Jillian Raymond
- Jun 14, 2023
- 9 min read

Hatch Escapes - "Mother of Frankenstein" (Complete Game)

Updated: 2 hours ago

Photo above is property of Hatch Escapes

Company: Hatch Escapes (produced by Prodigal)

Game: Mother of Frankenstein - Complete Game

Country: USA 🇺🇸

Language: English

Type of Game: Tabletop Games 📬

Genre: Love, Mystery

Date Played: May 13, 2023

Difficulty (based on 2 players): 7/10

Size of Team: Unlimited (Suggested 1-6 ppl)

Time: Unlimited (Suggested 10-15 hours)

Price:

$39.99 (Volume 1)
$39.99 (Volume 2)
$49.99 (Volume 3)
$119.99 (Complete Game)
$154.99 (Complete Game + Special Edition Novel)
$179.99 (Complete Game + Special Edition Novel + Refill Pack + Hint Cards)

"Previously we reviewed a prototype of Volume 1 - this review is of the official release and consists of Volumes 1, 2 and 3.

Video above is property of ESCAPETHEROOMers

🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 (Volume 1)

After her death, famous novelist, Mary Shelley, leaves a curious letter to her son Florence in her will - a letter encouraging him to unravel and puzzle through her life to uncover the secrets revolving around her renowned novel, Frankenstein. Filled with handwritten letters between husband and wife, poetry, jigsaws, music, and more, you, alongside Florence, will piece together the early life of young Mary where her story first began…as a woman in love with a married man.

Inventory List for Volume 1:

"Start Here" flyer with instructions and hint QR codes
Letter from Mary Shelley
Six foam boards with pop out pieces (red, green, and blue)
Three envelopes labelled “Music,” “Astronomy,” and “Poetry”
Inside each envelope contains different papers ranging from astronomy charts, famous poems and sonnets, and music sheets
A solution envelope
A card stack labelled “Hints”

Photo above is property of Hatch Escapes

🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 (Volume 2)

Famous novelist Mary Shelley claims in one of her last letters she never could say aloud what led her towards her famous creation and she often feared the consequences. In a desperate attempt to connect with her son she leaves him a series of puzzles to show her side of the story. In Volume 1 we unravelled the blossoming romance between her and her soon-to-be husband Percy Shelley and what that led them to depart England and where but, alongside Florence, we now must dive into a place that planted the seed to inspire her famous work and uncover what happened that fateful night and the events that followed. Mary doesn’t make it easy, though, and we must solve puzzles and riddles to gain the vital truth and the revelations it will leave. No pressure!

Inventory List for Volume 2:

"Start Here" flyer with instructions and hint QR codes
Letter from Mary Shelley
A plastic bag containing puzzle pieces
Two illustrations
An invitation
A dance card
Mary's Research Journal
Sign Up Cards
Letter to Mary from Percy
An answer card to fill out
Letter from C
Hint cards

Photo above is property of Hatch Escapes

🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 (Volume 3)

After learning about the revelations that forced Mary to run, we now enter her final chapter. In this volume we fast forward years after she left the fateful place and the tragedies she faced on that journey…in turn uncovering what broke her and rebuilt her anew all that time ago. As you build the castle piece by piece you are encouraged to explore the steps Mary took in these hallowed halls and, once and for all, see what is the legacy of Mary Shelley long after her death.

Inventory List for Volume 3:

"Start Here" flyer with instructions and hint QR codes
Letter from Mary Shelley
Map of Castle Estate (you can also use the puzzle from Volume 2)
A large plastic bag containing foam puzzle pieces
Eight thick story book pages
Twelve pages of cut-out for roof assembly
Foam board labelled "Ramparts"
An envelope labelled "Valediction"
Hint cards

Photo above is property of Hatch Escapes

🆃🅷🅴 ❞🅻🅾🅾🅺🆂❞

Each volume arrives in a separate board game box with a portrait of Mary Shelley emblazoned on the lid. There is a synopsis and review quotes on the back and side to entice you to pick it up. I felt the box was quite clean but I will note it doesn’t look like a book as Mary says in her first letter to Florence. Inside Volume One, you will find three sealed and coloured packets, labelled “Poetry,” “Astronomy,” and “Music.” In addition there is a letter from Shelley introducing her puzzle adventure to her son and I found it quite endearing and poignant. You will also find a series of foam boards holding round puzzle pieces that you will be assembling in the game later.

Inside each of the coloured packets are a series of letters, poems, astronomy pages, music and more that all will help paint a picture of the relationship between Mary Shelley and her husband, Percy Shelley. In addition, there is a pamphlet with historical information on the novelist if you are interested - though it isn’t necessary to play the game.

I found the paper quality of the items to be clean. They had an aged look to them which always grabs my attention and I felt the handwriting added to the experience without being illegible - and the story contained in them actually got to me at times! This game is definitely packed with a lot of contents that are sure to keep you entertained! The different puzzles are sturdy and easy to manipulate. There is variety to the components that engages audiences and detail that I appreciated like the illuminated manuscripts on Volume Three.

I recommend airing out the plastic 3d puzzle as it does have a very chemical smell upon opening.

In addition, there is also a manual guide with a QR code for hints and music but you also have physical hints cards in each box, which means you do not require the internet to plan this game! Any information provided about Mary Shelley is purely for those interested.

🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈

For Volume One, you are getting a taste of the greater journey by dipping your toes into the world. Essentially, you need to align the rings in order in order to unravel the location to where Mary and Percy left after the hasty departure from England. Each packet can be played in any order but I will say the letters contained can be read in a particular order (hint hint!). Each packet is self contained but once you have assembled the rings you will require items from different packets to solve for the final location. In amongst the puzzling, the letters will provide you with a window into the early life of Mary before she married and the affair that developed between her and Percy. I found them engaging and did an excellent job to draw players into the lives of these characters.

Volume Two is set up for three stages of game play to be spread out as laid out in Mary’s letter. First is the assemble to jigsaw puzzle which took quite a bit of time (technically you could do this as the second stage as well but I did it first). The second stage has you tracking the movements of Mary, Percy, Claire, and another individual’s (spoilers if I give the name) throughout an evening using a series of papers left with logic based clues to determine where she went that evening. The final stage has us diving into Mary’s research journal to uncover why Mary left the castle of her friend so abruptly. Each dated entry contains a puzzle leading towards a clue to a message left by Mary for us to uncover the truth and boy was it fascinating.

I like how this volume switched up the game play to continue to make this game fresh and interesting. I also found I was learning a lot about the characters too (in particular Percy Shelley sure does a 180 in character). I found the stages allowed me to break up the game throughout my day and provide good breaking points for players who needed to take a break and regroup. The ending has me very intrigued by the twist that is developing…

For Volume Three, this is probably physically the most complicated volume of the three. As directed in the manual, this game is broken into three parts. First, you have to assemble the 3D jigsaw puzzle of the estate…sounds easy enough? This will probably be the most time consuming part of the game so be prepared. What makes this tricky is that you only have three angles of the estate depicted on the sides of the box to use as your guide. There are certain spots you will not see…BUT it is pretty easy to figure out. I recommend focusing on building sides before assembling and windows will be the easiest to start assembling.Overall I assembled it in about 6 hours as a mainly single player (my partner tapped out).

After you have assembled the puzzle you must now turn to the roof (but first, go read the story on the illuminated pages). Now some of the roofs contain puzzles to go alongside them that will help you in part three. Use the roof pieces as clues. After you solve the puzzle you can assemble the roof - just be mindful of the correct folds.

Finally, once the castle is assembled you follow a series of riddles encouraging you to identify different locations of the estate, once you find a corresponding symbol that matches the symbols on the back of the manuscript you are to open it up and follow its instructions. Each will guide you with another riddle until you reach the end of the road.

Photo above is property of ESCAPETHEROOMers

🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂

I found the puzzles in Volume One to boast a pretty good variety for players and encouraged you to have more players, especially any players with musical background! I found these puzzles had a good balance with searching, riddles, tracking, pattern recognition, and logic. They require careful attention and being able to notice connections between objections/papers not always apparent at first. I found some puzzles were definitely more tricky for me and I think this lends itself to being a game for groups over single players. I also noted one puzzle needed anagramming without explicitly stating it did. Thankfully hints are an option and I love how much they encourage you to take one - you aren't meant to struggle for hours on one puzzle. Instead you are doing these to uncover a beautiful journey and story.

In Volume Two, I really enjoyed how each stage provided us with a different challenge of puzzling from the simplistic (yet still challenging) jigsaw to the deduction based puzzling on the night of the ball and finally with the logic based puzzling in the journal that had a unique alchemic twist. This is a game tailored to having players really collaborate on each puzzle in this volume which shakes things up. I did wish the jigsaw puzzle image were slightly larger as trying to compare pieces could be blurring but it was a peaceful start to the adventure. I thoroughly enjoyed the deduction puzzle because it provided an immersive story through sources to explore on top of tracking character movements. The research journey was a bit tricky for me with having to track between pages but the reveal at the end really captured the mystery of the game.

This volume did an excellent job bringing together experienced and new players alike. No additional skills were an asset like music in the first one but, instead, talking through observations and patterns unveiled puzzles piece by piece. The variety to the physical components fully drew you in and I devoured this game over the course of a day.

Finally, the puzzling in Volume Three is an interesting one. Admittedly I struggled the most with the roofs as they required a lot of visual awareness that I don’t have but the assembly of the jigsaw was actually the most time intensive - that is to say the 4-6 play time on the box depends on having a large group to work together. I found the array of puzzles were focused primarily on logic and riddles which I thought was an excellent choice after spending so much time building. The way the story was immersed in the puzzle and unfolded made for such an amazing experience. It really encouraged you to focus and observe the house which was honestly the star of the game. You will just need time and patience to work through it. I don’t want to spoil too much as this is the climax of the story but let me say it is rewarding but it will take time building up to it (ie. building the castle and roof).

🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂

The ending of this journey provides a thought provoking sensation befitting of the famous novel at its core. The story was rich in narrative and the variety of puzzle and activity draws in all types of players. I will say I recommend this for groups as there is a lot to tackle here and discuss. I was invested and following Mary’s life this way is I think one of the best ways to provide historical fiction to audiences. The blending of story and puzzle is outstanding and players will be thoroughly impressed.

I think this is definitely a game people should take a chance on if you love both jigsaw puzzles and escape game puzzles because it blends both beautifully. The only question I am left with is…what will Hatch Escape do next?

Check out our interview with the creators to understand more on the development side of these game:

Video above is property of ESCAPETHEROOMers

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(If you do decide to try this game, give us a shoutout or tag us on social media so we know you heard it from "ESCAPETHEROOMers"!)

Disclosure: We thank Hatch Escapes for providing us with a sample of their game. Although a complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever.