RATING: 5 Keys RESULT: Win REMAINING: 17:23
“It’s an innocent dollhouse” they said. “Just take a look inside” they said. Never listen to “they”.
Ever since his young daughter went missing, old Mr. Garrity has become a recluse. He boarded up his windows and doors, and refused to talk to anyone. Now the only time that anyone sees Mr. Garrity leave his house is when he crosses his overgrown yard going to and from his work shed. You don’t know what he’s doing out in that shed, but he spends a lot of time locked inside, sometimes working late into the night.
Recently there have been new disappearances; other local children have gone missing. And you’ve noticed strange lights in that shed of Mr.Garrity’s; you know he must have something to do with it.
One night you decide to break in. Inside you find a dollhouse glowing eerily from the middle of the shed. It calls to you, and ignoring your instincts, you move toward it….
A creepy old shed at the back of an overgrown yard… what could possibly go wrong?
Well, for starters, there might be a cursed dollhouse in the rickety building that sucks curious snoopers into a dark world of twisted puzzles and locks them away until they can defeat the forces keeping them there. Or it could be a totally normal shed. Both are viable possibilities.
A rich and detailed storyworld develops as progress is made through the dollhouse, each room boasting its very own vivid introduction. What ensues is a narrative that comes across as part immersive horror film and part escape game – all from the comfort of your own living room.
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.
ThinkFun has impressed in this department with their previous games, and The Cursed Dollhouse makes an incredible leap forward from an already high quality starting point.
Upon opening the box, brave adventurers will first need to construct the dollhouse. Very thick and sturdy cardboard sections of the house fit together easily and create a surprisingly large set. The Cursed Dollhouse consists of five different rooms – The Living Room, The Kitchen, The Bedroom, The Bathroom, and The Attic.
The remaining content in the box – all the pages, envelopes, puzzle pieces, etc, are also made of thick and solid materials. They don’t feel like cheap pieces of paper. Glossy graphics make everything truly pop.
ThinkFun has hidden plenty of neat surprises in the scenic, from secret compartments to graphics that seem random up until they become very relevant. Most notably, the attention to detail is phenomenal. There is not one small piece of the scenic that isn’t properly designed and themed. Even aspects of the space that are likely to go unnoticed – like light fixtures on the ceiling – work towards creating a truly immersive set. The physical manifestation of the dollhouse paired with the visual design aspects of each room makes this one of the best home game’s scenic we’ve yet to encounter.
Much like ThinkFun’s first two games, Mystery at the Stargazer’s Manor and Secret of Dr. Gravely’s Retreat, The Cursed Dollhouse is at it’s core a classic-style escape room full of combination locks – but instead of padlocks themselves, everything is solved through a solution wheel. The outside yellow ring corresponds to the room you’re attempting to unlock. The subsequent red, blue, and green wheels are the three respective dials on your virtual padlock. If the symbol of the room displays correctly two times in the center of the solution wheel, you have unlocked that door and are free to move to the next room in the house.
Like a real game, each room unveils more story aspects to discover, as well as additional puzzles. Some challenges can be solved as soon as access is gained to the next space, while others require backtracking to previous rooms to connect them to something already seen.
A wide variety of puzzles stand between those trapped in the dollhouse and their eventual freedom. Some simple logic problems, a few physical tasks, and a lot of observational solving make for a challenging escape. Similarly to their previous games, there is one task that may frustrate those unfamiliar with the style – think classic magic trick where an object has to pass through another object or remove a knotted rope without untying. Thankfully ThinkFun has developed a cleverly gated hint system that helps guide trapped souls through challenges they may struggle with.
With a mostly intuitive and logical flow, progress from one room to the next is steady and evenly paced. There are a few puzzles towards the end of the experience that require slight logic leaps, but most can be solved with a little outside the box thinking.
ThinkFun has impressively managed to recreate a Brick & Mortar escape experience packaged as at at-home game. The physical set comes together in such a way that makes the adventure about as immersive as this style of game can be. Our team of two played from separate locations, with one video conferencing in. With the webcam positioned to look into each room as progress was made, it truly mimicked the sensation of being trapped in a creepy dollhouse.
The Cursed Dollhouse is ticketed as a two to three hour experience, but whether or not to time it is up to each individual group. By the way it is designed, gaining access to each new room can be viewed as a “checkpoint” of sorts and act as a good place to stop if players would like to break the experience up into multiple parts. Each of the five distinct spaces in the house will take roughly thirty minutes to complete.
The extremely high quality scenic and uniquely physical nature of the set goes a long way in making The Cursed Dollhouse a top tier home game. Although a few puzzles proved to be frustrating, the majority were completely fair and enjoyable with several “ah ha!” moments to be had. A rich storyworld that grows deeper with each room culminates in a movie-like twist ending to nicely wrap up the overall experience.
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Venue: ThinkFun Games – Escape The Room
Location: At Home Game
Number of Games: 3 (available, each sold separately)
GAME SPECIFIC INFORMATION:
Duration: 180 minutes
Capacity: 4 people
Group Type: Private / You will not be paired with strangers
Cost (at Publish Time): $42.99 (Amazon.com)
We thank ThinkFun 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.