If you’ve been following English Rose from Manchester for a while, you’ll know I’m a big fan of board games, escape rooms, and even a combination of both with at-home escape rooms. I also love to play tourist in my own local area, and enjoy any excuse to explore Manchester’s hidden gems. So with all this in mind, I knew Streethunt Games would be the perfect outdoor activity to try out on a sunny spring Saturday afternoon with friends.
“Your City is the crime scene. Can you crack the case before the trail goes cold” – Streethunt Games
This post contains a gifted experience
Streethunt is a self-guided mystery game, set on the streets of your city (Manchester, London or York currently available), and played via your phone. We pre-booked our date and timeslot in advance. This timeslot is flexible, but helps to prevent you accidentally playing at the exact same time as another group. With 2 stories to choose from, you check in at the first location on the day, using a web browser, to be introduced to the scene of your mystery to solve.
Once the storyline has started the 1 hour clock begins, and you are given your next location to find using a map. The idea is to use this map to find a series of locations in your city, each being unlocked after completing the previous one. At each site you must first answer a clue question using a physical item found at your location. You’ll then unlock a virtual contact (no live actors involved), who’ll reveal a bit more of the story and provide you with a more complex puzzle to solve on your phone. Solving this puzzle will give you one of several pieces of the “final mystery” puzzle – completion of which will end the game.
We chose to play Will Breaker, in which your recently deceased uncle has left you a huge inheritance, which becomes yours if you follow the clues and solve the final puzzle. No spoilers, but along the way you learn more of your uncle’s secrets through his contacts too! This was the slightly easier game according to their website, so a great place to start, and it took us around the Castlefield, St Peter’s Square and Chinatown areas of Manchester.
I enjoyed the depth that the story went into, with detailed conversations and messages from the contacts you meet along the way adding plenty of added interest, and the storyline featuring twists, turns and even an imposter at one point! It really gave the feeling of being immersed in the story. There is so much detail that, if anything, the time pressure of the 1 hour timer could prevent you from enjoying these interactions and plot points! But luckily you can easily extend your timer by 30 minutes if needed.
We really enjoyed the areas of Manchester this route took us to, some of which we were familiar with, and some we had never seen before! I liked the inclusion of bonus facts at each location if local history is of interest. And the game offers the option to pause for breaks, and can even recommend places to stop for a drink if you don’t know the area.
I loved the map format for finding locations rather than following wordy street directions. We enjoyed choosing our own route to each spot, and being familiar with Manchester made this easier for us. And the mechanic of unlocking locations with real life clues, but then completing puzzles shown on your phone screen was a great way of combining live locations with more complex and traditional puzzle types. I highly recommend making sure you have a fully charged phone though, as it gets plenty of use during this game!
It was recommended on the Streethunt website that the each member of a group books on and plays via their own phone. I don’t think this is strictly necessary, as it does add to the expense of the game the more players you have. However I do think each player would feel more immersed in the story and game if they played along on their individual phones.
We submitted a team selfie at the end and received a memento photo from the day, which is a nice touch!
Overall we had a lovely day out in Manchester exploring some lesser known spots (to us) in the sunshine. As well as being a fun activity for friends, couples, or even solo, I think it would be a great competitive activity for a work team away day, and I also think families with older children would enjoy the thrill of the chase too!
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