Photos above are property of Escape Hunt UK
Company: Escape Hunt UK
Game: Murder at the Mansion
Country: United Kingdom 🇬🇧
Language: English
Type of Game: DIY Escape Kits 🖨️✂
Genre: Murder Mystery
Date Played: October 17, 2021
Difficulty (based on 1 player): 3/10
Size of Team: Unlimited (Recommend 2-6 Players) (Ages 8+)
Time: Unlimited
Price: £14.99
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You have been contacted by executor of the estate of Charles Blackwood as his last surviving heir. Unfortunately, the estate and inheritance has been frozen since his death in 1914 because of the mysterious nature of his death. Until the case is solved, your inheritance will remain unattainable. Can you solve this hundred-year-old case, or will your inheritance continue to collect dust in the hallow halls of Blackwood Manor?
Photo above is property of Escape Hunt UK
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"Murder at the Mansion" is a Print-n-Play game designed by Escape Hunt. You will need a printer (some pages do need printing in colour), a pair of scissors, a pen/pencil and a device with internet access. Online access includes a hint website if you are stuck as well as the ability to send an email towards the end to receive the final clue. Unlike other Escape Hunt Games, "Murder at the Mansion" is not a linear game. You goal is to identify the five suspects and figure out their weapon, the location of their crime, and what motive they might have. While the evidence is order ed1-13, you can complete them in any order. Once you have all the evidence, you must piece together the information to figure out the email of the last detective on the case using the first name of the suspect with the dagger and the location of where a specific suspect was as the last name – firstname.location@gmail.com. Not all components need printing but some benefit from being able to write on them and one, in particular, requires cutting for assembly.
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The puzzles for Murder at the Mansion were fairly basic, which is perfect for someone wanting to dip their toes into puzzling through a more deduction angle. There is a variety to them, from pattern recognition, ciphers, logic, and observation, so you can easily divide and conquer with friends, and I liked how even after solving the puzzles you still need to complete a deduction aspect to the game to connect suspects to weapons and locations and motives. One thing to note is that you can sometimes gain more information off pieces of evidence than just the solution to the puzzle so observation is key. The hint site will not mention it but there were a couple times where identifying the location or weapon for a suspect was hinted at in the evidence but not explicitly stated. I recommend once you have gone through all the evidence, take a moment to review where you gained information for a certain suspect and review. Deduction really helped me here.
One thing I did note was the ending felt pretty easy after I did all the leg work prior to the email. I would have like a bit more of a challenge as well as something to culminate all my work other than good job. That said, this kind of game I think is more directed to groups gathering to socialize and have an activity they can do together. You can easily give 5 friends different tasks to work through and then come together to discuss. The email works well for gating the experience for players and will give the satisfaction players look for when they get the correct email.
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"Murder at the Mansion" is a great example of a simple murder mystery that is both affordable and well structured. This game is good for those times you want to do something with friends at home while sipping a cocktail. There is plenty of evidence to look over that look amazing and fit the theme well. This is not a challenging game but the activities within it will keep players engaged and the deduction element allows for some excellent discussion among friends. Think of this as a game for a night where you want to do something fun, but you don’t want the workout. Relax, sit back, and hopefully you can tease apart what happened the night Charles Blackwood died.
Photo above is property of ESCAPETHEROOMers
Check out our interview with the creators to understand more on the development side of the game:
Video above is property of ESCAPETHEROOMers
(If you do decide to try this experience, give us a shoutout or tag us on social media so we know you heard it from "ESCAPETHEROOMers"!)
Disclosure: We thank Escape Hunt for providing us with a sample of the game. Although complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever.
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