As legend would have it, the original 'Ghost in the Attic' game was a simple roll & move affair with a limited run of only 500 editions in the 1950s. Initially a popular product from toy manufacturers 'Brogue Brothers Entertainment', the game had one major flaw: anyone who played it would die within a matter of hours! Here in the present-day, on behalf of the Mystery Agency, you and your team are investigating the unsolved case of The Ghost in the Attic…
The Ghost in the Attic is an excellent immersive escape-room-in-a-box designed by Henry Lewis, best known for West End production The Play That Goes Wrong, and a cohort of skilled producers and creators from the theatre world. The comedy may be lacking in this particular mystery but the theatrical legacy is strong in the high quality of props and components found inside – including real padlocks and a genuine playable board game, along with convincing period newspaper cuttings and photos.
As you might also expect from its theatrical roots, there is a strong narrative thread within the mystery, but it helps for you to keep some sense of investigative character to drive this forward as there is no explicit narration involved. The 1-6 investigators will also need to bring their own internet connection (larger screens preferable over phones) as starting and ultimately solving the case is dependent on the ‘Mystery Agency Online Archive’.
The puzzles within are a delight to solve, with clues presenting themselves in varied and intuitive ways for a very satisfying experience – except for the very first hurdle of actually opening the padlocked box! That one was frustratingly fiendish and made for a halting start. Luckily, the Mystery Agency provide hints of increasing helpfulness if you ever get stuck – plus it set the bar to get our collective brains really thinking…
The actual game in The Ghost in the Attic allows for four players, and I would recommend this as a team size for tackling this escape room in a box, but more players or fewer won’t make a great deal of difference – indeed if you find you’ve too many people interested in joining in, the box contains instructions for resetting and passing on to friends to play separately (something which the Mystery Agency encourages). To that end I highly recommend this mystery for gamers and non-gamers alike; entertaining, involving, and good value for money. And, of course, you will be preventing any future untimely demises at the hands of 'The Ghost in the Attic'…
The Ghost in the Attic is available now from The Happy Puzzle Company.
(Review by Michael Harrowing)