Escape My Room: Mardi Gras Study (Digital) | Review

The year is 1990, and Odette DeLaporte has invited you to her study. As the last remaining heir in New Orleans to the DeLaporte fortune, she needs your help locating a treasure which went missing a long time ago. Can you recover what’s been lost?

Rating: Historical!
Completion Time: 50 minutes
Date Played: 17th March 2021
Party Size: 1
Recommended For: Technologically literate folks who LOVE local history!

I was invited to play The Mardi Gras Study’s digital room as part of an early beta tester group, prodding and poking at the technology to make sure it’s robust. As such, my review is of the ‘pre-launch’ version and amazingly, the creators have since improved this game MASSIVELY which I find hard to believe because it was already so good in the first place!

The Mardi Gras Study is a real life escape room at Escape My Room’s New Orleans location and now, thanks to the pandemic, you can play it digitally from anywhere in the world! The room has been reimagined in a browser based point-and-click piece of software. The idea is simple, click the arrows to move your screen left and right and click into anything you like to take a closer look, or add to your inventory.

I won’t comment on how well the tech worked because, as mentioned, I didn’t play the same version that is live today. But I would say if you’ve played anything point-and-click, or built on a similar software called “Telescape” before, you’ll pick up Escape My Room’s system pretty quickly!

The Story

The story in this game is quite unusual, but after looking at the website I realise it ties in nicely not only to the rest of the escape rooms available, but also some pretty nice local history too! Odette Delaporte has summoned you to her study to help with a little problem. A family heirloom has gone missing and, as the only living heir, it’s in your interest to reclaim it. The only problem is, she can’t quite remember in which cupboard or locked box the trail of clues are hidden. But not to fear, even though you’re locked in until you can figure it out, you have some very helpful handwritten notes to guide you along the way.

The Puzzles

There’s an interesting mix of puzzles in this game. As it’s a digital offering, I can’t compare to the real life version. That said players can expect to interact with objects in creative ways, for example overlaying different pieces of information and cut outs. There are several 3 and 4 digit codes to be found, each with their own unusual pattern. One of my favourite puzzles involved a rug, but the less I say about that one the less I spoil it!

If I had one piece of advice for prospective players – take nothing for granted! Is that item just a curious antique, or is it an integral part of the puzzle? Who knows! That’s all part of the magic.

Overall

The room was delightfully quirky and not like anything I’d ever seen before. Virtually ‘walking into it’ you’d have thought it just a regular, dusty room packed with antiques and mysterious things along the walls. But on closer inspection the weird and wonderful world of Escape My Room just keeps getting more curious. With an almost Alice in Wonderland vibe, this whole room was quite something and should be played to be believed!

As I was beta testing the room, I had a surprising amount of fun considering I was meant to be on the lookout for bugs and website issues. Making this overall, one to watch! Since I’m not likely to visit New Orleans any time soon (*cries in pandemic*), I hope the company convert more of their rooms into digital, online spaces. I’d very much like to explore them.

The Mardi Gras Study Digital and the real life escape room can be booked on the Escape My Room website here.