Cici Cao

Jan 31, 20215 min read

clueQuest - "Prison of Memories Part I"

Updated: Apr 24

Photo above is property of clueQuest

Company: clueQuest

Game: Prison of Memories Part I.

Country: United Kingdom 🇬🇧

Language: English

Type of Game: Print-N-Cut 🖨️✂

Genre: Espionage

Date Played: January 26, 2020

Difficulty (based on 4 players): 7.5/10

Size of Team: Unlimited

Time: Unlimited

Price: £15 | Print @ Home, £25 | Print & Post

🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈

Mr. Q is in trouble! He's trapped in a coma by an unknown assailant! Will you be able to assist Mrs Q and Lord Hammerschmidt on getting him out of there?

Video above is property of clueQuest

🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈

We've done a few of clueQuest's print-n-cut games already so we're very familiar with the format. You can read our reviews on all the other games by searching "clueQuest" on our website. Once you purchase the game, you'll receive a link that will give you access to an online portal. There's a PDF file that you'll need to download from that site. We recommend that you cut all the necessary pieces prior to the game. On the cover page of the PDF, it'll inform you on which pages you'll need to cut and which is just for visual clues. It's best to play this game on a spacious tabletop as some pieces were quite small and could easily get lost or mixed up. You'll need to be a good organizer with this game.

There are three chapters in this game. The solutions are to be entered on the website portal. If you are playing with a team over Zoom, your team can use the same login to play the game but the game won't be synced. Each team member will need to enter the password on their own to proceed forward.

There's no time limit on when you'll need to complete the game. The timer on the game is mainly to add the urgency feel like you would experience in an real escape room. If you want to come back to a chapter after some rest, just click on the link provided in the email. The introductory video at the beginning of each chapter served as nice breaks for us and it's always a pleasure to watch clueQuest's cool animations come to life.

Photos above are property of clueQuest

🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂

clueQuest's puzzles are usually quite heavy on spatial concepts. Since the backstory of this game is based on rescuing Mr. Q out of a mind trap, you're going to have to "tunnel" through a lot of mazes. There are times where we need to go through lasers, match up shapes, recognize differences, and finally go through a 3D matrix.

Some of the puzzle pieces didn't align correctly after comparing with the solution. They were a bit off from where we had to connect and we're not sure if it's because of the different size papers that we were using. One of our teammates is in Europe, the other is in Asia and we're in the US so our paper sizes were all different. There was also one other puzzle that we couldn't match up our answers to the solution given. Good thing there are build-in hints in this game. We definitely needed some pointers on the final puzzle.

Photos above are property of clueQuest

🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂

This game will be quite challenging for beginner. Other than having to associate the clues from the artwork (amazing as always by the way), you'll need to think not only in 2D but sometimes in 3D. Once again there'll be a good amount of cutting involved so you'll have to be a fan of that. ClueQuest did a great job with the story line this time. We really felt like we took a journey in his brain and was fighting get out of the crazy traps that the coma is supposedly creating for us. Teamwork was essential with this game. Since we can't bypass puzzles, we worked together in a linear fashion. If you can gather teammates that are great at visualization, it will definitely help you out in this game. ClueQuest is the fastest company we know when it comes to putting out new games. Speaking of which, check out their Valentine's Day game coming out very soon!

𝔼𝕊ℂ𝔸ℙ𝔼𝕋ℍ𝔼ℝ𝕆𝕆𝕄𝕖𝕣𝕤❜ ℙ.𝕀.𝕤❜ 𝕋𝕙𝕠𝕦𝕘𝕙𝕥𝕤

Hanna N.

This game was full of great artwork with cute characters and storyline. Each chapter began with a video that made me smile, which was necessary since the game itself was very challenging and they gave us time to recharge between puzzles.

There was a broad variety of paper puzzles which I really liked, both aligning and overlaying but also more intricate use of the paper and cutouts.

It is specified for each puzzle what components you needed to solve it, which was great since we had printed a lot and cut out many little pieces. It was however not always clear where to begin, by adding some visual hints they could have eliminated a lot of confusion. We spent some time on a puzzle, just to realise when getting a few hints that we had started in the wrong end.

The solutions all played into the bigger story, which I enjoyed, but it also meant that we sometimes weren't sure if we had found the right answer or not. The opposite also happened a few times, when we thought we had the correct answer and then realizing that we weren’t even close.

All in all it’s a beautiful game with difficult puzzles, don’t be afraid to look at the hints!

Mali C.

I have played physical escape rooms before, but it’s always been very difficult to get a solid group of friends ready to play - so, I really like this set-up - however, I suppose it’s not catered to random strangers playing with each other - though, I think this could and probably should be a thing!

The preparation was neat, I haven’t had to cut anything to be constructive in forever; but then - that’s where the difficulties started - I am a metric person down to my very core - the “letter” setting registered as A4 for me, which meant that the print-outs were not entirely to scale - which in turn made it a bit difficult to solve the puzzles. I think that’s all I have to criticize. Now, all the good stuff - I am so focused on solving puzzles, I hardly pay attention to the plot anymore - this puzzle kept looping me back in, the clues and the solutions are linked into the theme. The puzzles are of close-to frustrating difficulty - which I like, but this is also fueled by the fact that my prints were not to scale. This forced the hints - you can get 3 of them or ask for the solution - naturally, that takes away from the experience but if you must you can choose to be guided along - that’s neat.

So, overall - great escape! - I would love for it to become a thing, where player from all over the world can just join like the do for any other MMORPG - it’s a great way to stay connected AND do things the old-school way. Would recommend and play again!

Check out our interview with the creators to understand more on the development side of these game:

Video above is property of ESCAPETHEROOMers

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(If you do decide to try this experience, give us a shoutout or tag us on social media so we know you heard it from "ESCAPETHEROOMers"!)

Disclosure: We thank clueQuest for providing us with a sample of the game. Although complimentary experience was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever.