Some Photos were provided by Escape Notice Games
Company: Escape Notice Games
Game: Stolen At Sea
Country: USA 🇺🇸
Language: English
Type of Game: Puzzles By Mail 📬
Genre: Adventure
Date Played: 3/3/2021
Difficulty (based on 2 players): 4/10
Size of Team: 2-6 Players (Suggested), Ages 14+
Time: 60 Minutes
Price: $75.00 (Add "Stolen at Sea" FUN PACK +$38.00) / (Add Gift Wrap +$5.00)
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It is the year 1923. You are passengers on the RMS Aquitania. During this relaxing cruise, a theft happened in the first class cabin. The MI6 officers are asking for your assistance in this investigation. Hopefully you can catch the thief quickly so you can continue to enjoy this amazing vacation.
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"Stolen at Sea" came in a beautiful cardboard box with a red bowtie and a key. Inside you'll find instructions to "how to play the game" and "how to reset the game". You'll also receive a game material check list and a solution sheet. There's a marker and an envelope that's marked "Open this envelope first" and some other clue papers. Finally, there are 3 canvas bags with locks on them.
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At first glance you might be overwhelmed by the materials in this box but the creators did a great job with organizing everything for the players. If you read the instructions clearly, you'll know to only use each item once (except for the travel guide). The Instructions clearly tells you how to open each of the canvas bags. For each bag, you'll discover 3 missing passengers. Each passenger has a puzzle that'll provide you with a single digit. Once you put all three together, you'll be able to solve a lock on a bag. This method will repeat until you solve the last bag.
You can play this game two ways. The classic way is to just play it on a tabletop. Or you can spice it up and play it like an escape room. You can hide puzzles around the house and set a timer for 60 minutes. Our review is based on the classic play.
Hint cards are available in the envelope marked "MI6 Intelligence Cards". These are nudging hints but if you still need more assistance, you can check the "solutions" sheet. We feel like the solution sheet should've probably been hidden in another envelope. Since the colors are the same as the check list and instruction sheet, we mistakenly glanced at it at the beginning of the game. So make sure you don't make the same mistake. One thing we enjoyed about this game is that no internet was needed. If you were actually on a cruise vacation, you could totally play this game at sea.
The creators also did a great job with making it really easy for the players to pass this game as a gift to friends and family. The reset instructions are very easy to follow and the marker and laminated pages makes it convenient to wipe off answers to puzzles that we've solved.
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Maybe because of our "escape room" background but the logic connection behind this game just made a lot of sense to us. Each item and code are to be used only once is something we're very use to in escape rooms. Every time we've used an item, we'll put it on the side. We would also collect all the evidence relating to a certain character as they presented themselves.
The puzzles were on the easy side for enthusiasts. The attention to detail on the props were nicely done. Sometimes we felt like it's a bit "wasteful" to use some of the props on just one puzzle but we appreciate the creators wanting to make the storytelling as real as possible. If your not familiar with basic ciphers, decoding, "search and find", simple Math type of puzzles, then this game is a great place to start!
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Since we are fans of cruising ourselves, it was great to see that they've gotten everything down on what you'll normally encounter on a cruise. The seating chart, the daily guide with activities, port information, trolley maps with excursions were all very informative. In each puzzle that you solve, you'll also get a little backstory that connected the characters together. The ending was very conclusive as well and gave us a satisfying "trophy" as keepsake. Thank you for taking us on a lovely virtual cruise!
Check out our interview with the creators to understand more on the development side of these game:
*** We regret to inform this company has closed its doors ***
Disclosure: We thank Escape Notice Games 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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