Today we take a look at Scooby Doo: Escape from the Haunted Mansion, designed by Jay Cormier, Sen-Foong Limn and Kami Mandell. This one is published by The OP, who was kind enough to send us a copy to review. Shaggy, Scooby, and the rest of the Mystery Inc crew find themselves in the middle of another ghostly adventure. If you are like myself who watched the cartoon as a kid, I sure you know what type of adventure awaiting the Mystery Inc. bunch. In this game, the crew of the Mystery Machine find themselves…Surprise, Surprise…in a haunted mansion seeking to solve the mystery of the ghost that haunts it. So, let’s take a closer look at this one as we try to be as SPOILER FREE as possible.
Components
In the box you will find a deck of numbered cards (designed to be kept secret throughout gameplay until asked to reveal), a stack of numbered map tiles for the mansion’s rooms (again designed to be a secret until asked to reveal), some cardboard standees for each Mystery Inc. team member, some numbered envelopes containing items to be revealed throughout the game, five character booklets for each member of the Mystery Inc. team, and finally the games rules (or as it is called in the game, the Mystery Manual).
Setup and Gameplay
Gather a few or a bunch of friends/family to play, but if you are a solo gamer that’s perfectly fine as well. After reading the few instructions in the Mystery Manual, you are ready to do some exploring of the mansion, uncovering clues, finding ways to unlock doors, and collecting information to help you out along your adventure. The various mansion tiles feature 3-digit numbers on them, correlating with various items in the rooms. While the standees for each member of the Mystery Inc. team have a single digit from #1 (Velma) to #5 (Fred). To search items in the room, you take the number from one of the characters and add it to the front of the item’s 3-digit number that is in the room. From this you are creating a 4-digit number that can be matched to a numbered entry from the character’s booklet. When you find that entry in the booklet, read the narrative to the rest of the group to begin creating the story of the game. The entry will let you know if you have found something important, and if so, you are asked to reveal a numbered card from the deck of cards. Cards might reveal an item, tool, or even a clue that may help your team solve a puzzle later in the game. Throughout the game you might even find 2-digit numbers throughout the mansion. When these situations arrive, you may have to pair that 2-digit number with a single digit number of a given item (like a key) you may have previously found and pair it with a character’s number. Again, creating a 4-digit number correlating to a booklet entry and new narrative to the story. You will continue to do this throughout the game over the course of 2 chapters, uncovering items, finding clues, and even completing puzzles which may be found in the deck of cards or uncovered from the various envelopes you are asked to open over the course of the game. As you play, just like any escape room, there may be twists and turns that either cause you to read an incorrect entry from the story’s narrative or stump you leaving you looking for a hint. If either of these take place, the game tells you to eat 1 of the 20 Scooby Snacks you start off with in the game. The more you eat, the lower your achievement score is at the end of the game. Continue along with the story this way until you uncover the secret of the Haunted Mansion and find your way of escaping.
“I think we found ourselves a new King of the Escape Room games.”
Impressions and Final Thoughts
Now my family loves attending escape rooms, so this game was right up our alley. My wife and I started playing these escape room style board games with the launch of the Unlock series of games and we thoroughly enjoyed many of those. Going into this Scooby-Doo game the Unlock game were our favorite escape rooms in a box. We have also tried the Exit series games after hearing great things about them. While we enjoyed the puzzles, we thought there was something still lacking. Now what about this Coded Chronicles system by The OP? I think we found ourselves a new King of the Escape Room games. We played our game with 4 people and even had another player join us after about 30-40 minutes into the game. The Coded Chronicles series isn’t time based like the Unlock series, so it was easy to pause briefly, give a quick rules teach and a synopsis of what had happened so far to get our new player caught up to speed. I’m looking forward to more of these Coded Chronicles games. While many may complain that the components of things like the standees could be better, I can argue that better standees wouldn’t make the game better. What I find neat about the game is that each character has their own trait that they are known for. For example, Velma can research, Shaggy can eat, Daphne can use, Scooby smells, and Fred investigates. This means that you have to use the correct character to complete the tasks needed to accomplish the various tasks. Now if you are Scooby Doo fan then this game is definitely worth giving a try. If you enjoy escape rooms or just solving puzzles you should check it out. There is a decent amount of reading and puzzle solving so this one I believe is on board with the recommended age on the box of 12+. Now that doesn’t mean that a younger player couldn’t join the group, enjoy the story, and play along. The play time is longer than other 1 hour timed escape room games, as this one can last 1 hour to about 1 1/2 hours to complete a chapter. This game does have a save mode, that allows you to come back and finish the second chapter at another time if you are pressed for time or just need a mental break. Now for those who may not like Scooby just want something more mature for their taste, The OP has announced that they are soon releasing a version of the game called The Shining. It is based off of Stephen King’s novel of the same title. I’m sure this one will fit that target audience and it is one I am definitely looking forward to. Now these games are like other escape room games in that they are a one and done play, but there is no tearing up cards so you can even repackage the game and hand it off to someone else to enjoy. If you have a chance, definitely check out Scooby Doo: Escape from Haunted Mansion. You will thoroughly enjoy the experience and with the nature of this pandemic and many escape room places closed, this one is worth getting. The value is definitely worth it.