Colombia’s Finest: heaps of fun along Fleet Street

I spent last Saturday chasing after invisible drug dealers via mysterious contacts who for some reason adore historical landmarks along and near Fleet Street, as all exotic dancers and police officers do (duh!) – and I can’t recommend this experience highly enough.

Colombia’s Finest, the new brainchild of StreetHunt Games, is a fantastic scavenger-hunt-slash-mystery-game-slash-escape-room played outside across London. The game is best played unspoiled so I won’t reveal too much – in the nutshell, however, you are being introduced to Jim Robusta and his colleagues with shady pasts, as Jim has asked you to sniff out evidence of crime amongst the caffeine.

The storyline is excellent – not too complex and not too simple, providing every character with the necessary background and motives to be involved in the crime. Not giving too much away, out of the three members of the wicked gang of drug smugglers, one is fairly straightforward, one is a bit more difficult to guess and one is quite unobvious. That’s for me and my friends, at least. You can enjoy the game solo and in groups up to 4 people – although it is this kind of entertainment best enjoyed when shared. Each player receives a unique link to play the game that works on one device only. Players self-navigate to offbeat locations, solving location specific cryptic clues, immersing them into their own murder mystery investigation. The game itself lasts about 2 hours, and you are allowed to take a longer break halfway through.

There is something incredibly fascinating about rediscovering streets that I thought I knew quite well whilst simultaneously trying to solve a complex mystery. For complex it really is, but fret not – it’s not unsolvable. Just complex enough to provide this sweet sweet adrenaline rush. My two companions and I had heaps of fun searching for clues on the walls, statues and benches and even moreso when those clues started getting together revealing a compelling plot. Last 30 minutes we spent running. I haven’t jogged for a while so I’m not exactly en-forme, and yet we succeeded! Literally 20 seconds before the timer.

My only remark is that the actual time to solve the mystery after collecting all clues could have been slightly longer, especially when you still need to collect yourself after the crazy run against time.  

One word of recommendation – GO! Five words of recommendation – take your friends and GO! It’s incredible fun and just challenging enough to give you a real sense of achievement after solving the mystery.  

streethuntgames.com/colombias-finest

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