Creative puzzles, decent mystery, deluxe components
Table of Contents
Location: Home
Date Played: Mar 2024
Team size: 5; recommended 1 - 4 players
Duration: 1.5 - 2hrs
Price: ~€71,39 on their website
Premise
Amsterdam, 1979. 19-year-old Abigail Vandermist is an amateur detective, hoping to follow in the footsteps of her dad. When her investigation leads her to the tiny village Listenburg, she and her sister Helena have a bitter fight before she goes. Even so, she leaves a trail of clues for Helena to follow when she suddenly disappears.
What did she uncover? Who found her out? And what does any of this have to do with the work of her enigmatic father?
Components
The components, while light, are packed full with content and mysteries to discover. Everything feels authentic and well made with a human touch to them.
Gameplay
Upon opening the box, you're given access to every item available in the game. Despite this, the game is fairly linear where you'll have to solve each puzzle step by step, being given subtle clues to figure out where the next puzzle lies.
There's a simple hint system accompanied with the game and the solution is given after 5-6 hints per puzzle. While it's not very layered, it does its job and our group rarely required it due to how well-designed the puzzles were.
Puzzles/Thoughts
➕ Interesting story. The story overlaps with the puzzles exquisitely, making it rather engaging and immersive.
➕ Out of the box puzzles. While the puzzles were pretty difficult, they were really creative and figuring out the solutions felt SUPER satisfying. I can't stress enough that the puzzles were really really good.
✖️ Some busywork. There were times where we had to decode a message, spending a good 5-15 mins on it. A good way to circumvent this is to view the solutions once you've figured out the approach.
Verdict
If you're an enthusiastic puzzler, this is a must try game. The puzzles are very different and unlike the norm so expect to take a good chunk of time figuring out each puzzle. The game definitely leans towards the difficult side so I would recommend playing with it more players if you're a beginner or bring along a more experience puzzler.
Rating: 5/5
★★★★★
You can buy their game here
1 Comments
Hi Glen,
ReplyDeleteWhat a nice review!
I wanted to point out that Sherlocked’s team was enamored by the original Dutch-language version of the Vandermist Dossier, designed by longtime friend and collaborator Ruud Kool of Diorama Games. Sherlocked was an equal partner in the process of translating the original game and developing the second chapter of the trilogy, The Medusa Report. The IP is now owned directly by Sherlocked, and the games are for sale via our homemysteries.com business unit. We’re hoping that you will be able to update the links on this page so that we can reach as many players as possible.
Thank you!