paranoid businessman). The clueing system and the countdown timer also fit perfectly with the theming, and this screen was used throughout to great effect. My one little niggle was that the final major puzzle was a bit clunky, and we solved it more by luck and our own deductive reasoning than in the way that I think it was meant to function. Nevertheless, this was a thoroughly enjoyable room which really immersed us in the action from beginning to end, and I can heartily recommend it.