Gorgeous design, fantastic puzzles, decent price

Table of Contents

Location: Home

Date Played: March 2024

Team size: 1; recommended 1 - 4 players

Duration: 10-12 hours

Price: ~USD $92 on their website

Premise

Threads of Fate is a remastered version of PostCurious’ acclaimed debut game, The Tale of Ord. Blending escape rooms, board games, and interactive fiction, Threads of Fate will have players progressing through a narrative over four episodes, each packed with puzzles of varying difficulty.

Taking on the role of a private investigator, you will be tasked with finding two missing professors from the Emerens Institute, but when information is uncovered about a mysterious relic found by an archaeological team, you will have the opportunity to change the course of destiny.

Provided with an assortment of letters, articles, drawings, websites, and strange artifacts, you will set out on a journey to explore the supernatural forces of Norse mythology and uncover the truth behind the disappearances. The meaning of mysterious glyphs will be revealed throughout your journey as you progress through the story and begin to unravel the secrets of fate and time.

The game can be played solo, or cooperatively as a group. Each of the 4 chapters takes approximately 2-3 hours to solve, totaling 8-12 hours of gameplay.

Components

While the game is mostly paper-based, there are quite a few trinkets in each envelope that is crucial to solving the puzzles. Many of them feel sturdy, well made and gorgeous.

The only gripe I have regarding the components is the box. It feels unnecessary and deluxified only to jack up the price.

Gameplay

 

The game is played similar to other PostCurious games, sectioned into multiple chapters and each chapter requiring a few hours to solve them. 

In each chapter, you'll be given an introductory letter as well as various trinkets and documents required to solve the puzzles. In some cases, you may be required to refer to previous chapters to aid you in a puzzle.

Alongside the game is a website for hints and to check your solution. Their hint system as usual is excellent as it only provides you with a small nudge with each hint to retain the satisfaction of solving it.

Puzzles/Thoughts

➕ Physical components are great. Everything feels and looks good. Only issue as previously mentioned was the deluxified box. I would've preferred not having it and paying a lower price for the game.

➕ Great puzzles. The puzzles were enjoyable and personally less difficult as compared to The Emerald Flame. The puzzles were varied as well although they do tend to lean towards the logical side.

➕ Good Hint & Solution system. While simplistic, it does the job very well with its layered hint system.

➖ Okay story. As the game is played in multiple sessions, I did not keep track of the story but it seems fine.

✖️ Some busywork required. Once you've figured out the approach for some puzzles, it'll take a few minutes to decipher the solution

Verdict

Overall, I really enjoyed this game! It was quite difficult for me while playing solo so I do recommend partnering up with someone else when tackling this game. It has great puzzles with some "a-ha" moments, lovely art and beautiful trinkets.

Rating: 4/5

★★★★✩

You can buy their game here