Room Escape Artist

The Alchemist is one of the best escape rooms in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Here are our recommendations for other great escape rooms in Amsterdam.

Transcendent

Location:  Amsterdam, Netherlands

Date Played: February 18, 2024

Team size: 4-6; we recommend 3-5

Duration: 90 minutes

Price: from €35 per player

Ticketing: Private

Accessibility Consideration: The Alchemist takes place on the third floor of a historic, listed building in the heart of Amsterdam. There is no elevator in this wing of the building, so please be advised that you will have to walk up 56 steps of stairs for it. Once inside, there are also stairs as part of the adventure.

Emergency Exit Rating: [A+] No Lock

Physical Restraints: [A+] No Physical Restraints

REA Reaction

As I stood in the finale of The Alchemist, I came to the realization that this is the embodiment of the escape room I want to experience. My eyes welled up because it was a place that I didn’t want to leave.

The team at Sherlocked spent years designing and building magnificent props and a beautiful world. It came together in an environment that filled us with joy and wonder. After the game, I was chatting with Dan Egnor, and he pointed out that so many of the world’s best escape rooms take place in impressive environments… that nobody actually wants to spend time in. Sherlocked made the unorthodox decision to create a different style of world, one so inviting that you could choose to get married in it.

There’s a dominant aesthetic in the Dutch escape room scene at the moment. It is grim, dark, and impeccably executed. In these games, unbelievable things happen to us as players, and around us. We are powerless until we’ve endured. The Alchemist had some of the finest empowering moments that we’ve encountered in escape rooms. I can’t think of a time where I’ve felt more like the master of the domain in an escape room than I did in this game. And what’s even more magical: everyone in the room feels this strength together.

Sherlocked has been working on this game for a very long time and continues to iterate. We recognize that the experience we’re reviewing today is likely not the exact one you will play in the future. Regardless of any further iterations, The Alchemist is truly worth traveling across an ocean for. We hope to return to replay it, just to spend more time in its world.

Who is this for?

• Adventure seekers
• Story seekers
• Puzzle lovers
• Scenery snobs
• Wonder seekers
• Tech aficionados
• Fans of The Room videogame series
• Best for players with at least some experience

Why play?

• A gorgeous, welcoming, mystical environment
• To feel like you’ve made magic happen
• A personalized, touching story
• To be awe-struck by the finale

Story

We’d been summoned to an alchemist’s laboratory to help them complete a ritual.

Setting

The Alchemist was set on the third floor of Beurs van Berlage, a historic stock exchange building in central Amsterdam.

The setting was surreal. A beautiful and majestic floor-to-ceiling, arced bookshelf drew our attention to the room’s centerpiece prop. As we played, the rest of the space unfolded in remarkable ways, providing new vantage points, and expanding the scope of the experience.

Gameplay

Sherlocked’s The Alchemist was a standard escape room with a moderate level of difficulty.

That sentence undersells the experience, but is here to underscore that the gameplay was familiar.

Core gameplay revolved around observing, making connections, solving puzzles, and interacting with the props and the set.

Analysis

➕ The Alchemist was gorgeous. It was both majestic and intimate, all at once.

➕ The space was magical, and also mechanical. The set-based interactions transformed in the space. David likened The Alchemist to The Room video game in real life, a game that changed the trajectory of his life and had incredible impact on the escape room medium.

➕ The props responded to our actions, raising them a note. It’s no small feat to have an input mechanism also deliver a response like this; the design landed, elevating the puzzle solve.

➕ We connected with the story most through a puzzle that was personalized to the composition of our group. It gave our presence purpose, and further illustrated our goals and their meaning. This was one of the more complex puzzle sequences, combining different solutions into one whole. The payoff of this sequence is forever etched into our minds.

➖ Parts of the set would benefit from polish. Some rough edges showed. One central area, in particular, needed another coat of paint to be up to the design standards of the rest of the set. This set piece also suffered aesthetically from a ghost puzzle (although this did not confuse gameplay.) Additionally, electronics needed housing; we could see the wires.

➖ There were opportunities for additional scenic painting. Some areas of the set felt less designed.

➕ Sherlocked minded the details with deliberate lighting and a fitting soundtrack.

➕ The mechanisms for transporting us through the set were surprising and delightful.

➖ We lost interest in one puzzle that felt more digital than tangible, and was quite challenging. My teammates waited eagerly for the solution, which promised a magical interaction, while I reasoned through the puzzle paths.

➕ In an experience called The Alchemist, we expected to do alchemy, and the alchemy did not disappoint. It was meaningful and entertaining. It gave great feedback.

➕ Throughout the second act of the game, we engineered the main components of the finale. These were tangibly satisfying, and also emotionally resonant. This sequence was punctuated by a huge interaction, almost gratuitously huge, except that the moment really landed, so I suppose it was, in fact, justifiable.

➕ The finale was captivating. It was magical, expansive, beautiful, and meaningful. We felt fulfilled. After our playthrough, we suggested a few minor changes to further elevate the moment this finale begins, but whether or not Sherlock implements these suggestions, it’s one of the most spectacular finales we’ve experienced in more than 1,100 games.

➕ We’re pretty outspoken about our dislike for escape rooms that ask us to lock up our phones. We feel more comfortable having them on our persons, and we have the self-discipline not to touch them during the escape game. At the start of the The Alchemist, however, we stood in front of a device that blended the historical setting with the modern times. It felt safe and of the experience, plus it offered charging. We surrendered our devices. That says something.

🥚 The beautiful central bookcase was filled with Easter eggs from our community. Allow yourself some time to take in the details.

Reality Escape Pod

Be sure to listen to our conversation with Sherlocked founders, Francine Boon and Victor van Doorn during Season 8, Episode 12 of the Reality Escape Pod.

Tips For Visiting

• This game takes place in a historic building in the city center. It’s a short walk from Central Station and there are many public transit stops nearby.

Book your experience at Sherlocked’s The Alchemist, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.

Disclosure: Sherlocked comped our tickets for this game.