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Photo above is property of Sultans of Solve Company: Sultans of Solve Game: The Clock Winder Country: USA 🇺🇸 Language: English Type of Game: Puzzles By Mail 📬 Genre: Detective, Crime Date Played: July 31, 2021 Difficulty (based on 2 players): 5/10 Size of Team: Unlimited Time: Unlimited Price: $39.00 (Refill pack $3.50) 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 Recently, you've received another tough case at the Knights of Veracity Agency. This time Detective Dexter Banks of Oaks Hollow Police Department said that the serial killer has requested your name in particular. If you can't catch him after the 7th murder, he'll run free again. This might be your last chance to put him behind bars! 🆃🅷🅴 ❞🅻🅾🅾🅺🆂❞ The Clock Winder came in a cardboard box with a cool hand drawn art that kind of looks like the killer is mocking us. Inside you'll find a intro letter, backstory letter, letter from the killer, a business card and 9 sealed envelopes. Photos above are properties of ESCAPETHEROOMers 🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈 This game really reminded us of rules we would use in an escape room. Think of each sealed envelope as a locked up room. The "toolbox" envelope contains common items that you might have to combine and use with other items in the sealed envelopes. You will only need to use an item once so being organized really helps in this game. Each puzzle solution will essentially give you a potential location where the killer buried the victim's body. If you think you got the right answer, scan the QR code on the envelope, enter your solution on the website to check if you are allowed to investigate further. Each location also came with a backstory. We actually took very good notes of the victims' names, cause of death and additional crime scene info. Although there was no meta puzzle embedded, it still made us feel like true detectives. Photos above are properties of ESCAPETHEROOMers 🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂 Each envelope contains a different type of puzzle. They are not too difficult for pro puzzlers but they are super fun. You'll encounter ciphers, word play, Math, directions and some simple search and finds. The creator's thought process was very clear and straight forward. We had a very easy time following through with the puzzles. Because the storyline is time sensitive and the narrative really bought out the fact that perhaps the killer will leave more evidence for you at the next location, it really kept us wanting to keep going from one envelope to the next. This was a very clever idea of having the narrative push the urgency of time and not having the players take out a stop watch to time themselves as that sometimes takes away some of the immersion. A lot of the puzzles will need you to write on them or cut out materials so if you are thinking of regifting this game, definitely buy the refill pack. Photos above are properties of ESCAPETHEROOMers 🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂 Hello Detective, want to play a game? Right away, this game gave us a "Saw" type of feel. You would think because it's a serial killer game, it might be quite gory but the bloody handprint is probably the most grotesque thing you'll see in the game. This serial killer is clearly taunting the officials and think that he/she will never be caught. By outsmarting the killer's riddles, we got closer and closer to the finish line. Are we really at the finish line though? Just like any good movie, you'll have to wait for the sequel! Check out our interview with the creators to understand more on the development side of the game: Video above is property of ESCAPETHEROOMers (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 Sultans of Solve 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 #PuzzleByMail #Mystery #MurderMystery #USA #SultansofSolve #OneOffs #BehindTheMasterMinds

Above photo is property of ESCAPETHEROOMers Company: ThinkFun Country: USA 🇺🇸 Language: English Type of Game: Puzzles By Mail 📬 Date Played: 6/5/2021 Genre: Detective, Mystery Size of Team: Unlimited (Ages 14+) Time: Unlimited (Suggested 60-120min) Price: $14.99 Above video has been provided by ThinkFun 🆃🅷🅴 ❞🅻🅾🅾🅺🆂❞ The "ThinkFun Cold Case Series" came in a glossy flip up box. It's quite easy to repackage with this type of design. Inside, you'll find an intro letter that explains the backstory and a checklist of the enclosed documents. The documents came in text and image formats and are contained inside a file folder. "A Story to Die for" had 17 documents and "A Pinch of Murder" had 30 documents. 🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈 After reading the intro letter, you'll know what website to go to to submit your final verdicts. By reading and searching through the provided documents and evidences, you'll need to come up with who's the killer, why did they do it, and how were they able to complete the crime. Each document is labeled with a number. You can use this to check back with the checklist to see if there's anything. We read the documents by the order of the item list but there's really no need to do that as they are all individual documents and you can read them in any order. I did feel that reading the items in order made the game flow really smooth. Perhaps a little too smooth. The order in which the characters or a certain mentioned item appears to align with the order that the items were already placed in. This made the game feel easier to solve. I think I would've enjoyed more if the items were not numbered so I could piece the mystery together myself rather than reading it like a mystery novel. The submission of the answers at the end was by multiple choice style. If you submit the wrong culprit, you'll just need to reselect again (Essentially you can brute force and guess the answer. But what's the fun in that?). If you submit the right answer, you'll get an explanation from the criminal on why he/she decided to commit this act at the first place. 🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂 There's no real puzzles in these games. This is designed to replicate real life detective work. You'll be finding lies in alibis and details in evidence photos in order to piece the stories together to reveal the truth. You'll have to use a lot of deductive reasoning and scrutinize the details. A Story to Die For A Pinch of Murder Game: Cold Case: A Story to Die for Difficulty (based on 2 adult players): 3/10 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 Andrew Bailey was killed on a Friday morning at Finden Hall Woods. No one knew what happened to this young journalist. What trouble did he put himself into that would cost his life? Game: Cold Case: A Pinch of Murder Difficulty (based on 2 adult players): 3/10 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 Harold was a lovely religious man living alone in his home in Melmbury. On one Saturday afternoon, he didn't show up to church. Later on, he was discovered dead on his kitchen floor. Who would want to murder an old man in his 80s that's well respected in the community? 🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂 There's a lot of details that went into making the Cold Case Series. You'll get character photos, floor plans, detailed alibis, autopsy reports, and other items that police or detective would have collected at a crime scene. It was easy to relate and paint the story in our heads through these provided documents. For me the game felt more like a murder mystery novel than a puzzle game as there's not much physical puzzles or ciphers that you'll need to reveal. Everything is shown in plain text through the documents. You'll just have to use your sharp detective skills to find the details hidden in the evidences. It really reminded me to episodes I was watching on Criminal Minds or CSI. For players who likes to read, you'll enjoy a well written narrative. For players looking for puzzles to solve, this might not be the right game for you. A Story to Die for A Pinch of Murder (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 ThinkFun 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. #ESCAPETHEROOMers #BehindTheMasterMinds #ThinkFun #ColdCase #APinchofMurder #AStoryToDieFor #Detective #PuzzleNovel #PuzzleBook #history #puzzlesathome #PuzzlesByMail #mystery #puzzles #solve

Above photo was provided by Extraordinary Investigations Company: Extraordinary Investigations Country: United Kingdom 🇬🇧 Language: English Type of Game: Puzzles By Mail 📬 Date Played: 6/3/2021 Genre: Detective, Mystery Size of Team: Unlimited Time: Unlimited Price: $17.99 🆃🅷🅴 ❞🅻🅾🅾🅺🆂❞ We received both books via Amazon. They were delivered in a well packaged cardboard box. The covers of the books have a nice glossy finish. Inside you'll find various information in images and text format regarding each of the cases. 🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈 Both of the books by Extraordinary Investigations were designed in the same format. You'll get a detailed intro on how you could approach this puzzle book right at the beginning. "The Morgan File" had 6 files (chapters) and "The Midas Project" had 5 files. Each file had about 5-7 questions. You had to solve puzzles, search the internet or find the answers in the book. If you get stuck, there's a 3 step nudging hint system in the back of the book. If you still can't solve it, there's a encrypted solution sheet that was well made to avoid spoilers. The final question (for both of the books) will not have a solution. You'll probably need to either email the creator or get help from other players online. You can solve the mystery by the "questions-only" way which would be to find the answers and input them in the automated chatbot system on their website. This would be the quicker way to play the game as the chatbot serves as an awesome guide in terms of informing you on what you'll need to look at next. You can also choose to play "wider search" mode which will require more reading. There's a lot of real history behind these stories and you can easily get drawn into the storyline itself. Since we had limited time in our hands, we played it the "questions-only" way. Each file contained various puzzles and information that you could essentially solve in a non-linear way. But because it's a book, we weren't able to divide and conquer. I guess some players could take screen shots of various pages and solve the puzzles separately that way. We read through all the information in each file first before we went back to the puzzles. This really helped us in associating what information went with what question. Of course when we saw things we were able to decipher, we immediately stopped everything and solved those first. One thing we had to constantly remind ourselves with this game is that if there's something we're not able to find in the book, we had to resort the solution to the internet. 🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂 When I first started playing "The Morgan File", I thought I was going to fly through the puzzles! Don't be fooled as those were just warm ups. The level of difficulty drastically increases as you get through the files. Your ultimate test is the ending puzzle. There's no solution so you'll probably need to bribe the creator or befriend some smarties. The puzzles were really well-thought-out to go along with the storyline. In "The Morgan File", there were a lot of wartime reference, foreign language usage, decoding secret Morse code messages, finding out hidden locations etc. "The Midas Project" had more Alchemy references along with Math and coding. Each of them were really different and we liked the variations we saw from the two books. Not all of the answers to the questions will be puzzles. Some were purely internet research and some were merely finding the information through reading the books. At times we definitely over thought some puzzles that were simply right in front of our eyes. But some were really tough and will definitely take patience and time. If anyone has solved the last questions. please contact us. Game: The Morgan File Difficulty (based on 2 adult players): 8.5/10 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 Louis Morgan had gone missing since May 2016. The police still cannot crack this case. You've just received all the evidence they've collected from his apartment. Hopefully you'll find something that they've missed? Game: The Midas Project Difficulty (based on 2 adult players): 8/10 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 In December of 2004, some pieces associated with John Dee has been stolen from the Science Museum. The police believe the culprit was Jonathan Valentine-Andrews. The strange thing is the items have been returned after the robbery. Johnathan had recently passed away and you were given the items collected from his apartment. Could you figure out why he did such a strange thing? 🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂 This is a puzzle book series based on the fact that we're agents of XIU, a less-known agency of the UK government founded by Churchill back in 1910. Our missions were to solve these difficult unsolved cases from years ago. Each case seem to be something quite peculiar at the beginning but as you go through many twists and turns (that you'll only able to discover once you solve the puzzles and enter the correct answers), the ending were always eye-openers. Each file gave us more clues that would lead to more reveals. It was very satisfying when we're able to solve the puzzles one after another at the beginning. You'll definitely get stumped and probably need some patience to work through the rest of the files. If you love history and reading, you'll really enjoy many parts of this experience. Let us know if you have the endurance to crack the case or did you leave it unsolved? 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"!) The Morgan File The Midas Project Disclosure: We thank Extraordinary Investigations 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. #ESCAPETHEROOMers #BehindTheMasterMinds #ExtraordinaryInvestigations #TheMorganFile #TheMidasProject #Detective #PuzzleNovel #PuzzleBook #history #puzzlesathome #PuzzlesByMail #mystery #puzzles #solve

Photo above is property of Epic Escapes Company: Epic Escapes Game: The Murderous Scallywag Country: United Kingdom 🇬🇧 Language: English Type of Game: DIY Escape Kits 🖨️✂ Genre: Detective, Mystery Date Played: April 23, 2022 Difficulty (based on 3 players): 7/10 Size of Team: 1-6 Players Time: 60 Minutes Price: £14.97 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 The year is 1902, and you have captured the notorious murderer, David “Scallywag” Wallis. With only an hour left to hold him without cause, your team of detectives find out that all the evidence you need to put him away is hidden in a safe, in a secret location. Find out where the treasures he pinches from his victims are kept, and the correct code to unlock his safe, and put an end to this murderer’s reign of terror. 🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈 The gameplay is a hybrid structure where the majority of the puzzle are presented through a Print-N-Play PDF. After which, players go to a specific site to confirm their answers. Hints (encoded, no less!) and the final solutions for those who are truly stuck, are also available for download. "The Murderous Scallywag" is recommended for an hour’s play, with a team of 1-6 players. Having a gamemaster take charge of the documents and puzzle clues is optional. Our team played without a gamemaster or printing the PDF. This game was a bit of a learning curve for us considering how the clues given were all directed to just the final code. At the same time, the fact that clue components were separated to significantly different pages required a good amount of pattern recognition to put the puzzle pieces together. Despite this, all the puzzles did not require much of a stretch to solve once the patterns were put together. Therefore, have patience - everything you need is truly in the evidence given itself. And if you get lost, the final page reminds you of your destination, so that you can concentrate on your final mission. 🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂 The puzzles involved a great deal of pattern recognition - first putting similar pages together to figure out your clue to a part of your final answer, then figuring out this part of the final answer. As there are no other guiding clues in between the puzzle pieces, do not be afraid to consult the hints - which I really appreciate being encoded to alleviate accidental viewings or spoilers as well! Photos above are property of Epic Escapes 🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂 One of the aspects that I truly appreciated about this game was how self-contained it was - no need for decoders, Google searches, or prior knowledge of general knowledge. In this case, it’s quite comforting knowing that everything you need to complete your mission is already in the box. Therefore, if you are looking for a game that needs no prior external knowledge or knowledge of ciphers but also presents a challenge, do give this game a try. Good luck and may you finally get to nail "The Murderous Scallywag". (If you do decide to try this experience, give us a shoutout or tag us on social media so we know you heard it from "ESCAPETHEROOMers"!) Disclosure: We thank Epic Escapes 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. #JoelynAlexandra #AtHomeGames #DigitalGames #PrintNCut #Mystery #Detective #EpicEscapes #UK

Photo above is property of Epic Escapes Company: Epic Escapes Game: Escape Room In A Box (3 in 1): Hijack, Piracy, Crime Country: United Kingdom 🇬🇧 Language: English Type of Game: Puzzles By Mail 📬 Genre: Thriller, Adventure, Detective Date Played: May 2, 2021 Difficulty (based on 2 players): 3/10 Size of Team: Unlimited (Recommended size 3-6 Players) Time: Unlimited Price: £99.00 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 Crime - You're house-sitting for a friend and all was going well until a group of angry people started banging on your door in the middle of the night. To your surprise, your friend actually has a panic room! You try to get out of there after the mob had left but discovered that you've been locked in. You have 60 minutes to figure out the code before the room runs out of oxygen... Piracy - You're a worker on an oil tanker. You soon realize that your usual captain had gone missing and the new captain is taking you guys on a different course! You have 60 minutes to escape the locked crew quarters as it'll be too late when the ship reaches the port... Hijack - You've just received intel that somewhere in the world a plane is going to be hijacked. Your team has discovered the hijacker's house and all hope is on you now to discover the targeted plane and to save the passengers. Check out our spoiler free unboxing video below: Video above is property of ESCAPETHEROOMers 🆃🅷🅴 ❞🅻🅾🅾🅺🆂❞ Epic Escapes uses high quality yet eco friendly material for all of their packaging. They are recyclable and biodegradable. In the box you'll receive 3 large black envelopes with puzzle materials for each storyline, 2 wood boxes (that you can lock up), 1 heavy duty door padlock, 1 book safe, 1 black light, 2 pencils with sharpener, and three 3 digit locks. Photos above are property of Epic Escapes 🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈 There are some DIY escape rooms that have options of allowing you to play at your desk or set up the puzzles around the room. This is not one of them. You'll definitely need a game host for all of the games and all the components of the puzzles, hidden clues and passcodes must be set up in advance for the other players. Each game pack comes with a very detailed check list, game set up, hint cards, and game master instructions (with solutions explanation). You'll then need to use the provided lock mechanisms to hide the clues in various places in the household. 🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂 Since this box provided 3 games with 3 different levels of difficulty (Crime - Easy, Piracy - Intermediate, Hijack - Hard), we started from the easiest game and went up from there. The first two games were pretty effortless. I think for a more advanced puzzler group, you can even consider setting up 2 games back to back. Both of those games had 4 puzzles in total and could be used for beginners who's trying to get familiar with various decoders and ciphers. Hijack had 4 puzzles plus 2 tactile puzzles which took some more time for us to complete. This game is more suitable for enthusiasts in our opinion. There were more logic and deduction puzzles used here (even a sudoku!) Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers 🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂 I'm always trying to think of how to make an escape room at home for my other half but I don't know where to start. The instructions that came with this box made it so easy for me to follow. It made me feel like a real game master at an escape room for once. They really thought of everything. The great thing about this game is it's replayable (send them an email if you need replacement parts) and it's reusability (there were instructions on how to reset the locks so you can use it for other games). If you still can't master escape room design after these three games, you can check out their Expansion Packs (coming soon) for £29 each. As long as you have the items from this box, you can keep hosting your own escape rooms at home. I love the concept of replayability and waste prevention for the environment. It's rare to see creators take these two items into consideration when designing games. From an enthusiasts' perspective, an IRL escape room normally has about 9-10 puzzles on average per game. I like to see a bit more puzzles added to these as it felt like the set up time was longer than the puzzle solving time. For beginners, it's perfect if you like to get a feel of what an escape room is like before booking a IRL experience. What's there to lose? They offer a 100 day satisfaction guarantee program (see their website for more details) in case you didn't enjoy the game. (If you do decide to try this experience, give us a shoutout or tag us on social media so we know you heard it from "ESCAPETHEROOMers"!) Disclosure: We thank Epic Escapes 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 #EpicEscapes #EscapeRoomInABox #Hijack #Piracy #Crime #DIY #TableTopGames #puzzlesathome #PuzzlesByMail #Adventure

Some Photos were provided by Escape Notice Games Company: Escape Notice Games Game: Stolen At Sea Country: USA 🇺🇸 Language: English Type of Game: Puzzles By Mail 📬 Genre: Adventure Date Played: 3/3/2021 Difficulty (based on 2 players): 4/10 Size of Team: 2-6 Players (Suggested), Ages 14+ Time: 60 Minutes Price: $75.00 (Add "Stolen at Sea" FUN PACK +$38.00) / (Add Gift Wrap +$5.00) 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 It is the year 1923. You are passengers on the RMS Aquitania. During this relaxing cruise, a theft happened in the first class cabin. The MI6 officers are asking for your assistance in this investigation. Hopefully you can catch the thief quickly so you can continue to enjoy this amazing vacation. 🆃🅷🅴 ❞🅻🅾🅾🅺🆂❞ "Stolen at Sea" came in a beautiful cardboard box with a red bowtie and a key. Inside you'll find instructions to "how to play the game" and "how to reset the game". You'll also receive a game material check list and a solution sheet. There's a marker and an envelope that's marked "Open this envelope first" and some other clue papers. Finally, there are 3 canvas bags with locks on them. 🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈 At first glance you might be overwhelmed by the materials in this box but the creators did a great job with organizing everything for the players. If you read the instructions clearly, you'll know to only use each item once (except for the travel guide). The Instructions clearly tells you how to open each of the canvas bags. For each bag, you'll discover 3 missing passengers. Each passenger has a puzzle that'll provide you with a single digit. Once you put all three together, you'll be able to solve a lock on a bag. This method will repeat until you solve the last bag. You can play this game two ways. The classic way is to just play it on a tabletop. Or you can spice it up and play it like an escape room. You can hide puzzles around the house and set a timer for 60 minutes. Our review is based on the classic play. Hint cards are available in the envelope marked "MI6 Intelligence Cards". These are nudging hints but if you still need more assistance, you can check the "solutions" sheet. We feel like the solution sheet should've probably been hidden in another envelope. Since the colors are the same as the check list and instruction sheet, we mistakenly glanced at it at the beginning of the game. So make sure you don't make the same mistake. One thing we enjoyed about this game is that no internet was needed. If you were actually on a cruise vacation, you could totally play this game at sea. The creators also did a great job with making it really easy for the players to pass this game as a gift to friends and family. The reset instructions are very easy to follow and the marker and laminated pages makes it convenient to wipe off answers to puzzles that we've solved. 🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂 Maybe because of our "escape room" background but the logic connection behind this game just made a lot of sense to us. Each item and code are to be used only once is something we're very use to in escape rooms. Every time we've used an item, we'll put it on the side. We would also collect all the evidence relating to a certain character as they presented themselves. The puzzles were on the easy side for enthusiasts. The attention to detail on the props were nicely done. Sometimes we felt like it's a bit "wasteful" to use some of the props on just one puzzle but we appreciate the creators wanting to make the storytelling as real as possible. If your not familiar with basic ciphers, decoding, "search and find", simple Math type of puzzles, then this game is a great place to start! 🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂 Since we are fans of cruising ourselves, it was great to see that they've gotten everything down on what you'll normally encounter on a cruise. The seating chart, the daily guide with activities, port information, trolley maps with excursions were all very informative. In each puzzle that you solve, you'll also get a little backstory that connected the characters together. The ending was very conclusive as well and gave us a satisfying "trophy" as keepsake. Thank you for taking us on a lovely virtual cruise! Check out our interview with the creators to understand more on the development side of these game: *** We regret to inform this company has closed its doors *** Disclosure: We thank Escape Notice 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. #ESCAPETHEROOMers #EscapeNoticeGames #StolenAtSea #TableTopGame #puzzlesathome #PuzzlesByMail #adventure #mystery #solve

Some Photos were provided by Plankton Games Company: Plankton Games Country: USA 🇺🇸 Language: English Type of Game: Puzzles By Mail 📬 Genre: Mystery Date Played: 2/20/2021 Difficulty (based on 2 players): 8/10 Size of Team: Unlimited (Suggested 1-6 players), Ages 13+ Time: 1-3 Hours (Approximately) Price: $14.99 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 Dr. Esker mysteriously disappeared. The only clues he's left for you are in these decks of cards. Will you stand up to his challenge and maybe find his whereabouts? 🆃🅷🅴 ❞🅻🅾🅾🅺🆂❞ Inside the card box, you'll find a hint card (with a web address and a QR code), an instruction card, a quick start card, a score card, 10 solution cards, and 58 puzzle cards. 🆃🅷🅴 ❞🅻🅾🅾🅺🆂❞ Inside the card box, you'll find a hint card (with a web address and a QR code), an instruction card, a quick start card, a score card, 10 solution cards, and 59 puzzle cards. 🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈 Follow the instruction and start by setting up the cards. Make sure to put the cards face down (notebook side should face down) and group them by the images in the back. There should be nine sets (Son of Doctor Esker's Notebook has 10 sets). Place all 10 solution cards separately with the question marks facing up. Begin with the puzzle set that has "Start" printed in the back of the cards. Each puzzle set will have different amount of cards that will be used. It could be anywhere between 4-12 cards. Solutions will always be in digits format ranging from 2-5 digits per puzzle set. Once you think you got the right answer, flip over those digits on the solution cards. If you answered correctly, the cards should give you a clear indication on which puzzle set to solve next. Make sure you put the solutions in the correct order or else you may have to rearrange them in order to see the answer clearly. If you get stuck (and you probably will...), there are hints on the website. Some hints come with a final solution and some just leaves you with a final clue. If you still can't figure out the solution, the hints are actually placed in the order of the puzzle that you'll need to solve. You might just have to work backwards and find those solution cards relevant to that puzzle set in order to see the final solution. You can play this game alone or with friends. We played it as two people and it seemed to be the right combination. We would take turns to look at various puzzles and then discuss our thought process afterwards. I think playing this game with too many people would make it harder since some puzzles would be hard to visualize if players continuously take cards to their possession. Some puzzles needs to be "connected" in order to see the bigger picture. All the card decks are stand-alone games so there's no need to play the original and then play the sequel. You can play them in any order you like. Although your second game will most likely be "easier" once you understand the puzzle process. 🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂 At first glance, I thought this was going to be a quick game since there's not much reading involved and the drawings reminded me of my kindergarten days. Once we started our first puzzle set, I knew immediately that it was time for my cup of coffee. If you're able to spot the theme of the puzzle right away then that puzzle should be a breeze for you. Some puzzles used word play and photos that was quite difficult to interpret. We wouldn't be able to solve it without the help of hints. We did have to Google a few times as well on some of the puzzles that required us to recognize a person or an object. If you enjoy Math, then you'll be in for a treat! The final puzzle was a delightful surprise of a combination of deduction, Math and logic. 🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂 This is definitely a game for more experienced puzzlers. If you enjoy word play, there's plenty in this game. I would advise taking hints as it could get frustrating if you start to stare at these cards for too long. The solution cards are like another puzzle on its own. We've seen these solution cards used in tabletop games before but not like this. It's a really clever way to reveal the next step. We can't imagine how the creator was able to design 10 separate cards to reveal 9-10 solutions that's out of sequence. Remember to make that cup of coffee or pour a glass of wine before you get started with this game! Doctor Esker's Notebook Son of Doctor Esker's Notebook (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 Plankton 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. #ESCAPETHEROOMers #AtHomeGames #EscapeRooms #PlanktonGames #DoctorEskersNotebook #SonofDoctorEskersNotebook #PuzzlesByMail #Cards #Hunts #PuzzleSolving #Mystery #Search #Find #Tabletop #Fun

Photos provided by Letterjoy Company: Letterjoy Country: USA 🇺🇸 Language: English Type of Game: Puzzles By Mail 📬 Genre: Mystery, History Date Played: 2/10/2021 Price: $49.99 for 3 month/ $99.99 for 6 month/ $158.99 yearly Size of Team: Unlimited Time: Unlimited (Approx. 10-15min per letter depending no your reading speed. If contain puzzles, might be longer) 🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈 Each monthly subscription includes 5 letters that you'll receive weekly. This will complete one storyline. Each letter comes in an envelope with a real stamp. If there's a puzzle that needs to be solved, you'll receive a solution "reveal" in the next week's letter. Each week's letter will reveal more of the storyline. The final letter will give you a "case solved" explanation. 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 Watson has been approached by a strange man named Moravcevic. He has important information he wants Watson to pass onto Sherlock that might pertain to the war at hand. But maybe there's more to the message? 🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂 The first three letters contained a secret message that we had to decode. You might need to use Google if you are not familiar with the format. You won't be able to find out if you got the right solution or not until the next letter. Each letter "reveals" a bit about the previous. In the fourth letter, you'll receive a big hint on how to decode the secret message in the first three letters. If you still don't have a clue on how to solve it, the final letter gives you a detailed explanation of the solution. 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 Artifacts have started to magically disappear at the Margate Museum. The curator contacted Sherlock because he doesn't want to lose his job. Is this really a case of the paranormal or something else entirely? 🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂 There's no actual puzzles in this monthly mystery. It's more like a game of Clues. You'll have to use the information given in each week's letters to come up with the culprit, motive and how the crime was performed. Each week more details about the case and characters will be introduced. The final letter will give a full explanation on how Sherlock crack the case. 🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂 The cool thing about Letterjoy is that the letters you've received are all reproduction of real historical letters (or telegrams) written by these legendary figures and eloquent eyewitnesses. As I read the letters, I was visually taken back to the 1800-1900s (although some mysteries even goes back to the 1600s). Don't be expecting tons of puzzles in these mysteries as it's not that type of game. It's more like reading a mystery novel that will hook you as soon as you read the first chapter (letter). If I was subscribed to the monthly mystery, I would rather wait for all 5 letters to arrive. I'm the type of person who likes to binge a show rather than waiting a week for a new episode. If you love history and want a different perspective on how its told to you, check out Letterjoy! 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 Letterjoy 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. #ESCAPETHEROOMers #AtHomeGames #EscapeRooms #Letterjoy #DearHolmes #SherlockHolmes #Watson #PuzzlesByMail #Adventure #Letters #PuzzleSolving #Search

Videos/ Photos provided by Post-a-Puzzle Company: Post-a-Puzzle By Escape Rooms Cardiff Game: Post-a-Puzzle Country: United Kingdom 🇬🇧 Language: English Type of Game: Puzzles By Mail 📬 Genre: Detective Date Played: 1/31/2021 Difficulty (based on 2 players): 5.5/10 Size of Team: Unlimited Time: Unlimited Price: £12.99 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 You've received an anonymous telegram in the mail. It says that someone had send you an online message but you will only be able to retrieve the message after you've solved all of these puzzles that came with the envelope. Who could it be from? 🆃🅷🅴 ❞🅻🅾🅾🅺🆂❞ Post-a-Puzzle came nicely packaged in an envelope that's slightly bigger than regular letter sized ones. Within the envelope, you'll find a telegram, a greetings card filled with colorful confetti (this is an extra add-on) and a small envelope filled with 10 puzzle cards. 🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈 Post-a-puzzle engages the player by the mysterious message on the telegram right away from the start. Imagine if you received this package and had no idea who send it to you. You're going to want to sit down and solve this mystery immediately to retrieve the message. The back of the telegram serves as your answer sheet. It gives you a little nudge on how many digits you're looking for within each puzzle. We liked the clarity in the instructions but also the freedom to "roam around" and explore on which puzzle we like to tackle on first afterwards. Once you think you got the right answers to all 10 puzzles, you can follow the instruction on how to enter the password on the given website to retrieve your message. 🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂 The puzzles are non-linear so Brandon and I worked on different ones simultaneously. If there's ones I didn't get, I'll pass it onto him to take another look. He would also pass on puzzles that stumped him to me to give it another shot. This worked really well since we both had different viewpoints and together we were able to finish the puzzles within the hour. The puzzles weren't too difficult to solve as the goal is for the receiver to be able to open the message. There's also a hint system that you'll be able to use if you get stuck. So whoever you send the message to will guarantee be able to see the final message. Some puzzles were purely search and find types and others needed some simple Math and logic. We did have to use Google for one of them as we're not too familiar with the inquired geography so don't feel shy about using outside resource. You'll also need a scissor for some parts of the game. 🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂 This is such a cool gift idea. Instead of sending a boring plain birthday card or event card to someone, embed your message through this puzzle adventure! You can upload your personalized photo or video to the company and they'll upload it for you onto the web link. You friends/family will definitely be surprised and I'm sure you'll put a big smile on their faces. Post-a-Puzzle also donates 1% of all gross sales to The National Forest in the UK! What an awesome way to make someone's day and save the environment at the same time! *** We regret to inform this company has closed its doors *** Disclosure: We thank Post-a-Puzzle 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. #ESCAPETHEROOMers #AtHomeGames #EscapeRooms #PostaPuzzle #ThePostaPuzzle #PuzzlesByMail #PuzzleCards #PuzzleSolving #Detective #Search #Find

Photo provided by Shine On Collective Company: Shine On Collective Game: Welcome Home Country: USA 🇺🇸 Language: English Type of Game: Puzzles By Mail 📬 Genre: Mystery Date Played: 1/6/2021 Difficulty (based on 2 players): 5/10 Size of Team: Unlimited Time: 90-120 Minutes (Approximately) Price: $55 (game & dessert for up to 4 ppl) 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 You've just moved into town and the neighbors seem to be quite friendly. You even got a box of baked goods from your Neighborhood Watch president. Strangely. you've also received a box of belongings from the former resident of the house, Eli. This is when all the mysteries started to unveil... 🆃🅷🅴 ❞🅻🅾🅾🅺🆂❞ "Welcome Home" came in a beautifully packaged box. It literally felt like a welcome gift dropped of on our porch by our neighbors. On top of the box you'll see an instruction card, a welcome card, 2 packs of crayons and 4 pieces of coloring paper. Once you open the box (after instructed), you'll get a bunch of information including a journal, town map, pins, phone tree etc...Since there are many items and at one point we did question if we had everything we needed, our suggestion is to perhaps have a check list just incase there are things missing from the actual packaging. We like how the props are prepared in a very realistic way where the package was already ripped open and he paper was crumpled up like they were all used items. 🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈 If you read through the instruction before starting the game, you'll know to not to open anything until instructed. There are stickers labeled "private" throughout the game which should remain sealed until you've been prompt by phone messages to open them. Since the phone is a "must have" tool for the storytelling and password input, international players would not be able to play this game. There was only one part we were a bit confused about as to where the prompted message was for us to open up a "private" message. We really enjoyed the writing. There were parts that gave us goosebumps as we imagined the scenes in our heads. 🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂 The puzzles are not too difficult. Think of it more like a murder mystery. It's more about collecting evidence rather than deciphering codes. I really enjoy that as I'm a big CSI & Criminal Minds fan. The mystery trail was done really well. We're constantly surprised by discoveries. We also enjoyed guessing who the culprit was but changing our theory as new information was revealed. One thing we would suggest for the creators is to have a hint system online rather than having a manual hint system where the players may have to wait until the next day to get an answer. I know it might take away from the immersion in some aspect but the players will also need to find time the next day to remember where they left off in order to finish the game. It would also be helpful to have an online portal for the phone messages incase player's wanted to replay them so they don't have the dial the same number numerus times. But then again, I might just be one of those impatient players. 🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂 Overall we found that the way "Shine On Collective" connected the characters and the story really made us feel like we're watching a movie. The voice actors on the phone were great at painting the community right before our eyes. There were nail biting moments and "wow" moments throughout the game play. This might not be your typical puzzle heavy game but it was definitely an well made murder mystery thriller! (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 Shine On Collective 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. #ESCAPETHEROOMers #ShineOnCollective #WelcomeHome #TableTopGame #puzzlesathome #PuzzlesByMail #mystery #ghoststory #whodunnit #neighborhoodwatch #missinggirl #solve

Photos provided by Gruzzle - A Puzzling Company Company: Gruzzle - A Puzzling Company Game: The Will Country: USA 🇺🇸 Language: English Type of Game: Puzzles By Mail 📬 Genre: Mystery Date Played: 10/29/20 Difficulty (based on 2 players): 6/10 Size of Team: Unlimited Time: Unlimited Price: $30/Bimonthly, $87/6month, $172/year "The Will" is Gruzzle's second game. We've never played the first game but it doesn't seem like you need information from the previous in order to solve any puzzle in this one. 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 The story began with an intro letter from Gruzzle HQ informing us that we've been hired by the Pumbleton family. The grandmother, Dolores recently passed and had left all her wealthy to her three grandchildren: Frederick, Ferguson and Felicity. The problem is that she left a trail of puzzles for them to solve before the wealth could be distributed. I hope we'll be able to step up to the plate and help them decipher Dolores' encrypted messages. 🆃🅷🅴 ❞🅻🅾🅾🅺🆂❞ "The Will" came in a standard cardboard game box. The items were well protected during shipping. Inside the box you'll find one introduction letter, 3 large white envelopes, 4 small sealed envelopes labeled wallet, safe, stairs and toolbox, 1 protractor and 1 grease pencil. Most of the papers in the game were printed on regular letter paper. One suggestion we would give would be perhaps to change the paper stock and have a bit more hand written type of notes to make the story line feel more immersive. 🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈 The style of game play for this game was quite different than most of the other ones we've played. There were items in the game we had to use more than once. There were points in the game where we had to remember a solution to an already solved puzzle. We definitely suggest reading the introduction letter carefully before starting the game. Since we didn't read the instructions thoroughly, we thought at one point there were items that were missing from the game. Normally we are very careful on opening items in case of any spoilers or playing the game out of sequence but in this game we were directed to open all 3 white envelopes at once. This was very important as we had to utilize components from different envelope at the same time in order to solve various puzzles. It was quite confusing for us at first because we were given a lot of information and we weren't sure which items were relevant to which puzzle. But as we started to clear out the puzzles we've solved, it became easier to see what was still left behind. We really enjoyed reading the story line and how Gruzzle made the experience felt like an escape room. We were able to discover hidden places and secret items. As the plot thickened, the items were seamlessly embedded into a meta puzzle for the big finale. We are big fans of "envelop reveals" and they did a great job at controlling when and what the player will discover. 🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂 Being that one of the creator is a teach and the other is a software engineer, computer scientist and Mathematician, we definitely felt like we had to whip up some memories when we were back in high school. I hope you know how to use protractors and graph some X/Y coordinates! I felt like a superstar when doing that puzzle as all Brandon could do was stare at me with his puzzling eyes. There were also various "classic" puzzles that we really enjoyed (word puzzles, ciphers, etc..). The game did not have moments where you'll really need to use the internet (except for the finale) which we kind of missed since a lot of the games these days all comes with a digital component. Stepping away from the digital world for just a few hours and just enjoy that moment of peace at the table with just purely puzzles was quite nice. Gruzzle did a great job at making all of them very different and if you are playing with teammates, everyone will have a moment to shine. I was definitely stronger on the Math puzzles whereas Brandon took the lead in word puzzles. The puzzles felt like they progressively got harder. We were surprised that after what we thought was the ending of the game took a surprising turn and gave us another 20 minutes or so of play time. 🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂 If you love those classic style puzzles and less digital components, this game would be for you. The game was quite linear so you'll have to work together most of the time as we do not recommend splitting up and getting confused on what could be solved and what couldn't. There were many items were revealed ahead of time. If you played one of their games before, you should know that you're pretty much invested to finish all 6 games as they will eventually reveal a meta puzzle and I'm sure that mysterious ending is what everyone's looking forward to! *Please note, this game cannot be replayed or resold as there were many game components that will be "destroyed" during game play. (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 Gruzzle - A Puzzling Company 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. #ESCAPETHEROOMers #Gruzzle #APuzzlingCompany #TheWill #puzzlesathome #PuzzlesByMail #Subscription #mystery #puzzles #solve #detective #inheritance

Photos provided by Inside Breakout Company: Inside Breakout Game: The Uncle Herbert Case Country: Switzerland 🇨🇭 Language: English, German Type of Game: Puzzles By Mail 📬 Genre: Detective Date Played: 9/2/2020 Difficulty (based on 2 players): 4/10 Size of Team: Unlimited Time: Unlimited Price: CHF 33.00 We waited 2 month for this game to arrive from Switzerland. Just when we thought we lost the battle to the COVID mailing system, it magically appeared in our mailbox! Since we waited for so long, we had to play to it right away... "The Case Uncle Herbert" came in a large envelope with paper documents, 2 photographs, 2 transparent papers, and some colorful plastic circle game pieces. Since the documents were all loose papers, it was quite easy to get them mixed together. The company is currently redesigning the game so that it will be professionally printed and bounded. They are also resigning some of the graphics. We started by reading the instruction sheet which also gave us some guidance on where to look for hints if we were to get stuck. Thereafter we were given the premise of the game. In this game, we were playing the role of Detective Clayton. A mysterious woman just dropped by in our office and wanted us to take on a case but not before we can pass her riddle test. The answer sheet was cleverly designed to avoid spoilers. The answers were represented by shapes so if you had them in the wrong order or wrong shape, you'll need to go back to recheck your answers again. The puzzles were linear so had to solve the puzzles together in order to move forward. The story was well written and really described the scenes to us. At times we felt like we're breaking into a building, finding out the safest route to pass through, crack opening a safe, gambling at the casino, etc...The puzzles perfectly complimented these actions through visuals and interactions with the clue papers. This game is great for beginners and family nights. Our favorite puzzle was the one where we had to each take one side of a puzzle (like in a breakout room in Zoom) and tell each other what we saw in order to work together to obtain the solution. We also really enjoyed the twist in the story line in the end. And if that wasn't enough, you'll be able to play the game that they created called "Chips-End-Colors" by reusing those colorful chips again and again! (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 Inside Breakout 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. #ESCAPETHEROOMers #AtHomeGames #EscapeRooms #InsideBreakout #TheUncleHerbertCase #PuzzlesByMail #Detective #Case #Mystery #Solve

Company: Sleuth Kings Country: USA 🇺🇸 Language: English Type of Game: Puzzles By Mail 📬 Genre: Detective, Mystery 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 Sleuth King offers two types of mystery boxes: Master Detective and Rookie Detective. The major difference between the two is that master detective usually will take longer to solve with more puzzles and increase level of difficulty. Rookie detective cases will provide an epilogue letter at the end of your mission but Master Detective comes with an additional reward. You can purchase the individual cases when it becomes available in the archives or subscribe on a monthly bases for their most recent story series. 🆃🅷🅴 ❞🅻🅾🅾🅺🆂❞ The games arrived in an eye-catching cardboard box with drawings of the contour of a detective in various settings. It immediately sets the tone for "mysterious". Our doorman was intrigued and asked us: " What's inside?" to which we replied with "It's a mystery". Inside the box you'll find a large envelope containing a folder with all the necessary documents needed for the cases and a small envelope containing the epilogue. 🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈 The game came with a checklist for case file contents. We always like to make sure that we received everything before we begin our game play. Once we've done that, we resorted to the instructions on how to start the case. The progression of the story, hint system and solution submission were all done with an automated email system. Once you email the person you're suppose to contact on the case file's link, it should be self explanatory from there. The investigation report will give you a more extensive back ground story than the one provided in the email. The game provided us with three choices on how we would like to receive the hints: email, web link, or written clues at the end of the investigation report. Since the puzzles were not linear, you could tackle them in any order (although it was recommended in the game to start with clue 1). With numerous instructions embedded in various parts of the game, there's no way you'll get lost. Game: Case 201 - Abducted Date Played: 8/11/2020 Difficulty (based on 2 players): 7/10 Size of Team: Unlimited Time: Unlimited Price: $29.95 "Case 201 - Abducted" is the first case in Sleuth Kings' newest story series "Monster Madness". This new series is about Sullivan king trying to take down a new criminal group (filled with self-proclaimed zombies, vampires, and other monsters). It's categorized under the "Master Detective" cases. 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 Sullivan's fiance Celest had gone missing. She never showed up for their wedding planning meeting. We were hired to help to retrace her footsteps and see if there's any clue that would lead us to her abductor. Our goal was to find the location where she's being held at. 🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂 Since we were trying to trace her steps on the day she had gone missing, the puzzles were build around the story. From finding a post card in her apartment to the brochure outside studio to a magazine article in a trash can to a memo note on a beach at her favorite park, it all came together to paint a complete picture about the investigation. It felt like we're real detectives on the case collecting evidence and then piecing them together for the final "aha" moment. Since the puzzles were not linear, we did not do them in order. We actually solved Clue 2 before going back to 1. For some puzzles you'll need additional information that's not contained in the mailer so it's better to try to play the game in the sequential order. We enjoyed the humor build into the story line. Our favorite part was the alien quiz and the funny answers given by the various types of aliens. This was also the most confusing puzzle we thought for the game. We had to use the hint system since we thought there could be several answers that would work based on how the clues were written. There were puzzles involving Math, decryption, ciphers, etc. It was nice to see there were so many different types of puzzles incorporated into one game. In comparison to the Rookie Detective below, the difficulty level was definitely a step up. 🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂 This was the first Sleuth Kings game we've ever played. We really liked how organized they are with instructions, clues, puzzle elements and packaging. Usually mailer games would come with a lot of documents and other components so it really helps to have a guide that assists the players on how to organize their thought process. The meta puzzle at the end took us awhile to get but it did make sense ultimately. We liked how every item was utilized and intertwined within the story. The epilogue was a nice way to give us an insight to what had happened to the victim but more importantly a great way to leave a cliffhanger! Now we are very curious to how Sullivan will be able to take down this mysterious crime organization and what he will encounter on his next case! Game: Case 301 - Dog Gone Mystery Date Played: 8/11/2020 Difficulty (based on 2 players): 5/10 Size of Team: Unlimited Time: Unlimited Price: $14.95 "Case 301 - Dog Gone Mystery" is the first case in Sleuth Kings' newest story series "The Time Traveler". This new series is about Brian Knight, a self-proclaimed time traveler, trying to save the world from a catastrophic event. This all starts with finding a lost dog. It's categorized under the "Rookie Detective" cases. 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 Brian wanted us to help him find a missing dog for a lady named Debra. He doesn't personally know her but claims that if we don't find this dog something really bad will happen. Looking at the cute pug (Yogi)'s face and the fact that our third agent Lili - "The clue sniffer" is the love of our lives, there's no reason why we would reject this case. Our mission this time was to find the dognapper's identity. 🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂 Debra provided us with 4 clues in total (similar to the Master Detective case above). We had to work with a missing dog poster, an adoption agency flyer, a newspaper clipping and a page from a story book. Perhaps it's because we are such dog lovers that the theme instantly had our attention. The puzzles were easier and most were one step puzzles. There were more on the searching and observing side rather than logic puzzles. The final puzzle still gave us a bit of thinking and the "tool" that was used was quite clever. Ultimately, we were able to connect the solutions to the 4 clues and catch the dognapper. 🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂 This was such a cute story involving a delightful "cast". We were glad we played the "Master Detective" case first since we were able to fully understand how Sleuth Kings' operates and was able to enjoy this at a much better game flow level. We didn't use any hints for this case as everything made sense (also because "the clue sniffer" was great at sniffing out the solutions). With the colorful illustrations and kids friendly puzzles, this game would be perfect for a family night! If you want to test out what their game is about, they are generously offering case 024 "Framed" for FREE (online) (If you do decide to try this game, please remember to let them know that you heard it from"ESCAPETHEROOMers"!) Disclosure: We thank Sleuth Kings for providing us with samples of the game. Although a complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever. #ESCAPETHEROOMers #AtHomeGames #EscapeRooms #SleuthKings #Case201 #Abducted #Case301 #DogGoneMystery #Alien #Dogs #PuzzlesByMail #Detective #Mystery

Photo above is property of Unsolved Case Files Company: Unsolved Case Files Game: Harmony Ashcroft - Case: A03-05081998 Country: USA 🇺🇸 Language: English Type of Game: Tabletop Games 📬 Genre: Detective Date Played: July 18, 2020 Difficulty (based on 2 players): 5/10 Size of Team: Unlimited Time: Unlimited Price: $29.99 As many of you probably know by now I'm a big fan of CSI/Criminal Minds type of show and at one point in my life I seriously considered about becoming a detective. Of course that didn't happen. But I was so excited when I received "Unsolved Case Files" in the mail as it was about to fulfill one of my childhood fantasies. 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 Harmony Ashcroft - Case: A03-05081998 This case dated back to May 8th, 1998. Harmony was killed during her own wedding rehearsal dinner in Riverdale, Indiana. There were many suspects but Bones McBride ended up taking the blame for her murder. He's been in jail for 2 decades now waiting for someone to proof his innocence. 🆃🅷🅴 ❞🅻🅾🅾🅺🆂❞ The packaging looked really professional. The "evidence" bag was sealed tight like what you see in the movies but in much better condition. We even hesitated on opening it because it was so pretty. Their press kit photos looked exactly like the product you'll receive (if you look below, you probably can't tell which ones are their press kit photos and which ones are ours). All the items were placed in a manila folder named "Unsolved Case Files". You'll get "a case file inventory list" which will list out all the items in the game: evidence report, newspaper articles, coroner's report, finger print, map, witness statements, police interrogations, suspect photos, victim photo, crime scene photos, witness photos, bonus envelope A/B/C, etc. Everything felt really authentic. All the photos were printed on glossy photo paper and different types of reports were printed on various colored papers. It'll be a good idea to have a pen and paper to take notes while reading through all the materials. You'll also need internet to confirm answers on their designated website. 🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈 We really liked how organized the game was. When you open the folder, you'll see a clear instruction on what your objective was on the left side. Our suggest for your first step would be organize the different types of files together and check them off against the "case file inventory list". This way if there was anything missing, you'll be able to retrieve it from their website. We didn't have anything missing from our package but just in case you probably don't want any interruptions during the game play. The creator did a great job at painting the story for us. We haven't played a murder mystery game that was so thorough with details. Having photos of people, places and objects really helped to string the event together. Even though there were close to about 15 characters presented in the story, we were never confused or lost in terms of who's who. The photos also felt like they were carefully chosen or acted out by professional actors as the story behind their character were perfectly represented by their facial expressions. It was easy to sort one group of people together that knew each other from the alibis and other information provided since everything that was mentioned had a photo for association. Brandon's usually not really into games with too much reading involved. Whenever he seems words, he pretty much throws that puzzle to me. I was shocked to see how much he enjoyed reading the stories from each character from this game. He even changed his tone of voice to act out the different dialects between the suspects and the detective. A lot of that had to be contributed to the way these stories were written. There were definitely lot of humor embedded in the skits. Watching him act it out made me chuckle a few times. My favorite moment was when he yelled: " I told you so!" And I responded with: "You were suspicious about all of them, I'm pretty sure you were going to get one correct, eventually...". Our "wow" moment came later on during the game play when we thought we were done with the case. The twist was very "spicy". Although Brandon used his "I told you so again", I really didn't think he saw that coming. It was just like watching a movie and you were wondering if there's going to be a sequel. This was when your bonus envelopes came into play but definitely DO NOT OPEN them until you were instructed to do so. 🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂 As puzzle lovers, we usually wouldn't feel satisfied after just one type of "puzzle" throughout the entire game (in this case deductive reasoning to find the killer). But, we really enjoyed "Unsolved Case Files". If you are the type of player who can open up your mind and let yourself be immersed into an imaginary "stage" then this performance will be delightful. If you are mainly looking for continuous puzzling, this might not satisfy your urges. We've been playing a lot of online games lately due to COVID and our mindsets have definitely been trained by these "stay at home" games to visualize stories and games in a remote way like never before. We feel like game developers have also been expanding their creative worlds and we can't wait to explore new grounds with them and unlock more unsolved cases! (If you do decide to try this game, please remember to let them know that you heard it from"ESCAPETHEROOMers"!) Disclosure: We thank Unsolved Case Files 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 #UnsolvedCaseFiles #Detective #MurderMystery #Whodunit #USA

Photo above is property of Unsolved Case Files Company: Unsolved Case Files Game: Avery Gardner - Case: G-668H Country: USA 🇺🇸 Language: English Type of Game: Tabletop Games 📬 Genre: Detective Date Played: April 21, 2022 Difficulty (based on 2 players): 5.5/10 Size of Team: Unlimited Time: Unlimited Price: $26.97 🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈 At 4:23AM in Davenport, Oregon, 19-year old Avery Gardner was murdered and her twin sister Zoey has been kidnapped by the killer. Will you be able to solve the case and catch the killer from the evidences that was left behind? 🆃🅷🅴 ❞🅻🅾🅾🅺🆂❞ The packaging was smaller in size than the first game we played "Harmony Ashcroft". I'm not sure if it's just this game or if the company went through repackaging. It's lighter to carry around now as we actually bought the game on the trip with us. The game content was packaged in a plastic "evidence bag". Make sure to check the "inventory" list for any missing items. In this game, we received letters, photos, notepad, reports, business cards and three bonus envelopes. Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers 🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈 Other than the reading materials, you'll need access to the internet. Some important clues can be found on various website. You'll also need to go to their website portal to eliminate suspects and ultimately figure out who is the real killer. It was quite easy to find the information and string together the evidences based on the information provided. There are three segments to the game. Once you answer one question correct, you'll gain access to one of the sealed envelopes. The final ones gives you a summary and motive to the real killer so don't open it until it's the right now to avoid spoilers. Photos above are property of Unsolved Case Files 🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂 There's not much puzzle per se in this game. It's more of using what you know to deduce who couldn't have been the perpetrator. There was a good amount of reading involved since just like a real life crime, there'll be information on suspects, their background check, their motives and etc...We took notes just like how a real detective would on a whiteboard type of set up. This way we're able to make the connection between each of the suspect to the victim and if there were any confirmed alibi that was able to rule them out. Sometimes the evidence was right in front of ours and other times they were hidden within photos and text. Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers 🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂 We always enjoy the storytelling from Unsolved Case Files. You can always expect a twist at the end. Most of the time we'll be guessing who is the killer going to be right from the start only to find out that person has been eliminated due to the alibis. It's always the one that's the least expected right? One thing that this game differs from other murder mystery games we've played is the fact that they're not so concentrated on puzzle variation. You wouldn't encounter secret messages you'll need to unscramble or decode. It's very straightforward and mimics the real world situations. There are personalized websites for almost every person that's mentioned in the game and if you didn't know they were part of the game, you would think they were legitimate sites. Unsolved Case Files really presented a chance for a player to make their detective dream come true. So if you're a hardcore CSI or Criminal Minds fan, you might want to test your case solving skills here! (If you do decide to try this game, please remember to let them know that you heard it from"ESCAPETHEROOMers"!) Disclosure: We thank Unsolved Case Files 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 #UnsolvedCaseFiles #Detective #MurderMystery #Whodunit #USA