RATING: 2 Keys RESULT: Win REMAINING: 0:30
Abraham Lincoln is about to be assassinated, and it’s our job to travel back in time and stop the killer so history can play out as it was meant to be written. (With Abraham Lincoln getting assassinated a few years later by someone else.)
There has been a change in the timeline. Abraham Lincoln, his wife, and two of his children have been assassinated in the year of 1861. This is not how history is meant to be. We are going to send you back in time to August 5th, 1861 to Washington D.C. to a time before this assassination. When you arrive, we are going to drop you off on the street in front of the United States Capitol Building. It is this location that keeps coming up in our records of a change to the timeline. On a previous scouting trip, we found a map and several pieces of wood on the front steps of the building, and we have left them there in a safe location for you to use. We think they must be the key to discovering the address of a Confederate spy named Rose O’Neal Greenhow. Once you know the address, you are to search her house for any information you can on the upcoming assassination attempt so that we can stop it in time.
Escape the Crate often roots their themes in historical fact, using the storyworld of their missions to both immerse agents in the past while subtly teaching them a bit of actual, factual information along the way. Escape the Confederate Spymistress is set near the beginning of the US Civil War, sending time travelers back to 1861. Many of its events, including the characters mentioned within, are real. Rose O’Neal Greenhow was indeed a Confederate spy during the war. All of the names on the objects hidden in her portrait envelope are from real people she corresponded with. She did indeed hide messages in handkerchiefs and ribbons, to keep them from being discovered. The cipher used by Escape the Crate is even thought to be a close replica of her own real code used to spy against the Union.
Players in any Escape the Crate adventure take on the consistent role of agents working for EMIT – the Emergency Mediation In Time. Their sole purpose is to solve mysteries in order to set the timeline straight.
Escape the Confederate Spymistress is certainly heavy on facts, but at no point does that hinder the flow of the game, nor slow the story it’s trying to tell. It’s just enough history mixed with the fantastic, thanks to an altered timeline that will push the assassination of Abraham Lincoln forward several years in an event that will likely cause a butterfly effect of ripples across all history as we know it.
As we’ve touched on previously, being a home game, we define “Scenic,” from a graphic design perspective, as well as the quality, weight and feel of print materials inside the box.
Escape the Confederate Spymistress was the very first game offered by Escape the Crate, and as such, should be seen almost as much as a proof of concept as it is a commercial offering. Shipped in a simple brown box, it’s full of plain sheets of (actually) hand-written notes with little to no graphical finish.
It’s important to note that more current Escape the Crate missions have evolved dramatically. Packed within shipping boxes which themselves are fully themed to create a sense of excitement before even cracking open the lid, game materials in more current sets are fully graphic designed, making use of high gloss finishes to add a professional flare. Many of the items hidden within will prove useful to EMIT agents during their quest for answers.
Within this first mission, as with most home games, the various “rooms” time travelers access are comprised mostly of sealed envelopes. Each one hides additional clues, and some even hide other “rooms” or “locked objects” in the form of smaller nesting envelopes. In Escape the Confederate Spymistress, nearly everything is presented on simple paper, with much of it written in pen by hand.
EMIT agents must answer all of their findings onto a password-protected page of Escape the Crate’s official online website. Unlike many other home games, Escape the Crate has no companion app of any sort – meaning internet access is required to progress through this adventure. Despite its digital integration, we were disappointed to see that the Escape the Confederate Spymistress section of the site has no distinguishing theme or graphics to differentiate it from the main Escape the Crate home page. As well, this website has no themed background music, sound effects, ambiance, or official game time (the instructions suggest you use your phone’s stopwatch). Unique to the Escape the Crate brand, agents have the option of personally reading through sometimes lengthy story documents, or pressing “play” online to have a pre-recorded version of the identical content recited to them. For those who are not a fan of reading in games, this is a great feature to have; we just wish they made use of in-character, professional voice actors to help increase the immersion factor.
Escape the Confederate Spymistress more often than not frustrated our team of agents with its mission objectives. Along the way, tasks felt as though they involved as much guessing as they did problem-solving.
At times, puzzles were generic, having little to do with the storyworld of the Confederate Spymistress. Thankfully, this is something that has largely been corrected in subsequent Escape the Crate missions. Here, however, cliché riddles yield codes, and an exorbitant amount of lengthy symbol deciphering is enough to make any agent consider jumping sides in their mission.
One challenge involving a soldier regiment fit organically within the storyworld, but unfortunately was framed in an overly confusing manner using sudoku as its core format, making for a bit of a double negative.
A flag signaling puzzle is another example of something that absolutely belongs within the theme, but was hindered by its execution. At first glance, its mechanics seem entirely intuitive, setting agents off toward the solution. Unfortunately, what dear Rose actually expects agents to do with that information is something else entirely, likely resulting in more frustration.
Each Escape the Crate mission has the option of being played at varying degrees of difficulty. As is typically the case with our at home game reviews, we opted to play at a 60 minute time limit to be consistent with most brick and mortar rooms we feature. In this case, “expert” level is a 60 minute time limit, with agents receiving 75 minutes for “regular” difficulty and 90 minutes for “easy.” A fourth option, “just for fun,” invites time travelers to complete challenges with no time limit at all.
Escape the Confederate Spymistress is Escape the Crate’s very first product, and as such, it should come as no surprise that in the years to follow, their quality has evolved and improved greatly in subsequent missions, as exhibited by our review of the brand’s 17th box, Escape the Mothman. But even with its more handmade finishes, Escape the Confederate Spymistress remains consistent with future missions in its highly story-driven nature.
Although Escape the Confederate Spymistress is currently retired, Escape the Crate has plans to re-release it, along with their other original nine missions, through a limited time sale in July, 2020.
One thing Escape the Crate has always done well is embrace unique themes while offering a chance to learn some historical-based facts one might otherwise only learn in school while playing a game from home.
*Montu, Escape Authority’s VP, Dog Business™ and lead home game correspondent endorses the opinions found within this review.
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Venue: Escape the Crate
Location: At Home Game
Number of Games: 20 (1 in this box.)
GAME SPECIFIC INFORMATION:
Duration: 60 minutes
Capacity: 1-6 people
Group Type: Private / You will not be paired with strangers (but if you are, call 911 immediately to report a home invasion.)
Cost (at Publish Time): $29.99 bi-monthly subscription / $39.99 per game for specific retired titles (This particular crate is currently sold out but will be restocked in July 2020)
We thank Escape the Crate for inviting us to play this game. Although a complimentary copy was generously provided, that in no way impacts the opinion included within this review.