Today I got to go along to A Door In A Wall's new Horses For Corpses, an outdoor murder mystery set in Stables Market in Camden. It is set up to be a 3 hour adventure in which you follow clues and solve riddles to find out who, why and how. We gathered in the office at our assigned time and were joined by a few other participants in small teams. The assistant explained that he had just found his boss shot to death and needed help finding out who killed him. From there we were immediately thrown into action. Armed with some information and a map, we took off to follow the clues. The map was quite easy to follow and clues not too hard to find, but there was a loooooot to read. We only skimmed a few pages but it turns out, you actually have to thoroughly read every single piece of writing and there really is a lot to read and digest. Another downside was that quite lot of tech was involved and some of the interactive and vital clues only worked on one of our three smartphones, and only very slowly on that one. You definitely need a good data pack and a few phones to get through this. There were several actors to interact with and again they give you a lot to read rather than telling you things, which is quite bothersome and less interesting than live interactions. As there was a cheese festival in Camden Market, it was excruciatingly slow to get through the crowds, which meant we had less time to follow the clues. A little more preparedness for this circumstance or less clues to follow inside the actual market would have definitely helped here. We did find the killer in the end and solved the case, but I feel like this game could have easily been boiled down to a phone app or interactive trail as it already relies so much on text and so little on interactions with actors. The website said we'd have time to have a break or some food in between solving clues, but this was definitely not the case, whether this was due to the festival slowing us down or the amount of clues to follow, I don't know. We did have fun and enjoyed the game, but there is a lot of room for improvement here. read more

I galloped along to solve a murder at A Door In A Wall: Horses For Corpses an outdoor murder mystery set in the Stables Market in Camden. The whole adventure lasts for 3 hours. In those 3 hours you have to follow clues and solve riddles all around Camden market place. Firstly you sign up with other teams in a small office by giving your team name and having your photo taken and handed a booklet.   You are then told that there has been a murder and we are led to the crime scene room where there is a body slumped over the desk.  From there we start our adventure and get told a bit about what has happened to the poor victim.  It is our mission to then solve the murder, why and how did it happen? Within the booklet there is some information and a map and a choice of five locations that we could start off at.  The map was quite easy to follow and most clues not too hard to find,  however there were a few that were really hard so we needed hints but in my opinion there was a bit too much to read in parts.  With there being so many areas to get around in Camden and time against us due to the fact that Camden was particularly over crowded this day as there was a Cheese Festival on and it made it hard to complete all courses.  However we found out that we should actually read everything even the newspaper that we got given at the beginning but as I said with there being so much to read and take in and complete it was just not possible. The other downside to this game was that quite a lot of the clues had to be done via our mobiles but with signal being poor (depending what network you have) or mobiles draining because of battery this took up time and we had three mobiles between us and each of ours were very slow in getting up the information.  So be warned take a good battery pack with you and make sure that you all have topped up phones as you will certainly need them and if you have a good connection to Wi-Fi/4G then even better. Along the way there were several actors to interact with which I loved as it made the whole game feel immersive.  However some of the scenes took a little too long and had no relevance to the crime and then you are handed yet another lengthy piece of information to read.  Rather than them giving us more to read I would rather they told us in further information via riddles. By the end of the whole game we did solve the case,  but I feel like this game could have easily been broken down by not having so much to read, having more clues/riddles given verbally by the actors/actresses and maybe to make it even easier with mobiles if an app is created.  On the website plus in the office we were told we'd have time to have a break or some food in between solving clues,  but this was not possible, whether this was due to the cheese festival that was taking place which slowed us down or the amount of clues we had to follow,  I really don't know but we did not have time to chill and eat. However saying all the above I did really enjoy the race in trying to solve the murder and the actual game but I really wish we had more time and not so much to read ie lengthy newspaper article.  The two particular parts that I loved the most was the crime scene at the beginning interacting with one of the characters and searching for clues in the room and the second part I loved about the whole hunt was the leaflet we got on one of the courses that we had to solve a number of clues that was fun. I do though recommend A Door in a Wall as the game was good and all their other games in the past have always been great. It was just a pity that it was far too crowded in the Camden area the day I went so did not make it a pleasurable one. read more

I went to A Door In A Wall: Horses For Corpses, in Stables Market Camden. This is a 3-hour murder mystery which asks you to look for clues and solve riddles which are scattered around the market. You check in to the office, where there has been a murder. You get taken to a crime scene where a forensic officer guides you of the things you need to do to start off (but there is a good twist in this scene). You are given a booklet with 5 clue trails to follow, giving you more information about the backstory to help you piece together who has committed the murder and their motivation. The clues are easy to spot at times, but some are hard to figure out. It's also hard to complete all the five trails in the 3 hours given. There is a lot of information to be taken in, so if you actually divide up the team and do the trails separately or divide up the knowledge work, this is feasible. Our team was only 3 people so we didn't do this. The clues were quite varied in their formats, with different types of puzzles, including watching video clips on your mobile. However, the videos took quite a while to load, so make sure that if you go, you have enough signal as well. You are however given a helpline with almost unlimited amount of clues, so this is more a question of your dignity more than anything else. We weren't able to complete all 5 trails, so we lacked information, but we did do this in an especially crowded event with the Cheese Festival, so we didn't enjoy it as much because it took ages to get anywhere. I did enjoy it to some extent, but the crowds did make for an uncomfortable experience. I would recommend maybe going at a quieter time, without any festivals going on. I really liked that this mystery actually had some logic and real motivation behind it, rather than oh he just wants revenge for some trivial thing. I think the game was really thought out, and the backstory was well fleshed-out. It's not just a physical cluedo where anything could be a plot. I would recommend this game if you are up for a mental challenge, exercise concurently (as there is a lot of walking) and are interested in murder mysteries. Please just go at a quieter time so you can properly enjoy. read more