Murder at the Mansion by Escape Hunt
Murder at the Mansion is another print at home escape room experience from the guys at Escape Hunt. In terms of gameplay it is very similar to Stolen (see review below) with the clues and puzzles all leading to a logic puzzle grid where you can work out how people were killed, with what and where in the Mansion (a bit like an elaborate game of Cluedo!)
Once again - the clues are presented in a pdf pack with hints on what pages should be printed and cut out and which can be viewed on screen. Raking through all the evidence takes a while, and slowly but surely the pieces of the mystery come together.
The puzzles range from cryptic clues, jigsaw pieces, observational treasure hunts etc as you search through the detailed and well presented pages. All in, we found this one a little harder than Stolen, but loved the way the game led us to a mystery email address for our final clue.
Obviously, these print at home games cant compete with playing a ive escape room experience, but they are a great way to pass an hour or so and keep your brain active during lockdown. At under £15 a game, these are great fun for escape room and puzzle fans alike.
Once again - the clues are presented in a pdf pack with hints on what pages should be printed and cut out and which can be viewed on screen. Raking through all the evidence takes a while, and slowly but surely the pieces of the mystery come together.
The puzzles range from cryptic clues, jigsaw pieces, observational treasure hunts etc as you search through the detailed and well presented pages. All in, we found this one a little harder than Stolen, but loved the way the game led us to a mystery email address for our final clue.
Obviously, these print at home games cant compete with playing a ive escape room experience, but they are a great way to pass an hour or so and keep your brain active during lockdown. At under £15 a game, these are great fun for escape room and puzzle fans alike.
Stolen by Escape Hunt
We have given up counting how many days we have been in lockdown - but this is beginning to feel like we are stuck inside a real life escape room, and we are stuck on that final clue needed to escape! So to keep us sane, we have been playing a number of virtual and online escape rooms.
Escape Hunt is a Europe wide escape room provider with rooms in Belgium, France, Germany, Norway etc as well as ten locations in the UK. Obviously all are closed due to coronavirus issues, so the chain have issued a series of online "print at home" games. Over the upcoming week, we will be playing all three but we started our adventure with Stolen.
On purchase of the game, players are sent a PDF file containing all the clues as well as the main "answer card". Some of the clues can be viewed on the screen directly but there are a couple of sheets that will require a home printer. Sensibly, the pack suggests which pages you should print, meaning that you don't waste ink printing out all the clues. Of course, if you prefer the physical nature of holding a clue, you do have the option to print all.
The main "answer sheet" will look very familiar to anyone who has played a logic puzzle before. The grid is designed so you can cross reference clues and eliminate options. For example if you know that Mr Green stole the diamonds, but you also know
that the diamonds were stored in the castle, then you extrapolate that data to link Mr Green stealing diamonds from the castle. We're big fans of logic puzzles already, but there is an instruction guide if you haven't done anything like this before.
Then it is just a matter of looking at all the data in front of you and start eliminating the options to try and identify who did what and when. The clues are all very varied and range from physical puzzles pieces that you need to cut out, code wheels, as well as the use of the standard internet and automated email responses. There is a lot of fun to be had - working through each object, and the clues are presented in so many different ways that the game feels very varied.
Once all the clues are plotted on the answer sheet, it just requires a little bit of logical reasoning to come up with the final solution. We didn't time ourselves, but the suggested gameplay is between 30 minutes to an hour. We played locally with residents of one household, but with some screen sharing and email, we reckon you could play it remotely via a zoom conference, but it's not the default arrangement for these games.
It must be said that print at home games, can't recreate the full live escape room experience, but this does utilise many different puzzle mechanisms throughout play, that all lead to a satisfying feeling as you work out the answers and progress the story. We enjoyed our experience and are looking forward to testing the other rooms.
With the uncertainty of when escape rooms will be allowed to open again, virtual and print at home games like these are keeping a lot of experiences from going under financially. So why not help them out and order a copy to play this week? You'll have fun solving the puzzles and will be helping them out too!
Escape Hunt is a Europe wide escape room provider with rooms in Belgium, France, Germany, Norway etc as well as ten locations in the UK. Obviously all are closed due to coronavirus issues, so the chain have issued a series of online "print at home" games. Over the upcoming week, we will be playing all three but we started our adventure with Stolen.
On purchase of the game, players are sent a PDF file containing all the clues as well as the main "answer card". Some of the clues can be viewed on the screen directly but there are a couple of sheets that will require a home printer. Sensibly, the pack suggests which pages you should print, meaning that you don't waste ink printing out all the clues. Of course, if you prefer the physical nature of holding a clue, you do have the option to print all.
The main "answer sheet" will look very familiar to anyone who has played a logic puzzle before. The grid is designed so you can cross reference clues and eliminate options. For example if you know that Mr Green stole the diamonds, but you also know
that the diamonds were stored in the castle, then you extrapolate that data to link Mr Green stealing diamonds from the castle. We're big fans of logic puzzles already, but there is an instruction guide if you haven't done anything like this before.
Then it is just a matter of looking at all the data in front of you and start eliminating the options to try and identify who did what and when. The clues are all very varied and range from physical puzzles pieces that you need to cut out, code wheels, as well as the use of the standard internet and automated email responses. There is a lot of fun to be had - working through each object, and the clues are presented in so many different ways that the game feels very varied.
Once all the clues are plotted on the answer sheet, it just requires a little bit of logical reasoning to come up with the final solution. We didn't time ourselves, but the suggested gameplay is between 30 minutes to an hour. We played locally with residents of one household, but with some screen sharing and email, we reckon you could play it remotely via a zoom conference, but it's not the default arrangement for these games.
It must be said that print at home games, can't recreate the full live escape room experience, but this does utilise many different puzzle mechanisms throughout play, that all lead to a satisfying feeling as you work out the answers and progress the story. We enjoyed our experience and are looking forward to testing the other rooms.
With the uncertainty of when escape rooms will be allowed to open again, virtual and print at home games like these are keeping a lot of experiences from going under financially. So why not help them out and order a copy to play this week? You'll have fun solving the puzzles and will be helping them out too!
Links:
Escape Hunt Website
You Review
Have you also visited this, or any other attractions recently? - tell us what you thought here
|
All the latest news, stories, review and gossip can be found on the ScareTOUR social media pages - the hottest presence in the UK for Scare Attractions! |
|
|
|
|