The Deadbolt Mystery Society - "Last Resort"

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Company: The Deadbolt Mystery Society

Game: Last Resort

Country: USA 🇺🇸

Language: English

Type of Game: Tabletop Game 📬

Genre: Mystery

Date Played: August 6, 2021

Difficulty (based on 2 players): 6.5/10

Size of Team: Unlimited

Time: Unlimited (Suggested 1.5-2 hours)

Price: $24.99+ for one offs or save with monthly subscription

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You've just been notified by your boss at Valley Falls travel agency that you and your colleagues will be going on an all expense covered retreat at Emerald Island. This sounds too good to be true. I guess you weren't expecting a killer to join you on this vacation? Hopefully this won't end up being the last resort you'll ever stay in...

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Last Resort came in a small cardboard box with an haunting cover image that looks like we're about to embark on Skull Island. Inside you'll find an intro card, a beginning brief, a collectible card, a resort brochure, staff and guest cards, staff interviews, guest dinner conversations, note in Samuel's room, beach ball, a postcard and 3 sealed envelopes.

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We started by reading everything we could get our hands on. The guest and staff cards along with the conversations really helped us paint a clear picture on each character's personality, job position and their relationship with the others. These cards also came in handy during the killer elimination process. Taking notes will definitely help as there's a lot of information given right at the beginning that you'll need for the latter part of the game. One tip I do want to give to the players is that you should write down all the answers. There were times when we wanted to go back to read a previous clue but had to enter the answer again after scanning the QR code.

The first postcard should serve as a practice puzzle as it was quite straight forward. Once you know the answer, scan the QR code and type in the answer in the given input box. If it's correct, you'll get your next instruction on how to proceed. Sometimes you'll get another puzzle and other times you may be instructed to open up a sealed envelope. The narrative parts between each QR scan were our favorite parts of the game. Every time we would discuss and guess who's the killer before proceeding to the next round (only to find out we're wrong). The excitement and build-up remained high for the entire game.

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At times you might be overwhelmed with all the information but this is where your detective skills comes to play. The Deadbolt Mystery Society does a great job at giving subtle hints on images or text to the players so that they can piece together the appropriate clues. We really enjoyed this type of puzzle design as it's not handed off to you in plain sight but you also didn't have to make logic leaps.

Some answers were simply buried in plain sight where as others needed deduction, calculation, decryption, etc...I loved how the creators were able to tie the storyline before the puzzle to either a location or an action being done by that character. Ultimately when the puzzle was solved, the true status of that character was revealed.

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This is our first Deadbolt Mystery Society game and I think we've became an instant fan! This is one of our favorite storylines that we've played in a puzzle box game. It's super twisted and reminded us of a mixture of "The Purge", "Hunger Games" and "I Know What You Did Last Summer". If you are a big fan of murder mystery and like shows that actually kill off characters, you won't be disappointed with this game. The ending was also very unexpected. I already can't wait for my next Deadbolt Mystery Society adventure! And for fans of collectibles, they don't just have the collectible cards and cool stickers in the game!

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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 The Deadbolt Mystery Society 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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