When trying to think of a night out with friends or family most people will come up with going out for a meal or a visit to the local pub, a game or three of bowling, visiting the cinema to see the latest blockbuster movie or even just staying at home for a board game night. And then there are escape rooms! Would you like to become a detective and find out who the murderous scallywag is?
Escape rooms are becoming increasingly popular, a group of you and your friends locked together in a room and given sixty minutes or so to solve all the clues and escape the room. An escape room can be lots of fun – a challenging and entertaining night out, an excellent team building or family bonding experience.
As much fun as going out to for an escape room experience can be, there might be several reasons that you can’t go – the cost, not being able to get a babysitter, not wanting to be around crowds etc. But what about an escape room experience in the comfort of your own home? It means that you don’t have to leave home, and the cost is drastically reduced.
We have tried several escape room games as a family and we all love them. They come in varying difficulty levels to suit all ages/difficulty levels. They are lots of fun and a great way to spend some quality time together. The only problem with these types of games is that they are generally a one use game (once you’ve solved it there is no playability left unless a new group of players have a go) so you have to decide in advance when you are going to play and order one (unless you happen to have one in the house). That’s where Epic Games come into their own, they have a printable version that you can buy and immediately print, ready to play straightaway and we were delighted to try out The Murderous Scallywag in this format (it can also be purchased and posted as a printed version).
Epic Games The Murderous Scallywag is an at home ‘escape room’ game for one to six players with a playing time of around 60 minutes.
‘The year is 1902. The city is awash with villainous gangs, pickpockets and thieves. All very small fry, as there is only one big fish you are after.
You and your team of detectives have finally arrested the notorious murderer David “Scallywag” Wallis. Word has it that he has committed around 20 murders.
With the hot glow of a bulb glaring in his eyes, sat in an interview room, you finally make Wallis spill the beans.
He tells you that all the evidence you need to pin the murders on him, is locked in a safe in a hidden location.’
Can you find the location of the hidden safe and the code to open it before the murder escapes justice?
As this is a print at home game, once you order online you immediately receive three PDF files in your inbox, ready to print and play (Puzzles, Solutions and Instructions / Hints). These can be printed in black & white or colour and look great either way (although in colour definitely looks better). The game puzzles will include newspaper clippings, cipher wheels, maps and more, all of which easily print on to A4 sheets of paper – if you print all three PDF files there are twenty-two pages.
A gamesmaster is optional but really isn’t required. There is no setup to do and once the pages are printed you can commence your investigation with family, friends or even on your own without any hassle – you have one hour to solve the puzzle and work out the four-digit code.
We played together as a family, two adults and two children (ages ten and twelve) and found it to be a game of easy to immediate difficultly which made it accessible and enjoyable for all players – solving the puzzles wasn’t so difficult that the children couldn’t join in but was challenging enough to be enjoyed by the children and adults alike. The puzzles to solve are a really clever collection to get the brain matter working and they work together very well (and if/when you do get stuck there are hints available in the form of decoding them with a simple letter shift system or by scanning a QR code – this stops anyone accidently seeing the answers and having an unfair advantage).
Overall, we all really enjoyed spending an hour together trying to solve this puzzle and we did succeed! Without going into two much detail and giving away any clues, we all really enjoyed deciphering the clues, finding numbers and using our basic maths skills to solve the puzzles and work out things on the map to try and bring a murderer to justice. The children got involved, enjoyed the puzzles (working together to solve them) and had a great time.
At £14.97 for the print at home version, it is on the expensive side for a game that you have to print yourself but it does work out a lot cheaper than a real escape room (for the print at home version it works out as a cost of approx. £3.75 per player if 4 play or a bargain price of £2.50 if all six play). But is it worth it? We think so as it was a lot of fun. But whilst we appreciate that a lot of effort goes into putting together all the clues and puzzles so that they work and make the game challenging and interesting, we would have preferred to see the printed version for £14.97 as that is more in-line with printed and boxed types of this game we have played, but being able to buy, print and playing straightaway is perfect.
We enjoyed the game. It was lots of fun to play as a family and we really loved the idea of buying, printing and be able to play immediately. The hint system is excellent; simple yet effective whilst being easy to use.
If you enjoy escape room games, whether at home or locked into one, or just want to try something a bit different than the go to board games, then The Murderous Scallywag is very good. A great fun way to spend an hour of quality time with friends and family without vegetating in front of a screen.
Rating: 4.5/5
RRP: £14.97 (Print at home)
For more information or to buy, visit www.epic-escapes.games.
