Review: Mind Escape - Jack The Ripper

RATING: 3 Keys RESULT: Win REMAINING: 6:27

Who would have thought that escaping from a notorious serial killer could feel so mundane?

Story

It’s the year 1888 in Victorian Era London, and the streets run with blood. The merciless “Jack The Ripper” runs rampant in the streets, leaving the lives of citizens far and wide torn asunder. You and your team of elite detectives are the last line of defense against this mysterious maniac. You’ve been on the search for months, but with a new lead in your hands, it looks like this case is finally closed.

So you go out to celebrate; have a couple. You’ve worked hard, and the city is finally safe. At least that’s what you were thinking, right before you blacked out.

Now it looks like Jack was closing in on you instead. As you wake up, groggy and shackled in a dark basement, a sinister aura sets in. The smell of blood fills the air. You have no recollection of how you got there, but it’s so clear who orchestrated it all. The Ripper. You played right into his hands. A man like that isn’t going to get caught again, he’ll disappear without a trace. Now it looks like you and your team have only one more chance to stop this madman, or you’ll disappear along with him!

The story here is a bit muddled as detectives are tasked with escaping from certain death yet also apprehending their kidnapper and/or revealing his true identify. Perhaps they are still groggy from the sedative that hasn’t left their system entirely, but the objective is never truly impressed upon the victims and doesn’t quite create a true sense of urgency.

Scenic

Potential victims start their harrowing journey in a dimly lit basement. All the requisite creepy serial killer accoutrements are there. A human sized cage in the corner, a mysterious locked chest just big enough to fit a human inside, a single mattress that surely has a story to tell abandoned in the middle of the floor, and oh yeah, a wall of shackles that hold “visitors” in place until Jack gets back.

Helped in large part by some dramatic lighting, the subterranean lair does a decent job of imposing a sense of dread over the whole affair, yet isn’t entirely convincing. Whether it is the faux brick walls or the fact that it all just seems a little too clean, it was hard for us to become fully immersed in what should be a dire life or death situation.

Victims lucky enough to escape Jack’s holding chamber may get a glimpse at his home life. This cheerful living room acts in stark contrast to the barely illuminated basement and does provide some level of unease just based purely on how entirely normal it all is. Serving to show how a notorious serial killer can simply blend in with the general public and never raise an ounce of suspicion.

Puzzles

Captives start out chained to a wall and must first free themselves before they are able to proceed with the rest of the escape. Unfortunately, the lengthy process of removing the leg shackles is a dull time suck that often leaves members of the crew standing around with nothing to do for minutes at a time.

In our opinion, the long stretch between figuring out what must be done and then going through the motions of actually doing it could be greatly reduced in order to maintain a sense of excitement.

Thankfully, despite the opening momentum killer, things do pick up after that with all manner of puzzles that mostly pertain to Jack’s past victims.

The puzzles that don’t pertain to the storyline certainly stand out like a severed thumb, screaming “puzzles for puzzles sake”. We appreciate the vast array of puzzle types that switch it up enough to keep our interest throughout the experience.

Overall

Jack The Ripper provides an adequate captive-escape experience that seems content with remaining just that, adequate. The narrative thread is barely present throughout and as a result surprises are minimal, urgency is low, and many of the puzzles don’t offer much justification for their existence.

This is not to say there isn’t any fun to be had in this underground escape scenario, the wide variety of puzzles ensured that, barring the very first shackle removal, the proceedings never felt dull or repetitive. Overall the entire experience just seemed very by-the-numbers, lacking that spark of life that creates a truly immersive or narrative-based satisfying escape.