It’s December 1941 and mystery surrounds a sunken submarine, we have a list of suspects and it would seem someone knows more than they should. Do you and your team have what it takes to pit your wits against the WWII codebreakers and find out the truth?
Rating: Exciting
Completion Time: 50 Minutes
Date Played: 18th November 2020
Party Size: 2
Recommended For: History Fans
So back in 2019 before the apocalypse started, I visited Bletchley Park twice (twice?!) over summer and I LOVED IT. I am a super nerd like that (but also some of my funniest Instagram stories ever were shot there so they were trips well spent!). In 2020 I didn’t visit Bletchley Park. In fact I didn’t really visit anywhere this year (oh hi lockdown), so The Bletchley Park Papers by Escape Hunt really scratches that itch!
In this digital game you and your team of players (we completed it in a team of 2) head to Bletchley Park in 1941 at the height of WW2 to become a codebreaker. It’s your job to find the double agent hidden among the personnel.
Your guide is Gordon Welchman, the Chief Codebreaker at Bletchley Park. A real person and an Easter Egg if you want to go explore his Wikipedia page further.
Using his instructions, to play the game you must travel from hut to hut around the Bletchley Park map meeting a host of colourful characters (both real and fictional) from the team. The game progresses in a linear fashion – discover a new location, pick up clues, decipher puzzles, then access the next location.
Simple to follow, but no less exciting! It’s absolutely packed with story! Historically accurate, jokes, and yes, more serious moments too – an enjoyable story from start to finish!
In terms of puzzles, as you’d imagine in a game set in the middle of WW2 you can expect a lot of codebreaker style puzzles. There’s a Morse code puzzle, a braille puzzle and a few creative logical reasoning (which I got woefully incorrect haha!) ones too. Yet The Bletchley Park Papers is also a Christmas game – you’ll have to work your way round a very puzzling Christmas tree and some Christmas Cards too! No spoilers here, but there’s a good mix of puzzles to suit everyone you might have in your team.
Even though I’ve already played this, I’m excited to bring it with me to my parents house for Christmas. My 11 year old brother (occasional Player 3 on this blog) is studying WW2 and he’s going to love this!
Overall I really enjoyed this game! It’s got buckets of charm and a really historical lovely story to play through with a small team for an hour or so. Cheerio, chaps!
The Bletchley Park Papers can be purchased for £9.99 on Escape Hunt’s Website.
