Always a fun time in Regina
In 1951. Private Investigator Rick Murphy was investigating a case involving a stolen necklace. Suddenly, Rick vanished without a trace. Step into his office and find out what happened to him.
Continuing on our world tour of online escape rooms, our next destination was Regina in Canada. I must admit we knew literally nothing about the games at Mystery Mansion, so this was indeed a mystery to us.
Before playing the game we were sent instructions by email and invited to watch a video which gave a background of the story and explained our mission in more detail. I must admit, this video went on far too long and actually strangely set our expectations of the room pretty low (don’t worry, the room was much better).
Having managed to not fall asleep during the video, we assembled our team, which once again included Charlie and James from Deadlocked and tuned into our Zoom call at the allotted hour to be greeted by Mitch, our avatar for the night.
Detective’s Office is actually part of the larger story ‘The Case of the Stolen Necklace’ that Mystery Mansion has developed and this makes up part one of what will be a three-parter. So if this game leaves you wanting more, you’re in luck, as there will be more!
CONCEPT/EXECUTION
Detective Office’s are seldom the most exciting of rooms, but strangely I often find myself enjoying them. I think it’s because they seem to have that setting in reality and feel more plausible than perhaps an alien-themed room may. This room actually reminded me of a really good UK based room, The Case of the Missing Gun, but obviously online and with a more Canadian slant.
Mystery Mansion have combined two technologies to make this experience come to life, Zoom for the video and audio, and Telescape for the inventory. This worked seamlessly for us and we encountered no issues at all.
The good thing about Telescape is that everyone on your team can see what has been unlocked and can choose to look at whichever they choose to. During gameplay, if we found something that warranted a closer look, Mitch would provide us with a code word and that would unlock the close up of the item.
One thing I particularly enjoyed about this game, without giving away any spoilers, is how it seemed to continue even after most escape rooms would normally have finished. This certainly made the end a little bit more fun and set us up nicely for the next instalment.
PUZZLES
Thinking back on this room, no puzzles really stood out, which actually I think is a positive. All of the puzzles felt like they fitted the story and each puzzle made sense.
Thanks to the inventory system we found that our team were able to ‘virtually’ split up and work on different things simultaneously. This worked well when confronted with puzzles that were more time-consuming.
You’ll find a good mixture of puzzles in this room and there have been one or two tweaks to make it work well as an online room instead of the physical room it was designed as. One puzzle, in particular, could have been tricky online, but a very plausible workaround was introduced and made it work well.
Anyway, you’ll find some logic, searching, and decoding, the usual escape room favourites. Some of the puzzles resulted in padlocks and combinations but there was also a good use of tech that made things more interesting.
GM/CLUE SYSTEM
I don’t think we needed any clues for this room as everything made sense and seemed to click, if we had I would imagine that Mitch would have offered subtle nods to get us back in the right direction.
As an avatar, Mitch did a great job of bringing his character and the story to life. Often in these ‘traditionally themed’ rooms (a detective’s office is definitely that) they have a more serious tone about them and the GM/Avatar will play a character in keeping with it, in this Detective’s Office that wasn’t the case. Mitch listened to what we were saying and read our humour level perfectly, adding little one-liners and witty-quips at the perfect moment.
FINAL THOUGHTS
An office space is unlikely to blow you away with its set design, but solid puzzles and great games mastering makes this a fun family-friendly experience. I’ve never been to Regina, but if I ever do make it over, Mystery Mansion will be the first stop.
GOOD TO KNOW
- Number of connections: Up to ten
- Price: CAD$20.00 per person
- Devices: Desktop or Laptop suggested. Also compatible with handheld devices
- Platform: Zoom/Telescape
- Inventory: Yes
- 360º View: Yes
- Time Zone: Regina, Canada (CST)
Final Rating:
| Puzzles | |
| Concept/Execution | |
| GM/Clue System | |
| Value for Money | |
| Enjoyment |
Team: 4 players
Time Taken: 37 minutes
Website: https://www.mysterymansionregina.ca
*Disclaimer: we weren’t charged for this experience, but this has not influenced our review.
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