Photo above is property of Bluefish Games Company: Bluefish Games Game: The Case of the Curiously Correct Blueprints Country: USA 🇺🇸 Language: English Type of Game: Tabletop Game 📬 Genre: Comedic M ystery Date Played: March 1, 2025 Difficulty (based on 2 players): 5/10 Size of Team: 1+ players (Ages 14+) Time: Unlimited (Approx. 2-4 Hrs) Price: $39.00 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 The SHhhh, We're Reading Book Club in Hincksville is abuzz with excitement…and it’s your turn to read the hotly anticipated new Ells and Ernie mystery! But tragedy (or at least mild inconvenience) strikes: your copy has taken a dive into a vat of candy. Luckily, the ever-resourceful Mr. Hincks has concocted a plan to save the day! He’s recorded an abridged version of the book, supplemented with some peculiar “reference materials” to help you reconstruct the mystery before the book club meeting. But there’s a twist…book club rules say no spoilers allowed! How can he retell the story without giving away its biggest surprises? With his cryptic reference materials to guide you to resolve each of the book’s cliffhangers, Mr. Hincks has set the stage for a delightfully tangled literary adventure. Can you unlock all the audiobook segments and piece together the story before the club convenes? 🆃🅷🅴 ❞🅻🅾🅾🅺🆂❞ From the moment you lay eyes on the box, it’s clear that the signature Bluefish Games whimsy is in full effect. Playful flavor text sets the mood before you even start, and the design stays true to the signature Hincks aesthetic: bright, clean, and full of charm. This is primarily a paper-based game, with high-quality printed materials that make the experience feel polished. You also receive a keepsake pen and bookmark (perfect for preparing for your next book club meeting!). Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers 🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈 The unusual game structure alternates between audio segments (3-12 minutes each) that end in a half-finished cliffhanger sentence and an envelope of puzzles you solve to discover the end of that sentence. The playful tone throughout is what you’d expect from Bluefish. You'll need internet access to listen to the audio clips and check your answers. While there are audio transcripts provided, trust us, you want to listen! The voice acting is top-notch, delivering just the right balance of humor, mystery, and theatrical flair. The narrative itself is a joy, full of Hincksian absurdity, though it’s more of a delightful bonus (and adds a deductive mystery component). The content itself isn’t required for solving the puzzles though the structure of the final cliffhanger sentence can be helpful. Overall, though, no need to take notes during these interludes - just sit back and enjoy the story! Each of the five envelopes is packed with multiple “reference pages” that ultimately lead to a single answer. Since every envelope is self-contained, you can pause between sections… in theory. In practice, we found ourselves saying, just one more envelope! Each section takes about 30-45 minutes, but the format makes it easy to play at your own pace. You’re specifically provided with a place to record your answers for each of the five envelopes, leading us to expect a final meta puzzle…but, alas, no. (Unless we have somehow missed it…) Mr. Hincks left us wanting more (as usual). You can play without destroying anything, so the game can then be shared with others. Photo above is property of ESCAPETHEROOMers 🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂 No big “reveals” or 3D elements here…this game is all about clever wordplay, lateral thinking, and some well-placed logic. It’s a pure paper puzzling experience, but one packed with variety. As is typical for Bluefish, the puzzles are also clearly very well play-tested, cleanly designed, and well signposted. We didn’t always know what to do immediately, but we were always sure once we had it! They are self-contained, without need for outside knowledge. Within each envelope, some puzzles do build off of others. So, if one puzzle has you stumped, try another! That one might provide the info you need for the first. However, each envelope in all stands alone. We didn’t need any hints (though one puzzle did require an overnight break), but we checked out the hint system after the fact and it provides well-structured, tiered hints, with full solutions available if needed. While the game is very approachable for enthusiasts (with perhaps easy to moderate difficulty levels), it’s not necessarily the best starting point for absolute beginners. If you haven’t yet played The Curious Elevator of Mr. Hincks, we’d recommend starting there. Photo above is property of Bluefish Games 🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂 Bluefish Games continues to prove why they’re one of our favorite puzzle companies. Their clever, clean puzzles are top-tier, their humor is refreshing, and they know exactly how to craft an experience that feels fresh, fun, and delightfully quirky. This light-hearted game is packed with wordplay and that signature Hincks charm, while adding in the novel audiobook and deduction elements. While The Curious Elevator of Mr. Hincks still holds the top Bluefish spot in our hearts, this was another great time in Hincks universe. Best suited for puzzle lovers rather than those looking for elaborate reveals, ephemera, or 3D puzzles, it’s a perfect date-night activity and also family-friendly for older kids. Did we want more? Always. Did we laugh and grin our way through every moment? Absolutely. Highly recommended for anyone who loves their puzzles with a side of whimsy. Check out our interview with the creators to understand more on the development side of these game: (If you do decide to try this game, give us a shoutout or tag us on social media so we know you heard it from " ESCAPETHEROOMers "!) Disclosure : We thank Bluefish Games for providing us with a sample of their game. Although a complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever. #KristaJones #AtHomeGames #TabletopGames #PuzzlesByMail #SubscriptionGames #Comedy #Mystery #BluefishGames #USA

Company: Bluefish Games Game: The Hincks Gazette - Boxed Set #1 (Vol. 1, Issues 2-6) Country: USA 🇺🇸 Language: English Type of Game: Tabletop Game 📬 Genre: M ystery Date Played: May 15, 2022 Difficulty (based on 2 players): 6/10 Size of Team: 1-2 ppl (Recommended) Time: Unlimited (Approx. 1-2 Hrs/ per issue) Price: $49.00 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 After having so much fun with the first issue (" The Curious Elevator of Mr. Hincks "), we were eager to get into this Gazette set. Each newsletter has a different story that happened in the town of Hicksville ranging from a talking plant to a space dinosaur. There are puzzles embedded within the articles and images. You'll need to figure them out in order to solve the final puzzle. 🆃🅷🅴 ❞🅻🅾🅾🅺🆂❞ The newspapers are printed on quality paper that doesn't tear easily and the fonts are also very clear and easy to read. The creators were really thoughtful and included two copies in each issue so that if you're playing with someone else, you don't have to fight over the issue. It also helped during the puzzle solving process as we didn't have to flip back and forth when a puzzle needed information from the front and back. In the box you'll also find some additional bonus items like a sticker, a pencil and a super cute pin! Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers 🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈 If you read through the paper carefully, you'll pick up subtle hints on where you should START. Although at times, we picked up hints that looked like clues and sometime solved a puzzle without following the path (it's probably best to do it the linear way). At times, we found that if we skipped the first puzzle and came back to it, the solution was useless at that point as it was actually giving us a hint on where to go next. If you're an experienced solver, you might run into this issue. But if you're just starting out, definitely follow the breadcrumbs that the creators are leaving for you and discover the surprises along the way. I loved that the clues and puzzles were embedded both in text and images. It was nice to be able to utilize them simultaneously in solving certain puzzles. NOTE: Each issue will only be asking you for one final answer which is just a word. You can't check the midpoint solutions but if you didn't get it right, you won't know what the next step is anyways. At this point you probably should just resort to the hint section. Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers 🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂 Each of the issues had an average of 3-5 puzzles (pending on if you count some of the mini ones). Some we were able to solve in a single step and others were more challenging and required multiple steps. I love the fact that each issue mixed in a variety of puzzles. This is a great way for beginners to see all the different types of puzzles in one place. Some of our favorite ones consisted of word play, morse code, trivia, caeser shift, phonetic, math (don't be scared, it's not High School level, I promise), nonogram, etc. On average, we spent about 40-60 minutes on one issue. Of course it'll depend on if you use hints or not as well. But this is definitely our type of game as we love a quick brain exercise after a busy day of work but it won't drag on into the middle of the night either. Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers 🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂 One of my favorite things about this game is the humor in the storyline. Most of the people will hear gazette and think, "Oh my god, there's going to be so much reading"! But these gazettes were really enjoyable to read. Some of the puns in them really made us laugh out loud. Plus the topics were really intriguing. Who doesn't want to know more about a talking plant or trained carrier quails? And to add icing to the cake, if you're ever the first to solve their secret puzzle that they send out by email ( you'll need to sign up ), your name will appear in one of these gazettes! Whether you're a puzzle master or just starting out, I promise you this is going to be a fun adventure that will leave you wanting more. Good news is that "The Hincks Gazette Boxed Set #2 (Vol. 1, Issues 7-12)" is in the works and we can't wait to get them and hopefully it'll be delivered by the Hinksville quails! Check out our interview with the creators to understand more on the development side of these game: (If you do decide to try this game, give us a shoutout or tag us on social media so we know you heard it from " ESCAPETHEROOMers "!) Disclosure : We thank Bluefish Games for providing us with a sample of their game. Although a complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever. #CiciCao #AtHomeGames #TabletopGames #PuzzlesByMail #SubscriptionGames #Mystery #BluefishGames #USA

Company :    Bluefish Games Game :   The Curious Stairs of Mr. Hincks Language :    English Country :   USA 🇺🇸 Type of Game :    Puzzles By Mail 📬 Genre :    Fun, Adventure Time :    Unlimited Size of Team :    Unlimited Date Played :     August 15, 2020 Price :    $17.00 Yippee! We've longed for another game from Bluefish Games after playing their " The Curious Elevator of Mr. Hincks " and now it's finally here! "The Curious Stairs of Mr. Hincks" is a prequel to "The Curious Elevator of Mr. Hincks" but you can play them in any order since there's no actual story or puzzle connection with each other. We're always mesmerized by the contents in their puzzle boxes. This one was no different. They are always very vibrant in color with many types of clue/info pieces for us to discover. More importantly, there's always going to be something in there that'll make you wonder: "What's this for?" We love how they are able use a simple "tool" like paper (in various forms like cardboard, newspaper, flyers, etc.) to convey their messages and to create unexpected "wow" moments for the players. This puzzle box had the same instructions as the elevator game. There's an online portal that you'll be able to enter solutions and receive hints on. Since the goal is to climb your way to the Hincks Hall of Fame, a password is required to pass each level of the stairs. This makes each puzzle on each stair level seem like their own mini puzzle. We quite like this type of game design. In this game, you'll encounter a pizza store, video game, "magic", and perhaps even some origami? the game design is very clean and has a nice flow to it. It keeps the energy of the players going since every a puzzle was completed, a new portal will open up and all the puzzles/story in the next level are all fresh material. As escape room enthusiasts first, our mentality for difficult puzzles/ciphers are probably not on the same level as some hardcore puzzlers out there. Bluefish games' puzzle designs give us that vibe of playing an escape room in their game through association of clues, searching, and finally putting everything together for that final victory moment. If you are looking to get a feel on Bluefish Games', you might want to start with this one first since there are less puzzles and you can familiarize the rules of the game. This doesn't mean that this is the easier game, (we actually felt that this was the more difficult one) it'll just act as the lure that'll instantly make you want to purchase their stair game after. Now that we're done with the stairs, we are back to longing again...Bluefish Games, please take me to "escalator" soon! Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers Check out our interview with the creators to understand more on the development side of the game: (If you do decide to try this book, please remember to let them know that you heard it from" ESCAPETHEROOMers "!) Disclosure : We thank Bluefish Games for providing us with samples of their game. Although complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever. #CiciCao #AtHomeGames #TabletopGames #PuzzlesByMail # BluefishGames #TheCuriousStairsofMrHincks #Fun #Adventure #USA

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Escape room reviews in Solothurn, Switzerland! solothurn

Reviews on the BEST Escape Rooms in Switzerland! SWITZERLAND 🇨🇭 BERN CHARRAT GENEVA LUTERBACH RUMLANG SOLOTHURN ZURICH BIEL DIETIKON KLOTEN LUZERN SCHOFTLAND ST. GALLEN BULACH FRIBOURG LAUSANNE OFTRINGEN SION WINTERTHUR