Inspectors' Review:
BOX
PAPER!
I think these advertisements are a clue!
Do you want to play a board game???
You know when something is locked...it usually is for a reason...
Boss' Review:
The Mystery Agency started as a Kickstarter during the beginning of the pandemic in 2020 spearheaded by Henry Lewis, a well-known name in U.K. theatre and television. This Kickstarter offered three games – Vanishing Gambler, The Balthazar Stone, and the one I’m reviewing today, The Ghost in the Attic. While I didn’t initially back the Kickstarter, I pre-ordered the games back in April 2021 with the final game arriving September 2021. I have already reviewed The Balthazar Stone here and now it’s time to dive into this next one!
The Story:
The Ghost in the Attic focuses on you acquiring a strangely locked board game. The newspaper accompanying it mentions strange circumstances surrounding the publication of this game, leading it to be recalled. As you begin to unravel the mysterious of this game you learn something nefarious follows this board game wherever it goes and it is up to you to discover the truth before you meet the same fate. Someone wanted to keep this hidden and as a puzzler, you just cannot help to solve this mystery!
The storyline is simple but well put together. I enjoy how balanced the mystery is in that it doesn’t take away from the puzzles, rather, it gives incremental development that enhances the puzzles. Like the previous game, the story is predictable, and I have the sense these games are tailored for a younger market. You do not need to dive deep into the story to solve the puzzles, but they go a long way to helping you understand the purpose. If you push through the puzzles quickly you can finish this game easily in an hour but if you want to fully get all your moneys out of this, I recommend taking your time. Maybe take some time and try out the board game as well if you like!
The Puzzles:
In terms of puzzles, the online portal asks you to find a message left by the ghost. You have a series of locked websites and locked items you need to uncover in order to reach the end using different parts of the game. I enjoyed how different parts of the game components were used. There was a good attention to detail in that all parts were used new and different ways. This game does rely of more sequential order in its puzzling. You need to complete things in a certain order to unlock parts of the game. There is one puzzle where you need to collect four answers to submit, and the order does not matter but the rest block you from progression with password protection. Otherwise, the website it what guides you. The puzzles range for tracking, ciphers, logic, and searching. I found the level of puzzling to be straightforward and smooth except for one puzzler that had an obvious typo. This game works well for beginning puzzlers as it provides a good amount of structure and keeps its puzzles simple, yet effective.
Customer Service:
I will keep the customer service notes the same as my last review. I have had no contact from the company except when they announced they were shipping two games before the other, but the games did arrive on time (as in they all arrived by end of September 2021). The games shipped randomly and it who shipper who notified me. The hint system provided by the game was solid and quite helpful.
Conclusion:
In the end, The Ghost in the Attic provides a spooky mystery using a fascinating premise for its puzzling. These games are on the shorter end from the production quality, but I can’t help but appreciate the detail and craft put into these games. If you’re looking for an easier spooky puzzling game that has cool components but won’t take a long time, I do recommend trying this out! I look forward to trying out the next one soon!
Check out The Mystery Agency here.
