Inspectors' Review:
Box is so tiny and perfect!
Paper smells peculiar as usual.
The Iron maiden is watching me...I swear!
BOSS! Nevermind I forgot. But since your here...I want chicken!
Do these glasses make my face fat?
Glasses taste good! Boss doesn't like it when I touch them.
Boss' Review
The Last Masquerade by Society of Curiosities is the last adventure of this first season with the Society. After all the travelling, research, and recovery, you are hunting for The Cube, an artifact made by an alchemist who also created the Memory Stone you helped the Society to acquire. They believe this Cube will help unlock secrets of the Stone…but it currently resides in the custody of the Doctrina, the enemy secret society.
The story was straight forward and worked well for the game. I really appreciated the introduction letter that refreshes the players on key elements of the previous games because of the gaps in time (I have the quarterly subscription). I will note these games is definitely more puzzle than narrative as each bit of narrative you gain aids your ability to solve, but it also gives you information about the world of the game (ie. Introduces characters). This limited exposition makes the game feel more fast pace and refreshing from the pages I usually have to read in my narrative puzzle games.
The puzzles range from hidden messages, pattern recognition, identification, and orientation. I thought they were excellent and really well done! I did get stuck on two puzzles back to back and had to take a hint and I think it was me overthinking the puzzles but the hint system was excellent on got us back on track. I also want to make a note of how well crafted the puzzles are from the drawings to the organization of information to help you along! There was a time where we scribbling down pieces of information from paragraphs wondering how to remember it all for the puzzle when we got the bottom and saw it noted in point form as reminders, which not only relieved me but also showed the obvious thought into each puzzle they make. There were countless moments of feeling “ooooh!” when I realized the puzzle in front of me needed this piece I had been set aside by remembered distinctly. The final item made be absolutely giddy and excited to start the next season. I also loved this one little trick that showed my phone and computer were connected in game.
In terms of customer service, I find this company really easy to communicate with. I tend to Facebook message or IG message and that has worked really well. They have helped me when I damaged something and if I run into an issue with the AI, which I did this episode but it handled and didn’t really impede my game.
Overall, I think this adventure was the perfect way to finish off the first year of this series. It was engaging, artwork was beautiful, and it was fun to follow through. These games aren’t hard by nature but the goal is to enjoy the puzzles and they do an excellent job giving enough signposting so you know what to do but still give you the space to solve it on your own. This game took about 2 and a half hours overall.
If you haven’t already checked them out, the link to Society of Curiosities is here.
I purchased the full year subscription at a discounted rate.