Photo above is property of Cursed Tales
Company: Cursed Tales
Game: The Mother
Country: United Kingdom 🇬🇧
Language: English
Type of Game: Digital Escape Game 💻
Genre: Mystery, Paranormal
Date Played: November 19, 2021
Difficulty (based on 2 players): 3/10
Size of Team: Unlimited (Ages 16+)
Time: Unlimited (Approx. 40-60 Mins.)
Price: £9.99/ $13.99
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Set in the backdrop of a once thriving mill town in 1890, you are investigating an old case regarding the murder of a young girl. Her mother, struck with grief from the horrific loss, took her own life and continues to haunt this uninhabited town, seeking justice for her daughter. Can you unravel the mystery and uncover the killer, or will this restless spirit continue forever to haunt this town?
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"The Mother" is an introductory game to the Cursed Tales, with the next one "The Forest" launching soon. Once you have purchased the game, you can log into your account using the email attached to the game to click and begin. There is a video introduction that I couldn’t help but take a moment to appreciate the set design and costumes. This company put in a lot of detail to ensure this introduction truly felt like a film to enjoy. The video will give you the background of the case before opening up to a digital map of the town. To investigate inside a building all you need to do is click them and a view of the rooms will appear, if there are more locations to search in the building there will be labeled arrows to click. Some locations on the map are inaccessible at different parts of the game so do not worry if you can’t access something, it just means you haven’t reached a certain stage in the game.
The introductory video also gives a nudge where to go the first time but to uncover which locations to visit next going further, investigate the artifacts and documents left in the rooms. These pieces of evidence will often point out a location and give you an item that could be useful there for unlocking doors, chests, gates, and wardrobes. You are able to review documents you have collected in your inventory and there is an audio component that will read the information to you in character for that immersive touch. The goal is to collect evidence identifying who killed the daughter and why. Overall, I found the cinematography of the introduction to be beautiful and the website created a really smooth playing experience as you maneuvered around. There is a hint system available for players needing a little nudge.
Photo above is property of ESCAPETHEROOMers
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This initial game seeks more to set the stage for Cursed Tales and as such I would say the puzzles are skewed to a more beginning style puzzling. My group of experienced players found the puzzles to be very light, with decoding, observation, searching, and exploration as the main modes of solving. Regardless of your level of skill, I recommend taking your time to really read the information (or listen to it be read to you) to truly get a full experience as the highlight of this game is the building of the story. Some important cues for the puzzles are hidden in some of these documents as well so it also important to refer back to them as you move around. I enjoyed how the puzzles encouraged you to explore your surrounding while also harkening back to places you’ve been. The story that unfolded as you solve each puzzle was heartbreaking but well done and fit the mood and theme well. I do wish this experience was a little longer as that could have played into the immersion factor, like exploring more buildings and solving puzzles to unlock rooms other inhabitants of the town. That said, I would say this is more of a teaser game.
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"The Mother" provided a haunting tale that had good plot development, rounded characters, and some light puzzling to push you along. I would say this is more of an immersive experience than a puzzle game given the easy level of the puzzle, but I really enjoyed being able to explore the world of the game and would love to do more. This isn’t a game for people looking for challenging puzzles but if you enjoy immersive storytelling with some puzzling, I think this is a great start to Cursed Tales games. I am quite curious to see how The Forest ramps up the puzzling from what their site suggests.
(If you do decide to try this game, give us a shoutout or tag us on social media so we know you heard it from "ESCAPETHEROOMers"!)
Disclosure: We thank Cursed Tales for comping our tickets for this game. Although a complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever.
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