Photos above are property of Cards of Confound
Company: Cards of Confound
Game: The Cards of Confound - Mysterious Puzzle Postcards
Country: Netherlands 🇳🇱
Language: English
Type of Game: Puzzles By Mail 📬
Genre: Mystery
Date Played: September 28, 2021
Difficulty (based on 1 player): 8/10
Size of Team: 1-5 Players (Recommended 2-4 Players)
Time: Approximately 2-3 Hours (Could be longer if not using hints)
Price: €30 or purchase individual cards for €4 each
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A mysterious set of postcards arrives at your doorstep covered with riddles, ciphers, art, and more. Can you tease apart the hidden messages contained within each card, or will you be left confounded?
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The full premium set for "The Cards of Confound" contains seven postcards and an users guide card to get you started. Each postcard has a distinctive theme from “castle” to “sea” to “nature” that is printed with crisp colours that stand out on the matte card surface. The postcards are made in a way where you can easily place a stamp and mail them to any of your puzzling friends… if you’re willing to part with them. These postcards can be replayed or gifted if you're careful to not write on the cards.
Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers
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The seven postcards can be played in any order but to gain complete access to the meta puzzle in the “Letters” postcard, it is recommended you complete all the other postcards before starting this card. Each card has a difficulty rating system on the puzzle which is labeled with stars on the main card. The majority of the solutions are single word answers, and the users guide card also provides the number of letters in each puzzle solution so you know how long the word should be. These postcards require a considerable amount of outside research to be completed but there are clues and nudges to direct you where to go and what to do on these sites. If you ever get stuck there is an online hint system on their website that provides clues and explanations to help you move forward. For the most part, the hints were helpful but occasionally there would be a note in the clues asking me to research something on my own and I would have liked a suggested link that would help nudge me. The hint system also has the benefit of providing not only a gentle nudge in the hints, but a full explanation below in a closed tab if you need it.
Photos above is property of ESCAPETHEROOMers
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These postcards were tricky but had a good variety. Sometimes you would be directed to external websites that had key information for the final answers, but you need to identify multiple clues in the postcard to correctly unearth the key information you need. These puzzles heavily rely on multiple stages so if something is solved but it leads nowhere, you may want to set it aside as it will be useful later. There was one card that would heavily benefit a person with a music background and was one I struggled with the most. These cards can easily be divided between friends but can also be done alone since there is no unifying story connecting them. Even the “Letters” card can be solved without the others if you take a separate puzzle route shown on the hint website. I enjoyed “Castle Card” and the “Stars” Cards the most because of their focus on perspective, exploration, and outside the box websites. They both used not only outside research well but, also, the visuals of their cards to aid the puzzling for me.
These cards are extremely difficult and there were a couple areas I found the clues to be reaching because they required players to do additional research about topics and references I didn’t always catch. The creator has been making additional updates to the game to help nudge players more. I recommend not being afraid to use the hint system as my general reason to refer there was because I was unsure where to go next. More likely than not my issue stemmed from not digging far enough.
Photos above are properties of ESCAPETHEROOMers
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"The Cards of Confound" provides a series of enigmatic postcards that are good for the puzzle hunt lovers looking for something smaller to do in evening. They have a particular style that encourages people to research and explore but without any prior experience I can see some puzzlers becoming confused and unsure where to start and end. There is also no distinct premise or story to follow along with which can make finding a starting point tricky. The hint system provides a good resource and I think it is required for this game, even for stronger puzzlers. Each card, when using the hint system, took about 30-45 minutes each. This is the kind of game for players looking for a challenge and are not afraid to explore the internet to find clues. Get your search engine ready and don’t be afraid to dig in!
(If you do decide to try this game, please remember to let them know that you heard it from"ESCAPETHEROOMers"!)
Disclosure: We thank Cards of Confound for providing us with a sample of their game. Although a complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever.
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