Escape from Mystwood Mansion is an excellent collection of puzzles set inside a quirky, secret-laden estate. You play as a mail deliveryperson, ready to hand off a package before you are quickly locked inside and asked to bring said package through a variety of traps and brainteasers. I really liked all of the choices of locations made here, and there were a handful of truly excellent puzzles on display. The game in total runs about 2-3 hours, but it flies by with intuitive game design that smartly clued where to look for the next goal. There are some ideas you may have seen before, especially if you've found yourself inside other escape games, but Mystwood gives you paths that you couldn't do in real-life escape rooms, which I love exploring. Mystwood also has some hidden objectives, which are fun to seek out. One of the game's best incentives is seeing how quickly can you finish a room now that you know what you're looking for. Do you need to input this code? What happens if you use this item on this door? It leads to the ultimate final puzzle which is fun to decipher, but I wish either of the main endings felt grander in scale. Also side note, replaying the game definitely emphasized how slow the walking speed is. It's painfully sluggish at points, especially when you know the answer and just need to get there. That said, for a puzzle enthusiast, Escape from Mystwood Mansion is one of my new favorite experiences in this subgenre and I would love to see more.

Reviewed on Dec 30, 2023


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