The Case of Colombia’s Finest review: on the StreetHunt

Last month, we chased drug-dealers and murderers around London.

This was the result of an email I received from one of StreetHunt Games’ founders, Annaliza Sturge, in January. The small team provides ‘outdoor, self-guided mysteries’ in both London and York, and recently introduced a new game called Will Breaker to their line-up.

As their original one, The Case of Colombia’s Finest, is of a higher difficulty level and suitable for a slightly older age group, I decided to opt for this instead. It’s recommended that the games are played in teams of between two and six people so I roped Pete and the stepson in too. After booking our tickets (for transparency, I should point out here I paid), we headed into London by train early on a chilly Sunday morning.

Our mission began after we’d arrived in Blackfriars in central London. Jim Robusta, an employee at a coffee company, had reached out to us because something suspicious was going on with his colleagues and he needed someone to spill the beans. Having worked alongside people with a shady past, he asked if we could sniff out evidence of any crime among the caffeine.

Regular readers will be aware of my love for detective games, so this murder-mystery set-up really appealed to me. We’ve completed several similar scavenger-hunt style experiences in the past – including Moriarty’s Game: The Professor’s Invitation by HiddenCity – but this was the first where we were required to solve the case ourselves. Instead of being led to the right conclusion by a pre-defined linear path, we needed to solve the case using our own keen sense of deduction.

Once you’ve made your booking, you’re able to set up a team online by giving your group a name and adding members via their email addresses. Each person then receives a link to an app to access on the day of their hunt. This means everyone can access the narratives and clues individually without all having to crowd around one device. We did have to tell the stepkid to not progress so quickly on his instance in case he left Pete and I too far behind, but the game seems to work itself out so you progress at a similar pace.

The location of your informants can be viewed on an interactive map and they appear in sequence at the beginning of the game. You’re given a cryptic question once you arrive at the right spot and can solve these by paying close attention to your surroundings. They’re challenging enough to be enjoyable but won’t take longer than ten minutes each to complete and hints can be requested via the app if needed. No live actors are involved in the experience, so all interaction takes place online.

The contacts will then reveal some useful information about your case and perhaps even provide a document before you set off for your next location. The places we visited tied in nicely with the storyline and helped increase the immersion, with the interesting facts provided on the app being a great addition. One informant told us that they’d seen someone making dodgy calls from four telephone boxes nearby, and my stepson was rather excited when we stumbled across them on our way to our next destination.

Occasionally, Jim will send you a message asking for an urgent update. If you’re not quick enough to answer his questions or haven’t been paying enough attention, you’ll miss the chance to respond to him. We made this mistake the first time it happened but were sure to reply as quickly as possible during the next event. It didn’t seem to affect the story other than deducting some points from our final total, but it was an effective way to add to the pressure of the narrative.

We found it a little difficult to take in all the material provided by the informants at the time they revealed it because we were so focused on trying to find them while on foot. Fortunately, everything is saved in the app for review later. We’d have liked to look over the evidence during the break about an hour into the experience but unfortunately this isn’t possible. The organisers were responsive to our feedback and have advised that this is because they want players to feel they can have a complete pause.

During the second half of the game, contacts no longer appear one at a time and start to pop up more randomly on the interactive map. I think the most we saw at once was three so, while it didn’t feel overwhelming, it made the experience feel more fluid. You must agree as a team on where to go next and plan your route carefully if you’re going to make it to all informants before the deadline. If you run out of time and miss one, there’s a chance you won’t have all the clues you need to solve the case.

It’s worth being aware that you’ll be doing a fair amount of walking – and even running – while playing The Case of Colombia’s Finest. There are also a few stairs to navigate so not all of the route is easily accessible. The experience lasts around two hours overall and you’ll be on your feet for most of that time. We played during a lovely sunny day, but the UK weather can’t always be relied upon so it’s great that StreetHunt offer the opportunity to change your date within 48-hours.

You’re told to find somewhere comfortable when the time comes to solve the case, so we did the sensible thing and headed to a pub (we can recommend the Punch Tavern on Fleet Street). We were then given 15-minutes to review the clues we’d collected and submit the name of the culprit. Seeing the countdown timer on the app heightened the pressure and caused some panic so there was a fair bit of heated debate. It had the lovely effect of causing us to work together as a team though and agree on our final answers.

I’m sorry to report that although we managed to catch the killer, we got one of the questions wrong. Three out of four isn’t bad, right? I will admit that this was entirely our own fault. While sifting through the evidence, we mixed up the names of two suspects and this ended up leading us to the wrong conclusion. Thankfully the app told us the correct answer in a nice newspaper article so we were able to figure out where we went wrong, otherwise we’d have been contemplating it for the next week.

Each team member is awarded with a virtual medal based on their speed, clues obtained, correct answers and hints used. Our incorrect answer above and failure to respond to Jim on the first occasion meant points were deducted and we received a silver. Still, all three of us had a really great day – the stepkid kept commenting about how much fun he was having – and this loss has made us even more determined to get the gold when we return to London for Will Breaker soon.

When I asked my stepson how many stars he’d give the game for StreetHunt’s feedback form, his response was an eight. High praise indeed coming from a 16-year old. When I asked why his score wasn’t a full ten, he said that ‘no game can be perfect’ but he’d have given it a nine if he’d been able to communicate with the informants more freely. He liked the idea of being able to ask them each a question about one suspect of your choosing, so you had to make your decision wisely.

The Case of Colombia’s Finest therefore comes highly recommended by every member of the Later Levels team. For any sleuths who find themselves with a free afternoon in London, it’s definitely worth checking out.