Review: Mansion: Impossible | The Panic Room

Game Website | Company Website | Based In: Gravesend, Kent, UK

OFFICIAL SPEC

🕹️ Stay At Home Games » Online Puzzle Game

💪 Difficulty: Low to medium difficulty (for age 6+).

⏲️ Time duration: 1 to 2 hours.

🔢 Capacity: 1-6 players.

💬 Hints: Hints & solution available below each puzzle. Click to reveal as needed.

🛒 If you PURCHASE due to this blog, please give EscapeMattster.com a shout-out! ;)

MATTSTER'S REC 🙂

💪 Difficulty (as perceived by Mattster): 2/10 (team of 1). Not difficulty for adults, but it does take some concentration.

🔢 Ideal team size: 1 for adult, but obviously more for a family event. A 1 adult to 1 child ratio recommended.

Mansion: Impossible | The Panic Room

OFFICIAL PREMISE

Geoff the ghost has been stuck in this mansion for many many years, never being able to solve the mystery of what is keeping him inside. You have entered the mansion yourself and find that you too are now stuck and need to solve the puzzles and escape the mansion before midnight! Explore the rooms within the mansion, piecing together the pieces of the mystery in this fantastic & fun, family adventure!

Mansion: Impossible | The Panic Room

OVERALL IMPRESSIONS

"Mansion: Impossible" is mildly spooky, children-friendly online escape room that tasks the players to help Geoff escape his eternal penitentiary. Back in 1920, Geoff was tricked into being locked up in his uncle's gigantic estate, and little did he know this would become his forever resting place--he entered through the entrance, but never found an exit to leave.

You're about to enter the very same building one whole century later; one wrong move and you may just suffer the same fate as poor Geoff. To avoid similar misfortune, solve various puzzles around the house, receive helpful clues, (tour the now haunted mansion while you're at it,) and hopefully you'll find an escape that would set you free from an everlasting nightmare.

"Mansion" is a reasonably standard online puzzle experience. The web interface hosting the game is straightforward and easy to pick up. There's a puzzle on the page. You examine it briefly, crank the gears inside your noggin, enter the solution in the password field, and move on to the next step. Clues and solutions are readily available should you need any.

Mansion: Impossible | The Panic Room

Overall, nothing truly jumped out at me, (not even a "boo!" from any wandering ghoul), and perhaps that's my main gripe with this entry. The puzzles are varied enough to merit a positive game play, but they are mostly common setups I've seen before. A few did trip me up surprisingly due to my own carelessness, but overall, it's more of a rehash than a true adventure.

Graphics of the various rooms and locations are extremely pleasant looking, though they only look about as exciting as an ordinary house would. If only had the artist pushed beyond the limit more, perhaps either a bit more dreadful and scarier, it would've elevated this online game to another level.

There are moments of enjoyable cleverness. For instance, several of the solutions spelled out valued virtues, and the reason did not become immediately apparent until the very end--and it felt satisfying finally finding out why. The not one, but two ending meta puzzles also put a smile on my face, since I felt like the gradual build-up resulted in something doubly special.

With all that said, I suspect "Mansion" is designed mainly for the whole family, especially those with younger audience, so in this regard, it makes sense why many aspects are more tamed than I'd like. However, if this was true, then Geoff the adorable ghost mascot is severely underused. His ghastly presence would've helped unfold the story in an ironically livelier manner, which is much more suitable for the little ones.

So to sum up, I think we just need more Geoff! (And there's no famous "Don't panic!" tagline... What gives?)

Mansion: Impossible | The Panic Room

EXTRA TIPS

★ As a general rule, *read and follow* the solution input rule. If it says the answer is in ALL CAPS, make sure to comply.

★ There is one particular room that was the trickiest in that, well, there is no puzzle to solve to escape! Just look hard.

READY FOR FUN?

"Mansion: Impossible" is available for purchase HERE.

If you PURCHASE due to this blog, please give EscapeMattster.com a shout-out! ;)

Signing off,

ESCAPE MATTSTER

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Full disclosure: complimentary game access was generously provided for review or testing purposes. All media are sourced from and credited to rightful owners. No copyright infringement intended. In certain cases, media materials are made available under fair use doctrine of copyright law. TPRMansion.