Chaos & Confetti

Envelescape’s Thornbright Mansion series is a three part pop-up adventure, which has players seeking answers from the mysterious mansion they’ve become trapped inside of.  This is a review for only the third and final chapter of the series (we’re also previously reviewed chapter one and chapter two).

Each chapter of an Envelescape experience comes with a pop-up location and its own standalone set of puzzles.  The pop-up location is highly interactive and explorable, urging characters to seek answers like in a traditional escape room (only smaller).  The chapters can be played individually or as part of a larger narrative.  All three chapters of the Thornbright Mansion series have now been released, and Envelescape is currently working on its follow up series.  

Gameplay will require access to an internet and sound enabled device.  The game uses a website for answer submission, story progression, and its hint system.  This time, the game also include sound based puzzles, which are played off of the game’s website.

Thornbright Mansion is marketed as a beginner to intermediate challenge for 1-6 players, ages 10+.  The game claims to take about 60-90 minutes.  As a duo, we took around 90 minutes to complete the third chapter.

OUR THOUGHTS:

Puzzles: Fun puzzles, which skew a bit easier but also add an audio element this time around

The third chapter of the Thornbright Mansion series mostly follows the pattern established by earlier chapters.The pop-up location has many elements to interact with and there are quite a few clues hidden throughout the setting.  The design of the room is well done, allowing easy exploration and reading of information.  Players will then solve puzzles to submit answers online, gaining them access to secret envelopes, which hold more components for puzzles-solving goodness.

The game’s puzzles are varied from each other and none feel like a retread of previous games’ puzzles either.  Overall, the puzzles take some thought, but sit on the easier side of the difficulty spectrum. 

The biggest change to the gameplay this time around is the introduction to sound elements.  On the game’s website there are non audio clues (some available immediately and other needing to be unlocked).  For the most part, these audio clues simply require players to listen closely.  One’s enjoyment of these new elements will depend on how they feel about sound clues in general.

Overall, the game maintains its established enjoyable puzzle design.

Narrative: Easy to follow narrative that successfully wrap up the series’ story

The final chapter of the Thornbright Mansion does wrap up the narrative from the first two chapters and concludes the game’s story.  The game uses sound elements, clues found within the pop-up, and components from their secret envelopes to share story details with players.

As a whole, the narrative is conveyed well and logically follows what has already been established.  The final story beats should come as no surprise to players of the earlier chapters.  The third chapter of the series accomplishes its goals narratively and provides a satisfying ending to the series. 

Overall Fun:  Good use of the pop-up setting to provide a satisfying conclusion to the series

The final installment of the Thornbright Mansion series delivers well.  It continues the formula that the earlier games set up, so fans of the earlier chapters should be happy with this one as well.  

The colorful and well-designed pop-up location is very neat and fun to interact with.  The sturdiness keeps the game flowing well with no fear of accidentally damaging the pop-up.  It’s always neat to see how the creators innovate new ways to use the pop-up medium for their story and puzzle goals.  

We should note that we did have one issue with the newly incorporated sound elements.  It is noted that there are audio elements when the game is started.  However, it turned out they were not working properly on the computer we were using (this is a computer that has had no other issues with sound).  Since the audio clues were not playing, we had no idea we should be listening to anything yet.  We quickly gathered physical clues and felt like we had a lot of information, but couldn’t progress without the audio clues.  We stalled for a while, banging our heads, not knowing what we needed to do.  Finally, we discovered that we should be able to hear audio from the game’s website and were able to switch devices.  We were able to continue with no further audio difficulties.  The sounds played fine on our phones and a tablet we tested it on.  

Overall, the third chapter of the Thornbright Mansion series creates a satisfying conclusion to the series and should entertain players.

WRAP UP:

Puzzles: Fun puzzles, which skew a bit easier but also add an audio element this time around

Narrative: Easy to follow narrative that successfully wrap up the series’ story

Overall Fun: Good use of the pop-up setting to provide a satisfying conclusion to the series

Recommended for: 

We recommend Thornbright Mansion chapter 3 to those who love pop-up dioramas, players looking for the feel of an escape room without actually needing to go to one, and puzzlers who are looking for some challenge without too much difficulty.

Review – Thornbright Mansion Chapter 3

Website Link – https://www.envelescape.ca

Price –  $27.00

Disclaimer: we purchased the game with our own money, this review is not sponsored. All thoughts are our own.