Inspectors' Review:
4/4 Paws for rollability!
Those holes in the paper were not my FAULT!
I am an excellent detective - these photos show it!
Paper is very comfy! XD
Cat toy was for break time because puzzling is SO HARD!
Where's my pay cheque, boss?
Boss' Review:
Finding Hanz: Mission: Maya Prequel Game
Odd Odyssey is an Ontario based escape game company that recently branched into tabletop escape rooms during the pandemic. They own the physical escape room Ready Set Go Adventures (formerly NOWAYOUT Escape Rooms). They launched a kickstarter to fund their first escape box and intend to sell this game online after all backers have received their games. Now, you may notice their Kickstarter was for the game Mission: MAYA but I am reviewing a game of a different name. A bonus element for certain backers was a prequel mini game that introduced how you find yourself heading to this Maya mission. This was a limited supply game but you never know, it may come back. In the mean time, this review can give you a little taste of what to expect from their games while I take time to review it :P The inspectors sometimes make me slow to review games when they demand cuddles and attention…right on top of the games.
The premise of this prequel mission is that you have been tasked to locate Dr. William Hanz, a notorious archeologist turned criminal who deals in the illegal sale of stolen artifacts. There is no narrative you are unpacking or exploring (think of this more as an escape room rather than a narrative puzzle experience) but you are trying to figure out where did he commit his crimes and use those to eventually locate where he is now to aid your company who want to stop him. The premise is sound and acts as a good jumping off point for the game. Once I got the hang of things (ie. There aren’t 6 puzzles for each crime you need to find as some documents help you find more than one location) I really thought it was neat.
In terms of puzzles, there were ciphers, tracking, deduction, identification, and more. The puzzles were pretty good! There was one puzzle where I didn't realize the answer was a code I had to plug into their online system and another where I, for the life of me, could not locate the final location. If this is something a few players experience it may be wise to provide additional sign posting on the hint site to help people troubleshoot but overall I didn't feel it impeded the game too much. I was surprised with the little bit of deduction that was introduced but I felt it worked well. The puzzles make a good use of the paper and items included. The final map puzzle really gave me a fun Aha moment that I enjoyed and I appreciated how they broke down the papers to guide players. There is a quite a bit of text but they break up points and highlight key areas so the traditional escape room fanatics know where to look while the tabletop players can immersive themselves a little more by taking time to read everything.
For customer service, they delivered the game in a timely manner, kept backers updated, and the game is a completed and playable product. I noted one typo but I still thoroughly enjoyed the experience and would definitely buy from this company again. The hint system works fairly well but I did get stuck as said above and I didn't find anything on the website that could help troubleshoot. I ended up messaging them on IG and they were quick to help me out and nudge me down the path I was meant to be on. Also, the hints for the main puzzles were well organized and gave notice if you needed to complete something else before you came to that puzzle which I appreciated. I was happy with the hint system. Their hint system is tied into the game interface so you get the whole experience packaged into once website and that made following along fairly easy as I didn’t need to jump around too much.
Overall, Odd Odyssey created a quick, fun, and engaging prequel game to draw in players waiting for Mission: Maya. It has aha moments, great flow, and showed a good variety of skills that make me excited for the full game. If you enjoy true escape rooms and want to bring one home then I think this game company to get a well rounded experience!
Check out Odd Odyssey here!
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