At you ready to escape? That is, escaping into a world of solving clues and puzzles in another print at home escape room from Paper Adventures. We loved playing the Great Wizard Escape print at home escape room back in June, and now with Halloween approaching we are trying out another one of their games, the Great Halloween Escape!
Paper Adventures have a great range of award winning print at home escape room games on their website for children aged between 4 and 12 years old. We like the concept of print at home escape room as you can purchase whenever you want at play straightaway. Once you purchase a game through their website, the game is instantly downloadable, ready to print and play. Each download contains a full colour print version of the game as well as a low ink version of the game. If you don’t have a printer, you can purchase a printed version in a nice pack for just a few pounds more, which includes delivery (UK only) – although you do have to wait for the postie to pop it through your letterbox.
These print at home escape rooms games are perfect for rainy days, school holidays, family game nights and even birthday or Halloween parties (they even come with posters to display, invitations and certificates to print). With Halloween not far off, if you want a fun spooky activity for the kids to play then the Great Halloween Escape will make an excellent party game (and the kids will probably even be dressed up for it).
The Great Halloween Escape Print at Home Escape Room is an immersive puzzle game for 2 or more players, aged 8-12 years. Once you have printed the files, you transform rooms in your home into Spooky Manor, a giant escape room for the kids. It features varied puzzles combined with a fun story. Players have been invited to the Manor House of the Spooks family and find themselves trapped in a room, they have just 60 minutes to find and solve clues to escape – before the full moon rises!
The Great Halloween Escape has a playing time of up to 60 minutes (it depends how quickly the kids solve the clues and escape). It also requires a set up time of approximately 30 minutes. An excellent Halloween adventure for the spookiest night of the year.
In the pack (digital download)
- Best Escape Game pdf file (for best experience, print in colour)
- Eco Escape Game pdf file (ink saving option)
- Game Master Book pdf file (tips on set-up and full solutions to run the game)
- QR code extras: set-up video, digital lock and immersive game timer video
- Download pack extras: invitations, posters and end of game messages, team certificates and fun props
Note: if you do purchase the printed version, the files are printed in colour and presented in neatly in a folder.
To set up and play the digital download version of the Great Halloween Escape you will obviously need access to the internet and email (to receive the files), a printer (so that you can print), a pair of scissors, pencils, glue (to cut out and put together some of the clues) and access to a phone, tablet or 60 minutes timer of some sort (to countdown the playing time remaining). An adult gamemaster is also required. The gamemaster sets up the game, gives tips to players when they are stuck, hands out clues and reads out the story when indicated, makes sure everybody is having fun and engaging with the SPIRIT (sorry, I just couldn’t resist the pun) of the game.
Before play can begin, the gamemaster needs to read the Read Me First document which gives instructions on what needs to be done before play can commence and printing out posters and invites. The gamemaster then needs to read the Gamemaster book which explains how to set up the game (things will need to be cut out, glued together, some pieces hidden etc.) and then decide what room or rooms are going to be used to play in. Set up takes around 30 minutes to complete by the adult gamemaster. You can also scan a handy QR code that takes you to YouTube so that you watch a handy video of easy set up.
Once the game set up has been completed as per the instructions, the spooky play can get underway. The Gamemaster plays an important role in the game apart from just setting up the game. They start the game by reading out the game introduction (ideally in their best imitation of the young and spooky host Catherine). The 60 minute timer is then started – a QR code is provided, it takes you to a YouTube video of a timer countdown or you can use any other timer of your choice (phone, smart speaker etc.).
This spooky adventure game and story is set over 6 chapters:
- Frightful Foyer – players need to find 4 hidden strips and weave them together into a mummy doll to reveal the message.
- Portrait Gallery – players must decipher the message using spooky portraits.
- Haunted Library – player must reorder pages to work out a code.
- Creepy Ballroom – players must cut out strips and reorder the puzzle to create a 3 digit code.
- Secret Lab – players must find bolts, cut them out and place in the correct places to reveal the code.
- Spooky Garden – players must find a lantern, complete the map, decipher the message and find the 3 digit escape code.
Throughout the game, players must interpret and solve the hidden clues using puzzle skills, paper activities, decoding skills and more.
For up to 60 minutes (depending on how fast players solve the puzzles), players are trying to solve easy to moderate puzzles, guided by the Gamemaster as they go along. The Gamemaster can offer hints and clues when the going gets tough. The game is linear in structure and clues must be solved before the story continues and moves on to the next chapter.
Overall, we think that the Great Halloween Escape is an excellent at home escape room puzzle for children and families. It has an excellent spooky story that children will love and enjoy getting involved with. The children must solve reasonably challenging clues before the story moves on (the clues are not so hard that they will give up and lose interest and the Gamemaster is always on hand to give a gentle push in the right direction). The story is simple, fun and immersive (especially if the kids / Gamemaster dress up and put on spooky accents to get fully involved). The puzzles are well-designed and very creative, just the right level for 8-12 year olds. The puzzles and clues are very well integrated into the story and involve observation, decoding, paper rearranging and even basic maths skills to vary the puzzles and making them interesting and engaging.
An immersive story experience, one that is fun and humorous with a challenge.
The Gamemaster book is excellent. It is a short summary breakdown of the game that helps the Gamemaster easily navigate the story and puzzles to guide the players. It makes managing the game easy, without having to flick through lots of pages. This allows the game to flow without boring interruptions.
The spooky Halloween inspired artwork is very child friendly and engaging and helps to capture a child’s imagination, perfect for Halloween and the darker evenings.
We had lots of spooky fun with this game. It’s a very interesting puzzle story packed with fun for all involved (including the Gamemaster who doesn’t participate in the puzzle solving as they already have access to all the answers). It does take 30 minutes or so to set up, cutting and gluing, placing and hiding clues but it is worth it for the hour of fun it creates for everybody. Perfect for a group family game and even better as a fun activity for birthday or Halloween parties.
The game is very easy to set up once the files are printed. It has clear printed instructions to follow as well as YouTube videos to watch. As it is a print at home game, if pages or puzzles get damaged or you require more than one copy of certain pages you can print off as many as required (you might need more than one copy of things for parties or group play). With a successful Halloween escape, you can print off a certificate for each child to award their achievement.
The Great Halloween Escape is a fun and very immersive experience, a great way to spend some quality family time with the kids, and the perfect party game for this upcoming Halloween. It is well-designed, printable and playable straightaway when purchased online (a printed version for delivery is also available to buy if you don’t have a printer). This is a very enjoyable child and family-friendly escape room game to be played at home that has no complicated preparation and is inexpensive. We highly recommend it to anyone who likes escape room type games, puzzles and the spookiness of Halloween. And if Halloween isn’t your thing, Paper Adventures also have a space adventure, a who-dunnit, a treasure hunting adventure and a jungle escape as well as the game we previously played, the Great Wizard Escape (which is perfect for Harry Potter fans).
With every purchase, Paper Adventures have also teamed up with Tree Nation offering a donation to help support planting trees in key areas affected by deforestation. So not only is it a very good screen-free (except for the timer) game to play but one that is also good for the environment.
An excellent immersive and challenging fun puzzling story adventure game for kids. This Halloween, who you gonna call? Well, not the Ghostbusters but Paper Adventures!
Rating: 5/5
RRP: £14.99 (Digital download, print at home version) / £17.99 (Printed and delivered version)
For more information or to buy, visit paperadventures.co.uk.
