I'm playing through all the Mansions of Madness scenarios I own, and reviewing each one as I go. Escape from Innsmouth is the second adventure listed in the app, and it's rated four-stars for difficulty. If you've ever read Lovecraft's Shadow over Innsmouth and thought "that sounds terrifying, I'd love to experience it for myself" then this is the adventure for you. It is the uncanniest game adaptation of a story I've ever played.
This review contains spoilers for both Escape from Innsmouth (the game scenario) and Shadow over Innsmouth (the story by Lovecraft).
My only complaint about the scenario is that it's the second one in the app, and that's after the respectably difficult Cycle of Eternity. Had I played through just the default adventures with no expansions, I think I'd have sold my Mansions of Madness box after a few game sessions. There's no introductory scenario, which is baffling to me because expansions that came later have adventures that would be perfect introductory material.
In this case, what's bad for the new player is great for the experienced player looking for a challenge. Escape from Innsmouth is difficult, stressful, creepy, and really big. I've played it at least 4 times and I'm pretty sure I haven't explored everything, and I'm equally unsure that I've really beaten it strictly by the rules. And I wouldn't hesitate to play it again!
The plot of the adventure is basically the end scenario of Shadow over Innsmouth. In the story, the narrator is stranded in Innsmouth and books into a hotel. Unable to sleep due to the unsettling glares he's been getting all over town, the narrator waits anxiously for the dawn. The latch has been removed from his hotel door, so he busies himself by repairing it, and sure enough in the middle of the night someone tries to get into his room. This triggers one of the most harrowing chase scenes you'll ever read, with the narrator frantically breaking down adjoining doors, jumping out of windows, ducking from shadow to shadow out on the street, and generally running for his very life.
The game doesn't retell the scenario exactly, but broadly it's the same story. You start in a hotel room, and quickly become the target of an angry mob of locals, Deep Ones, and Deep One Hybrids. Almost the entirety of Innsmouth is out to get you, and it's up to you to escape.
But there are lots of complications. There are false leads, there are dead ends, there are diversions and traps. The game board never seems to end.
Don't misunderstand my enthusiasm. This isn't an adventure for everyone. If you want to play a paranormal detective and solve mildly disquieting mysteries, this isn't the scenario for you. This is a chase scene you can barely outrun, a fight you can't win. It's not necessarily always a fun adventure. It's actually genuinely stressful, and sometimes frustrating. You think you understand what you need to do to escape, but then you hit a wall, or else a mob crowds into your space and attacks you. Again.
I've had not just one serious game crises during this adventure, as I try to resolve my frustration with the app for not being flexible, the adventure for not being clear, and actual real life for sometimes also being not flexible and not clear. Is the adventure frustrating because it's a game? Or is it frustrating because it's too close to real life?
These are the kinds of questions you find yourself asking as you try to Escape from Innsmouth, and it's positively the most Lovecraftian experience you're likely to have.