Photo above is property of Hunt A Killer
Company: Hunt A Killer
Game: Nancy Drew: Mystery at Magnolia Gardens
Country: USA 🇺🇸
Language: English
Type of Game: Tabletop Game 📬
Genre: Mystery
Date Played: January 26, 2023
Difficulty (based on 2 players): 4/10
Size of Team: Unlimited (Recommended 1-5 ppl)
Time: Unlimited (Approx. 60-90 Mins.)
Price: $22.49
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While visiting her friend, Florence, who is the Director of Magnolia Gardens, Nancy Drew finds that her and Florence have been poisoned. Realizing that someone has been using the Garden’s collection of “Fatal Flora” for their own purposes, Nancy Drew collects as much evidence as she can before feeling the effects of the poison. As both Nancy Drew and Florence are recovering at the hospital, Nancy sends you, her trusty apprentice, all that she has gathered and hopes that you can find the motive, opportunity and means and find out who the poisoner is.
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Examining the contents of the box, you find many different items inside including Nancy Drew’s notes, some seed packets, pamphlets from the Garden, a small Magnolia Gardens lockbox and more.
Photos above are property of Hunt A Killer
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Starting the game off, we skimmed through the instruction manual to see how the game is set up. If you have played other Hunt a Killer games or other deduction games, this one is no different. The main take aways from the manual was how to access the hint page and a good reminder that the final suspect needs to have all 3, motive, opportunity and means to be able to be the poisoner.
After reading the manual, we dove right into Nancy Drew’s notes and the other contents of the game. There was a lot to read spanning a lot of papers and items so there was no shortage of stuff to do for either of us. One tip is to share any information you find relevant to the case and make notes. We found that talking out loud to each other made sure we could communicate vital information and we could deduce things together.
The hint page for Hunt a Killer games is always well thought out and this one is no different. On the webpage we found multiple layered hints for the puzzles before giving us the final answer, which also gave us an explanation of the solution. We also found an inventory of what should be in the box as well as if we were having trouble reading Nancy Drew’s handwriting or issues with colors, we could find information to help us navigate those puzzles here.
Once we were done and believed we solved the puzzle, we opened the Solution Envelope which gave us an in-depth explanation of all the items and how we could deduce who the poisoner was. We also enjoyed the epilogue that was provided with the story, giving us a nice final wrap up.
Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers
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There were less puzzles in the game and more deduction, figuring out timelines and trying to find key information. If you are a detective board person, then this game would be perfect to be able to do that. The few puzzles we did encounter were clued well and were quick solves for experienced puzzlers. The puzzles were geared more towards beginners but still held their own eureka moments.
Photos above are property of Hunt A Killer
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"Mystery at Magnolia Gardens" is a great game for any armchair detective or anyone who loves a good mystery. There was a lot of deduction, timeline analysis and note taking involved. This game was on the easier end but would be an excellent first game for anyone new to Hunt a Killer or even a casual evening for some experienced detectives. We played with 2 but there was so much information to go around that 5 people would still have a lot of fun playing this together and still stay busy. Not to mention the nostalgia of working alongside one of the world’s most iconic detectives, Nancy Drew.
Check out our interview with the creators to understand more on the development side of these game:
(If you do decide to try this game, please remember to let them know that you heard it from"ESCAPETHEROOMers"!)
Disclosure: We thank Hunt A Killer for providing us with a sample of their game. Although a complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever.
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