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Company: Mobile Escape
Game: Escape Mail - The Shackleton Series: Episode 1
Country: Canada 🇨🇦
Language: English
Type of Game: Tabletop Game 📬
Genre: Historical
Date Played: August 9, 2024
Difficulty (based on 4 players): 6/10
Size of Team: Unlimited (Recommend 1 to 4 ppl)
Time: Unlimited (Recommend 1 - 2 Hrs)
Price: $74.95 USD
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In 1914, Ernest Shackleton and his crew were trapped in Antarctica for 2 years on board the Endurance. Learn about their tale of survival in this adventure as you comb through re-creations of documents, maps and more, while solving cryptic puzzles.
Video above is property of ESCAPETHEROOMers
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Opening the box, we found the first of 6 envelopes, filled with high quality printed journal entries, maps, mysterious notes, a simulated corkboard and more.
Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers
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Starting the game off, we read the introduction postcard and opened the app which had a wonderful video with a familiar face from Escape Mail’s previous game, Family Secrets. After the video, the countdown timer began. We started sifting through all the items in the envelope which took some time because there was a lot of great content to look through, to read and to open up.
The themed app was our one stop shop for everything we needed. The introduction video, list of contents to make sure we weren’t missing anything, hints, answer checker, timer and more. This app was a standout part of the game.
There was a lot of content in the game which explored the story of Ernest Shackleton and his voyage. Escape Mail mentioned that there were things that they tried to replicate from historic illustrations and maps. Everything looked like it could have come right off the Endurance ship itself, from the journal, the patch and the map. This wasn’t as much of a mystery as such a fun way of learning.
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These were some in-depth puzzles with lots to do. This game revolved around combing through everything and finding the puzzles first. Some of them were direct but others were an enigma within an enigma once we discovered them. We had a lot of eureka moments throughout the game. The puzzles are set up in a non-linear fashion, which led to a meta-puzzle at the end, which was clever and left us satisfied but wanting more at the same time.
The game also comes with a “flow card” which we liked. At the beginning, it was up to us to see which items connected and worked with one another. If we were having trouble with that, the flow card would tell us what went together to give us a nudge forward. It almost worked as a “pre-clue” which we found helpful.
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The first episode of the Shackleton series was tons of fun. The story went well with the replica documents and maps. The puzzles were cleverly hidden in the design and provided us with some great eureka moments. The nonlinear puzzles allowed this game to be played with multiple people and keep everyone engaged. History buffs or people who love clever puzzles would enjoy this game. The game was a great way to trick us into learning more about Ernest Shackleton and his crew’s story. We cannot wait to see the future episodes that Escape Mail has in store.
(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 Mobile Escape for providing us with samples of the game. Although a complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever.
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