# Escape from Crimson Manor Ep.1 — user reviews > 66 indexed App Store user reviews of Escape from Crimson Manor Ep.1 by MediaCity Games, rated 3.70/5 from 62 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/escape-from-crimson-manor-ep1/id1587501767/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/escape-from-crimson-manor-ep1/id1587501767.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 28 · 4★ 8 · 3★ 11 · 2★ 9 · 1★ 6 ## What do users think of Escape from Crimson Manor Ep.1? Overall sentiment: mixed **Pros** - ✨ Beautiful graphics and art - 🧠 Challenging and logical puzzles - 💡 Engaging storyline - 👍 Good value for price - 🚀 Fluid room navigation (for some) - ✅ Helpful hint system - 🌟 High replayability (implied by series) - 💯 Well-made game series **Cons** - 😵 Motion sickness/dizzying controls - 🕹️ Frustrating/unintuitive controls - 🤏 Short game length - 🎨 Dark visual aesthetic - 🤔 Puzzles lack logical connection (sometimes) - 💸 Expensive for short duration (for some) - 🔄 Controls not customizable (invert/reverse) **Commonly reported bugs** - Revolving bookshelf puzzle not working - Game glitching/not storing items - Slider bars off-screen/unusable - Sound cutting in and out - Going through walls/clipping - Floating to ceiling - Books going sideways into shelf - Wheel cipher only goes one direction - Globe puzzle not working - Map/globe sequence not working - Camera zooming all over room during puzzle - Game freezing - Item box glitches - Sliders disappearing/reappearing - Game not working on older devices - Toolbox slider glitches - Wooden puzzle slider glitches - Clue book not copying clues - Ending scene abrupt **Most requested features** - Option to reverse swipe/drag direction - Option for normal/non-reversed controls - Add pan sensitivity settings - Add reverse vertical movement option - Option to disable automatic clue cataloging - Option to pinch back out instead of back button - Map feature for easier navigation - More contrast in visuals - Longer game duration - Full game installments instead of parts ## Newest reviews (16 of 66) ### 4/5 — 雰囲気よし *2025-03-27* 19世紀西洋邸宅の設えで雰囲気よし。パズルも凝ってる。ハウスオブダビンチ系が好きな方なら充分楽しめるかと。 ### 2/5 — A joyless slog *2025-03-20, version 1.05* Everything in this short game takes way too long. All dialogue scrolls out so slow i thought at first it was a joke. And I was ready to just quit the game when I had to scroll through ALL the letters of the alphabet multiple times. ### 2/5 — Too short *2024-09-14* Good game but far too short for the money ### 4/5 — Fun! *2023-10-23* Nice point and click escape mystery game. Took me 2 nights to finish, a few hours of playtime. The puzzles made me think but were all logical and with the clue button, nothing is difficult enough that I needed to use a walkthru. ### 3/5 — Okay *2023-10-08* It’s a decent puzzle game. I wasn’t a huge fan of not being able to jump between rooms which would have made the navigation much easier. And awfully short for the price. I see that episode 2 is a larger game so is hopefully longer if I chose to buy it. Wanted to love it more! ### 2/5 — Disappointed *2023-07-22* I love MC games played them all I thought until I came upon this game was so excited just brought 1 & 2. Soon as started to play I was highly disappointed it’s like not even by the Same developers the moving around I hate it why we didn’t have the option to play the real point and click version? This moving around ugh 🥹like motion sickness after awhile have to use the arrow to exit instead of zoom out all the unnecessary spinning around where is the map? The item box on the side not the bottom like the previous games it’s just totally different and not in a good way. I won’t even bother to play this just paid cause it’s media city just wish you guys would of kept it the same the new look and navigation is a no for me. ### 3/5 — Not intuitive *2023-05-27* The puzzles seem fun, but the game controls (how you look around the room, how you use objects) are clunky. I find myself pointing in the wrong direction, and unable to go where I want to go. ### 3/5 — Glitch *2023-04-07* The toolbox puzzle has the 2nd slider bar far to the left basically off screen. The slider is outside of the puzzle and to far to even slide it. So I can’t complete the puzzle and can’t continue on. I had to restart the game in order to be able to finally finish the game. ### 3/5 — Controls are terrible *2023-04-05* Started to play this again as there’s a new edition out and I noticed that I had this one filed at the back. Remembered why. Even a walkthrough of the latest one complains about the controls so I’ll save my pennies for something else. Good game let down by someone's decision to have almost unplayable controls. ### 3/5 — sound issues *2023-02-16, version 1.0* The sound cuts in and out, and makes it impossible to know if youve solved something. in particular, the globe. sometimes the sound of the moving globe is presnt, then its silent. got bored after not being able to play without sound. good puzzles when the game didnt glitch. ### 3/5 — Glitchy and dizzy *2023-01-08, version 1.05* It’s very glitchy. Have gone through a wall. It’s very sensitive. It’s hard to control where I’m going. A good plot. ### 4/5 — Very good, but those controls… *2022-12-29* Enjoyed the games and the puzzles, along with the whole presentation of the game. The only thing I didn’t like were the controls. Please add additional configurables in the form of reverse vertical movements and also pan sensitivity. Almost deleted the game out of frustration, but with a couple of small changes you could have it bang on! ### 2/5 — Irritating to play!!! *2022-11-30, version 1.05* I am a very easy person to please when it comes to playing, and enjoying, an intriguing game. But “enjoy” is the key word!!! The premise and concept are engaging. But the gameplay is buggy and very irritating. My first time playing I had to restart because I got locked into a scene and couldn’t back out. Graphics seem to blend into each other occasionally. Maneuvering the 360 screen is way too sensitive. On the flip side, things like changing letters on the cryptic are painfully slow. And if you miss a letter I can’t reverse it. I must go all thru the alphabet. As for ease of play, the game is overly complex, even for an escape game. And the hints are really too cryptic to make playing more enjoyable. I don’t want to be stressed by a game. $1.99 is not much for a game. But it’s a lot when I just want the game to end so I get my money’s worth!!! I respect the efforts of a small development team and want to support them. And I have enjoyed their other static graphic P.A.C games. So I know they can do better. ### 2/5 — Motion sick after only a few minutes *2022-09-23* This game made me so motion sick. Also, the controls do not play nicely with the iPad Pro. For example, in the library, the sliding tiles puzzle is impossible to move without also moving the room all around. I can’t play this game because it makes me ill. ### 2/5 — Dizzying *2022-05-05* I really really wanted to love this, because I’ve very much enjoyed MediaCity’s other adventure games. Unfortunately I can’t handle the smooth-scrolling graphics with the contrary swipe action. It makes me nauseous after a few minutes’ play. Just now I tried playing the game again after a break of several months, hoping that the effect wasn’t as bad as I’d remembered. Alas, after a few seconds I knew I couldn’t continue. Two stars, to catch the attention of the developers. Please, I beg you, give us an option to set the swipe action to normal. That should have been the default in the first place. I have no problem with the smooth scrolling in the Room series, for example. I’ll give a positive update once I can actually play the game. I imagine that you’ve worked very hard to make a beautiful game. I don’t understand why you haven’t quickly responded to all the requests to give an option reverse the swipe action, because why you would want to prevent a substantial number of your fans from playing the game? Here’s the thing: if you don’t suffer from motion sickness, then you’ll have no idea at all what we are complaining about. The only way you’ll know is if you listen to what we are telling you about our playing experience. **Developer response:** Hi britCA yo did catch our attention and I promise we will add a reverse swipe option in an update, we are a small team and sometimes we need to focus on the next installment and tend to forget that we also must improve the already released games, but we are aware that this kind of interaction isn’t comfortable to all players and we are also considering using fixed camera angles as new locomotion system in the upcoming games (similar to agent A and our previous 2D games) we will do our best to make this change as soon as posible. Thanks for the patience. ### 4/5 — Pretty Good *2022-04-04* Having played most all escape games, I love finding new ones that are well done. This game is a great mix: decent level of difficulty, layered puzzles, decent gameplay. If I had to suggest a few things… An option to reverse the drag direction: on most devices, you pull towards an object, not push to them. And option to pinch back out instead of the back button. And an option not to automatically catalog clues - this takes the fun out of figuring things out. But nice work, I enjoyed it. ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — So glitchy *2024-08-20, version 1.05* Game kept glitching and not storing the items needed to continue. Once the item was not added it was gone and there was no way to get it back. Had to restart the game several times before just giving up. The motion of the game and how you control movement is horrible. ### 1/5 — Not fun and hard to control *2023-10-15* The controls are backwards and while you can swap the horizontal, you can’t swap the vertical, which makes them worse! There are no puzzles just random things you have to find or guess. These are the types of games made by people who think they’re being clever but really aren’t that good because you have to figure out what they were thinking rather than solving a problem. Definitely deleting. ### 1/5 — Disappointing and very short *2023-04-16* Difficult to justify paying for this game, navigation counterintuitive in parts, overall could have been quite good but way too short. ### 1/5 — Problème de son *2022-06-10* Je suis très déçu, je viens de l’acheter (j’avais confiance dans ce studio suite au dernier opus sur PC qui est très bon). Mais il n’y a pas de son ! J’espère que c’est un bug qui sera résolu rapidement, si ce n’est pas le cas j’avoue que c’est très décevant, surtout pour un jeu immersif comme le style Jeu d’Enigme. (Shortly in english : there was no sound when i started to play, so i’m dissapointed, i hope it’s something that will be fixed… because this type of game is really not the same without sound/music) ### 1/5 — Super glitchy *2022-05-20, version 1.04* I got outside the first door without unlocking it. The sliding lock had one of sliders outside the puzzle. I had to restart twice because of the glitches. Really not up to their usual standard. ### 1/5 — Ugh *2022-04-30, version 1.04* I wish I had known that the graphics move the way they do before I spent money on the game. It almost makes me sick when playing ### 1/5 — Frustrated. *2021-11-30* I love these types of games and I was excited to see a new one had come out. The controls are so incredibly frustrating I have deleted the game once and decided to try it again and again find myself wanting to delete it. It’s a bummer because I’m sure they worked hard on it and I’m sure it’s a great game, if the controls would have been normal… ### 1/5 — Glitchy *2021-11-27* Started to like the game but there is a glitch when you put the books in order to get the correct code of Chinese characters from the revealed purple bulb. I watched a walk through, did exactly as was shown and never got the code. Have deleted app and am really disappointed because there was real potential until that point. ### 1/5 — Doesn’t work on iPhone 6 *2021-11-18* The game specs said that it works on my old phone but it doesn’t at all. ☹️ **Developer response:** Hi, ofsizursky, we added support for older devices in the latest version available now in the appstore, just update to version 1.04 and you should be able to play the game in your phone without any problems, we are deeply sorry for this issue. Thanks for playing our games! ### 2/5 — Great until it failed on the revolving bookshelf. *2026-01-03, version 1.0* I was enjoying playing game on my MAC until the revolving bookshelf puzzle. It will not work when I click on the books. Nothing happens when I click them. I know I have the correct clue, but it just won’t accept the answer. I have closed out the game and restarted it. It is updated. This happened with another similar game. It is upsetting to get this far into a game only to find it will not work to allow you to continue to play, especially when you paid for the game. I am giving it one star b/c I can’t finish it. I was planning to buy the games that follow this one, but wuklk ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — 5 Stars *2025-12-25* This game absolutely does not deserve the rating that it has. I understand that the controls are opposite of what we’re normally used to in games like these, and that can be annoying in the beginning until you get used to it, but if you look past the controls, this game is absolutely beautiful. The puzzles are great, the storyline isn’t over-complicated, and I absolutely loved every minute of it. It’s a shame that the rating does not reflect the game-play, but the controls. ### 5/5 — Great Games *2024-01-07* I think this is a great series. I saw the 3.6 review & that seemed extremely harsh. I love games like “The Room” & “House of Da Vinci”; this series definitely falls in that category. My only complaint is that the visual ascetic of the game is dark, which I like, but some of the puzzles can be hard to solve. There isn't enough of a contrasting color to be able to see them well. The only way I could solve the puzzles was to take a screen shot & zoom in to be able to tell what was going on. But that aside, I still like these games! & I really hope they’re going to add more to the series. ### 5/5 — Best Navigation EVER! *2023-01-30* Why all these sub-par reviews? In so very many games the navigation — besides being a labyrinth, having one going back-and-forth so much, that without a cheat sheet one gets dizzy — it’s impossible to remember just where one saw what…. even taking screenshots. This game has the most realistic navigation of getting around ever. It’s like you’re really there, and just walking. One can remember. And it’s simple. There are but two rooms. You turn left or right, walk down the hall, and enter, looking around rooms as if you’re right there! A pure delight. Congrats to the developers. The clue book is handy, too, meaning less screenshots, and one can view and interact at the same time. But some clues didn’t get copied, because I’d needed first to actually touch them? And sometimes a single tap might have been preferable, vs. having to do two. All-in-all, a really fun and interesting time. And thank you for playing for free! So, must review! However, for $3 I won’t purchase the sequel — assuming there’ll be more, too — because $6 or $7, overall, out-of-pocket prices, total, are reserved for purchasing interactive board games I can repeatedly play with friends, or for truly, incredibly superb games, like Myst, where ones gets lost for days on end… Again, the most enjoyable navigation I’ve ever had. While I would pay $.99 for the next puzzle, just for fun, I’m so sorry, as fun as I had, I won’t be continuing onto episode 2. Thanks so very much! Linda PS. The ending scene was my least favorite… ### 5/5 — Excellent Game! *2022-11-28* Beautifully done. Fun, challenging puzzles. Helpful hint system….when needed. Give it a try. You won’t be disappointed. ### 5/5 — Excellent *2022-11-04* I have just completed this game without any hints and found it to be an excellent game. Just love this type of infectious ‘what is round the corner’ type of game. I did not find any glitches but what did disappoint me was the end when the guy sitting in the chair was talking about life and the game suddenly ended without any idea of where it was going next. Going, going,………gone. Still worth 5 stars though. ### 5/5 — Really enjoyed the game *2022-09-19* Looking forward to next episode! Liked the controls. Well earned 5 stars keep it up ### 5/5 — Beautiful and challenging *2022-05-30* Well this surprised me. Amazing value. The way you can move through the rooms is amazingly fluid. The puzzles were challenging and really tested me. I hope the next one comes soon as I’ll snap it up. Fantastic work, no glitches, great puzzler. ### 5/5 — Great game! *2022-03-30, version 1.04* I almost didn’t purchase this game because of the rating and the reviews, and I usually don’t purchase games that don’t have a free trial, but something told me to give it a try, and I’m so glad I did. This game is very under-rated, I loved it. The graphics, the storyline, the puzzles, all great. I do however, wish it was a bit longer, although for the price, I feel like it was adequate. There were a lot of complaints in other reviews about the controls, I didn’t have a problem with the actual controls of the game however I wish they were reversed. Great game, look forward to more by this developer. ### 5/5 — Great fun, and lovely to look at! *2022-03-22* Such fun, puzzles are satisfying. ### 5/5 — 9/10 *2022-02-17* Really good, nice puzzles, and great story, intelligent!!! Keep going --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-09-03.*