Scooby-Doo! Escape from the Haunted Mansion game review


Scooby-Doo Escape from the Haunted Mansion game
Ready to unravel the mystery?

“I would have gotten away with it too if it weren’t for you meddling kids!”

If you recognize that statement, then you must be familiar with Scooby-Doo!

The question is, does your family have what it takes to solve the mystery at Lord Fairmont’s haunted mansion?

Of course, you’ll be channeling the skills and hijinks of Mystery Inc. with Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy, and of course Scooby-Doo!

Time to dive into Scooby-Doo! Escape from the Haunted Mansion by The Op.

 

How to play Scooby-Doo! Escape from the Haunted Mansion

In Scooby-Doo! Escape from the Haunted Mansion, players take on the roles of the teen sleuths and their courageous canine pal to solve a mystery. Players work together to solve the puzzles and discover who’s behind the trouble of Lady Fairmont’s ghost.

Scooby-Doo Escape from the Haunted Mansion game
Character narrative booklets, map tiles, and secret packets to help with the mystery.

The game comes with sealed packets that players will open along the way as they solve challenges. The contents of each packet will also help players solve subsequent puzzles.

The game also includes 5 narrative booklets (1 for each character) that players will read from during the game to build on the story and discover clues. And each character has a special skill that helps discover different clues from the same location or item. For example, Shaggy’s special skill is Eat and Scobby’s is Smell.

Scooby-Doo Escape from the Haunted Mansion game
Move the characters around to interact with the mansion.

In the game, players don’t control specific characters. Instead, players decide together how to move the characters around the mansion as they discover new rooms and interact with different elements.

To begin, a player reads aloud the starting entry from Fred’s Narrative Book and sets up the game as described. This involves placing Map Tile 1 and Velma in a starting location.

To find clues, players place a character standee next to an element on the Map Tiles or cards to reveal a 4-digit number. Then a player turns to that entry in that character’s Narrative Book and reads it aloud. For example, Velma’s special skill is Research. Placing Velma’s #1 on her standee next to an armoire with a number 401, leads players to read entry 1401 in Velma’s Narrative Book as she researches the armoire.

Scooby-Doo Escape from the Haunted Mansion game
Daphne wants to Use this item.

Some items on cards or tiles only have 1 or 2 numbers instead of 3. This means that a character must combine items to achieve a 4-digit number.

Scooby-Doo Escape from the Haunted Mansion game
The narrative entries give plenty of clues.

There are 2 chapters in the game and players may decide after completing Chapter 1 to either continue on or to store the game to finish Chapter 2 at a later date.

Once players complete the game, they refer to a chart at the back of the rule book to see how well they did. This depends on how many hints (and thus Scooby Snacks) players needed to use during play.

Scooby-Doo Escape from the Haunted Mansion game
Find a clue that directs you to open a secret packet. Then you’ll have more things to work with.

 

Can the whole family enjoy Scooby-Doo! Escape from the Haunted Mansion?

Scooby-Doo! Escape from the Haunted Mansion is definitely meant to be played together as a family. While younger kids may not be able to read the entries from the various narrative books, they can still have fun moving the characters around, finding clues, and listening to the story unfold.

For example, just because you’ve had Fred investigate something, doesn’t mean you can’t also have Scobby-Doo smell it as well.

Scooby-Doo Escape from the Haunted Mansion game
Fred investigated, what about having Scooby smell him too?

The fun is in checking out the various combinations of characters, items, and locations and seeing what comes of it. Oh, and if you can read the entries in the voices of the characters, it will add even more fun to the game.

Although our son isn’t familiar with the characters, my wife and I could sure hear the characters’ voices in our heads as we read many of the entries. And our son would just roll his eyes as we tried to mimic Shaggy and Scooby’s sounds.

Then there are the puzzles.

Scooby-Doo Escape from the Haunted Mansion game
What do we need to solve this puzzle?

We’ve played a lot of different escape-room type games and there’s a wide range of difficulty when it comes to the various games. The puzzles in Scooby-Doo! Escape from the Haunted Mansion are on the easy side — making it well-suited for a family game.

We decided to play both chapters in the same evening and the total play time was around 2 hours. But because we were reading and seeing a story unfold, it didn’t seem like that long.

Scooby-Doo Escape from the Haunted Mansion game
Explore the various rooms to the mansion to solve the mystery.

 

How does Scooby-Doo! score on our “Let’s Play Again” game meter?

Scooby-Doo Escape from the Haunted Mansion gameSince Scooby-Doo! Escape from the Haunted Mansion is a single story with only one final solution, it’s not a game we intend to play again. While we had fun playing, now that we know the outcome, it won’t have the same fun of discovering along the way.

The game is really meant to be an experiment and discovery game. You try different things, read the narrative from what you try, and get to the culminating conclusion. So the fun is in the initial playthrough — not necessarily by doing it again.

The good news though is that nothing gets destroyed and all the pieces can be placed back in their starting packets — essentially resetting the game for another group of players to tackle.

If you like cooperative games and Scooby-Doo, this game can make for a fun evening with your family.




We’d like to thank The Op for a review copy of Scooby-Doo! Escape from the Haunted Mansion.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *