Sanitarium by Deadbolt Mystery Society

Inspectors' Review:

• I have seen the yellow sign! I blame mum's fascination with the occult...

• I know who did it already! Now, mum go find out for yourself!

• This paper is so shiny!

• So our literacy is, you know, nil...come read this all aloud for us!

• (Not so) itty inspector decided to taste the paper...he highly recommends it

• Mum isn't happy about the bite mark...

• Look there's a card game we can play! You just need opposable thumbs!

• I don't have them :(

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Boss' Review:

Deadbolt Mystery Society is well known mystery puzzle subscription that provides monthly mystery puzzle boxes. Each box centers around solving a murder using both puzzles and deduction to narrow down the suspects provided. There is the option to buy single box games for those wanting to test out the company before committing. The game I will be reviewing is Sanitarium.

The premise of this game is that Benjamin from the Will Street Detective Agency is asking for your assistance in the recent murder of his old friend, Faith, who was killed at the infamous Saturn Hills Asylum where she worked. The believe it was one of the patients but need your puzzle skills to narrow down who killed her and why.

In terms of narrative, I found it to be interesting but superficial. Think of the story as one of those summer action films which are fun to watch but they didn’t really dig into character development. There was a cool twist and I felt like I got the whole story but I felt one part of the ending was kind of handed to me in regards to an item you find at the crime scene. That said, I found the story good and helped carry things along. There was no character development which I think could be offered to really play into the mystery and immersion. In this frame, I would say the story is there only to drive the puzzle so character development isn’t necessary and thus I would call this a puzzle game rather than a puzzle narrative.

In terms of puzzles, there was a decent mix of logic, deduction, searching and manipulation. There was one particular puzzle that I though was really cool with how it used the page while the others were quite light to uncover. A portion of the game consists of you accessing various locked pdfs and the puzzles provided a clue or the answer. I will note that even when you solve all the puzzles, you still need to review all the material and use deduction to assign suspects their codenames before you can solve the murder. I did appreciate how well it was organized that the puzzles didn’t spoil the deduction. There was one puzzle I solved that I felt was unnecessary but mainly because I have previous knowledge on the topic and/or I was able to solve the game without making a connection (either because I already assumed it with my previous experience or because I missed the point).

In terms of customer service, I have no experience as I received this game from a friend, so they handled the purchase. I will note the hint system was basic but useful as a pdf – I do really like how they separated solution pdfs from hints. One puzzle could use a more visual hint for people like me who struggle visualizing, but I was able to get the hang of it eventually.

Overall, Sanitarium is a good puzzle game for a short puzzle experience after a day’s work. It has just enough puzzle and story to keep you engaged but isn’t too intensive to drain you. For $21.00 a month I think it provided a well-rounded experience but it is on the short side. This game is for someone who just needs something quick (for a regular puzzler it took around 45 minutes) to kickback to, a bit of story to motivate your perseverance, and some good old fashion deduction.

To learn more about Deadbolt Mystery Society, check out their website here!