Fun sequel with lovely puzzles!

Table of Contents

Location: Home

Date Played: Apr 2024

Team size: 5; recommended 1 - 6 players

Duration: 1.5 - 2 hours

Price: ~S$66 on Kickstarter

Premise

The Medusa Report is a cooperative tabletop puzzle game and the sequel to The Vandermist Dossier. Investigate the mysterious S.E.A. organization, discover what really happened near Nikitagrad in 1974, and above all: find out where Abigail Vandermist is hiding!

The story continues after four long decades serving a secret intelligence agency, an embittered Abigail Vandermist suddenly drops off the map. She has found something out. Something to do with an old rescue mission into the heart of the USSR, a nuclear physicist, and her own enigmatic father.

Meanwhile, Abigail’s sister Helena has been searching for her, ever since her disappearance in 1979. With your help, she was finally getting somewhere. But with Abby on the run, you’re back at square one, and you are not the only ones trying to get to her first…

Components

The game contains a treasure trove of touch-real confidential items from a Cold War infiltration mission, like: a real floppy disk in a padded envelope, a detailed military map, old photographs wrapped in blotting paper, a page torn from a book and several highly classified letters.

All of the components feel deluxe, authentic and lovely to touch. They help to add immersion to the game, giving it a sense of exploration and curiousity.

Gameplay

The game is fairly linear. Starting with the introductory letter, you'll be guided to solve a puzzle. Once you've solved it, the solution will provide you with hints to figure out where to find the next puzzle along with clues to solve it. 

When you've reach the last puzzle, you'll have to head to their website and write down your solutions to get access to the finale. You're also invited to search and solve for the hidden puzzles scattered throughout the game.

The game has a simple yet efficient hint & solution system. Each puzzle has a 1-3 hints before the solution is given.

Puzzles/Thoughts

➕Superb components. They feel deluxe as they should be.

➕ Good Story. While I wasn't too keen on the story, my friends were very engaged with it and enjoyed it immensely.

➕ Lovely puzzles. While easier than The Vandermist Dossier, I had a satisfying time solving the puzzles in this game. They were very well designed, thematic and creative. Some of the puzzles led to some mindblowing experiences in how the game was crafted.

➖Puzzles lean more towards the spatial aspect. A good number of puzzles were spatial puzzles. While they were still varied and interesting, it may put others off from the game.

➖Some busywork. The game requires you to decode coded messages every now and then, requiring you to spend a good 5 - 10 mins on that. Personally, I would visit the solution once I've figured out the approach to solving it.

Verdict

I really like The Medusa Report. Their puzzles are superb and gave me multiple doses of dopamine when we solved the puzzles. While the story didn't click with me, it'll definitely click with many others. This game is fantastic and a must play for escape room enthusiast.

Rating: 5/5

★★★★★