Photo above is property of The Deadbolt Mystery Society
Company: The Deadbolt Mystery Society
Game: Hacked
Country: USA 🇺🇸
Language: English
Type of Game: Tabletop Game 📬
Genre: Murder Mystery, Cold Case
Date Played: June 20, 2023
Difficulty (based on 1 player): 5/10
Size of Team: Unlimited (Recommend 1-4 Players)
Time: Approximately 90-120 Minutes
Price: $26.99 USD
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As part of the Will Street Detective Agency, someone has hacked your database. Leaving you a message, the hacker Fluk3 has information for you about 2 cold cases from many years ago. They believe that a 3 rd murder is also connected and could be the one to close all 3 cases. Who is Fluk3 though, and can they be trusted? Can you find the connections between all the cases?
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Opening the box, you will find the typical Deadbolt Mystery Society (DBS) introduction and the starting brief. Combing through the high-quality documents, there are also 2 other envelopes.
Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers
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After reading the Beginning Brief, I dove right into this game. This game in particular was non- linear and did not have other “Do not open until instructed” envelopes. From the start, I was able to open and search everything to try and make connections.
One of the things that really stood out was that DBS had some high quality audio clips involved that added to the gameplay. There were also some video clips, some to advance the story and some to solve. The story was also a little more intense with a darker tone then some of the other DBS I’ve played but as usual, brilliantly written. As typical for most DBS games, there are QR codes that need to be scanned to input your answer. If you are correct, a document will open up, providing you with more information.
Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers
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The game had a variety of puzzles ranging from eureka to cipher. The amount of puzzles and deduction in this game was well balanced. As someone who prefers more puzzles, I found the amount of deducing simpler and the game was more about making connections through the answers in the puzzles.
The hint system for DBS is they give you access to a hints document and a solutions document. The hints document has a progressive system giving you multiple hints. The only issue is that all the hints are on a single page and one after another, so a wandering eye could easily read all the hints by mistake. It is nice that the solutions are in a separate document though.
Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers
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"Hacked" hit all the high notes for me in what I enjoy in a detective game. The story had a classic murder mystery tone and had the written quality of a novel. The puzzles were a solid balance of puzzling and deducing with an open flow that allowed me to explore everything right from the start with no restrictions. Any veteran DBS fans or armchair detectives would enjoy this game. I did play this one on my own but there was definitely room for a few more people.
(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"!)
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