You may recognize Edith Humphreys, your sweet neighbor with 24 cats. You may have even helped her out, snooped around her apartment. But there’s something about Edith that doesn’t quite add up… she looks way younger than she is, she says she was born in 1902 but that she’s 97 years young… and she lives at a business called Mad Genius Escapes?! What is going on here…
Rating: Absurd!
Completion Time: 53:39
Date Played: 2nd January 2021
Party Size: 4
Recommended For: 4 Players, Cat Fans
The Truth About Edith is one of those games which I’ve heard so much about in 2020. It not only won an award at TERPECA, but also won at other reviewer-awards such as the Golden Lock and The Bullseye Awards. So when one of my real life escape room teams suggested a digital game, I jumped at suggesting this one.
Having now played it I’m not entirely sure it lives up to all the hype (just my opinion haha!) however we did enjoy it A LOT, and for that I’m very glad to have finally got round to booking it.
It’s got cats (lots of them!), strange old ladies, and a sinister undercurrent of ‘what is this secret shadowy organisation and are they going to take over the world?’. But the real stand out about The Truth About Edith is how you play. It’s actually quite unlike any other play at home escape room I’ve ever experienced and, as such, I really struggled to put it in a ‘category’ for this review. Is it a Zoom / avatar game? Is it a digital online game? Heck it might even be considered a video/audio escape room.
You start out in a mysterious Zoom call where a hurried secret agent tells you your code names and that he needs you to find out all you can about Edith Humphreys. Without much instruction, you must then take to the internet and research in an online treasure hunt across multiple websites. Within those websites are multiplayer activities – which is where your code name comes in, giving everyone something to do at the same time. For example when looking at CCTV footage, one player may be able to pause and play, whilst the other can only rewind and fast forward, while another can zoom in and so on.
At some points in the game we weren’t entirely sure what to do, but there is a helpful Games Master on hand if you get too stuck. At one point in the game there is also an interactive video element, which was a nice touch to feel connected with the Mad Genius Escapes team. Our Edith was funny, helpful and a joy to talk to with lots of laughter all around.
We finished with a respectable 06:21 left on the clock, which is about average compared to other teams. However, the current record stands at 25:00 minutes left on the clock – why not book this game and see if you can beat it?
The Truth About Edith can be purchased for $100 USD (~£73) for a team of 4 on Mad Genius Escape’s website.
