Escape & Educate - "Sorcery & Superstitions: Escape Quest"

LOCATION: Coalville, United Kingdom

Photo above is property of Escape & Educate

📝  ETR DECODER

• 🔑 GAME: Sorcery & Superstitions: Escape Quest

• 📅 DATE PLAYED: October 9, 2021

• 🎬 GENRE: Interactive Outdoor Treasure Hunt

• 🧠 DIFFICULTY (Based on 4 ppl): 8/10

• 👥 TOTAL # OF PLAYERS: Unlimited

• 🕒 LENGTH OF TIME: 60 Mins

• 💰 PRICE: Pay Museum Admission, game is free to play (online version FREE)

• ☎️ BOOKING TYPE: Private

• 🔓 ESCAPED/ COMPLETED?: Yes

You’ll need a well-charged mobile or tablet device (the bigger the better) and headphones are recommended for the audio parts of the game. The game’s interactive component is not able to display full screen on Apple devices currently, but this is being looked at. The estimated duration of the game is 1 hour but you can take as little or as much time as you wish!

The environment for this challenge is through an old building with uneven floors, low ceilings (one taller member of our team came to blows with a doorframe!) and on two floors with steep stairs, so it's not suitable for push-chairs, wheelchair users, or those with limited mobility. If this affects you, there is a digital version of the game which you could enjoy from the grounds, the cafe or even your own home. The house has gardens, a cafe and other attractions to add to your experience and is a fascinating piece of the area’s history. Please do check when the museum's operating hours and days and they do close for different seasons. At time of playing this is a fairly Covid-safe activity as the building is fairly well ventilated, you do not have to touch anything, masks can be worn and there was sanitizer provided. Of course, the digital game is totally Covid-safe!

📖 THE STORY

There are many stories of superstitions and strange beliefs during the 17th Century at the 1620s house, which will be revealed to you as you play the game. Your mission is to solve a mixture of puzzles and challenges as you walk through the house to help the house’s protector, Benjamin Bellarmine escape from a room where he has been locked by witches. Can you solve the clues and help him? A collaboration between 1620s House and Garden and Escape & Educate, this exciting escape type game is designed to teach, entertain and challenge you as you tour the beautiful and fascinating house.

🎯 HIT THE BULLSEYE

• The game uses puzzles and riddles as you would usually find in a standard escape room, in a small digital game interface, while navigating you to relevant stories and facts specific to items and artefacts found within the house. This ticks a lot of different format boxes and means that different members of the team or family can contribute by either beings spotters, solvers, gamers or all three!

• Once you arrive at the house, you start the game on your device and follow the story. The first task is to listen to a message from Benjamin he’s trapped and needs your help.

• You are then taken to a vision of the room where Benjamin is trapped and shown how to navigate your way around. Make sure you read everything carefully!

• There is a mix of puzzled which are entirely completed online, which then reveal some information that will help you to complete a further task within the game room, or instruct you to find information within the physical house. If you are playing online, you will be given relevant media of the house that will give you the answers.

• The game room’s items also contain hints for future puzzles, which you need to combine as you progress. You will also collect a couple of digital items which need to be used in the game to activate things. These are stored in an inventory icon which will appear bottom left. There’s also a useful map of the house.

• There are multiple extra bits of information about the rooms to read which are fascinating but need you to spend a lot of time looking at your phone whilst in the room - just make sure you stay out of other visitor’s ways to enjoy these learning opportunities!

• You must open 4 chests within the digital room using the answers from the puzzles you have solved using all the information at your disposal, and these must be done in order (chest 2 is locked with 2 codes). Only then can you reveal the final code, open the door and free Benjamin!

• Upon completion, players will have played a game as well as explore the museum and learn extra facts about the time period and location. At the end there is a useful recap of the information you used and how, during your quest.
  

🧩 MISSED THE MARK

• Sometimes it was a little difficult to know whether the information we needed would be found in the digital room or the real house, for instance we were told to search the fireplace which we did with the real one in the house, whereas actually the answer lay in the digital version.

• We’d like to have found and used a lot more features of the house to answer puzzles rather than relying so much on the screen, as it felt like we weren’t really taking in the amazing details of the rooms but staring at our screens a little too much!

🏹 TAKE A SHOT?

This is a lovely way to add a little more interactivity to a visit to the house, and will certainly appeal to families, history lovers and puzzle solvers alike. It is so very kind of them to provide this as a free addition to the house entrance, and also great that you can play from anywhere in the world via online mode too! The house is an amazing place to explore and the staff were extremely friendly. We loved learning more about the house - it was not only a game but also like having your own personal tour guide who could add life to the rooms and make history come alive.

** Please Note: "Sorcery & Superstitions: Escape Quest" can also be played digitally and here's some thoughts for the online version:

The game is free to play. All you need is an email to begin. You'll get a little tutorial at the beginning explaining the functionality of each of the buttons. There's a tiered hint system and a solution option. You can click on various objects in the main platform and it'll give you clues on what you'll need to look for. You'll know where to begin as the game will clue you in on this would be a great place to start. The game contains videos and a map of the museum. If you are correct to select where you should be heading to, then you're one step closer to the solution. Once you successfully opened up all 4 puzzles then you might discover the mystery behind Benjamin's disappearance! The functionality of the online version was quite easy except certain puzzles when completed doesn't stay in that state. We do recommend writing down or taking a snapshot of the completed puzzle so you wouldn't have to repeat that action again. Overall we had a great time spending an hour together on Zoom to not only play some fun puzzles but learn some history!

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*** The In-Person experience no longer exist but you can still play the online version***

PLAY GAME

(If you do decide to try this game, please remember to let them know that you heard it from"ESCAPETHEROOMers"!)

#HelenBailey #AtHomeGames #IRLPuzzleHunt #PuzzleHunts #ClickNPoint #Witches #History #EscapeandEducate #UK