Logic Locks - The Amsterdam Catacombs Review (The Netherlands)

 

Hi everyone

In May/June 2024, my wife had a conference to attend in Bruges, Belgium. With a great deal of help from both sides of our families, we managed to turn that conference into a 2 week, child-free trip to Europe. I was particularly motivated to make it all happen when I looked up the TERPECA list of the world's best games and learned that Belgium and The Netherlands have so many of the best rooms in the world.

The planning phase was challenging, trying to fit in equal(ish) amounts of sightseeing and escape rooms. But I think we did ok, managing to fit in 22 of the world's best rooms in a little under 2 weeks (and we really did fit in a lot of sightseeing across Amsterdam, The Hague, Antwerp, Bruges and Brussels).

After being awake I think over 30 hours, we played The Amsterdam Catacombs by Logic Locks on the afternoon that we flew in. I would of course have preferred to have given ourselves a good night's sleep before we played, but you gotta do what you gotta do. The summary of The Amsterdam Catacombs is as follows:

Become the main character in this real-life horror experience. Explore the dark secrets of Amsterdam’s underground. Face your fears and investigate the evil that lurks in the Catacombs.

The Amsterdam Catacombs was my 291st room. Here is what I thought: 

• the location of this room is truly something else. The Catacombs game is set beneath an 1860s church, Posthoornkerk, which was designed by the same architect that designed Amsterdam Central Station and the Rijkmuseum. The church no longer holds religious services but can be hired, which is what Logic Locks has done. It is hard to beat this location for an ancient catacombs-themed room – it was phenomenal;
• the room is a horror-themed room but overall, I do not think it was super scary. I think it is more like 95% tension with some slightly scarier moments thrown in, but at no point are players chased or grabbed by actors;
• there is some nice actor engagement in this experience, which (in addition to the location) was the highlight of the experience for me. I really enjoyed engaging with the actors (and of course trying to make them break);
• the puzzles in the experience were all well done, involving hunt and seek fun as well as traditional puzzles. The downside of this location is the limitations imposed on Logic Locks on installing any permanent structures. However, they did very well within those confines, with the character engagement (particularly the ending, which was off the charts) made for a very memorable room;
• one downside I would say is that this room is quite expensive. We paid 183€ for our team of 3, which equates to just over $100AUD per player. If you read the following reviews from our European trip, you will see that particularly in Belgium and The Netherlands, games are typically charged at a flat rate for a team of 4 (ie whether you are a team of 2 or 3, you pay for 4).

I can see why this room debuted at #4 on the TERPECA best rooms list back in 2018. Equally, I can see why it has dropped down to #156 in 2024 – it is an amazing room that is really well done, but some of the newer rooms have now surpassed it. I would still highly recommend this room if you enjoy some fun actor engagement and a spooky/eerie room in a fantastic setting.

Where:                    Haarlemmerstraat 124-126 1013 EN Amsterdam

Duration:                90 minutes

Themes:                  2 themes

TERPECA:             #156 in 2024 (formerly #4)

Price:                      183€ (for a team of 3)

Overall Rating:      Great room in a phenomenal setting, starting to show its age

More details            https://www.logiclocks.com/