The Detective Society - "The Cursed Exhibition - Episode 1"

Photo above is property of The Detective Society

Company: The Detective Society

Game: The Cursed Exhibition - Episode 1

Country: United Kingdom 🇬🇧

Language: English

Type of Game: Puzzles By Mail 📬

Genre: Detective, Mystery

Date Played: October 10, 2021

Difficulty (based on 1 player): 6/10

Size of Team: 1-4 ppl (Recommended) (Ages 14+)

Time: Unlimited (Roughly takes 90 - 120 Min)

Price: £35.00 (Individual), or £128 (Whole season)

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Claire Cobb, the archivist of The National Museum of Legends and Mythology, has been found dead in her locked archival room in the museum. The police are confounded on what has happened and you have been hired by the Angus Philips, the curator of the museum, to re-examine the case to see what you can unearth about her death…and if you can find the mysterious object that appears to be the focus of a series of rather strange occurrences dating back centuries. Are you up for the task or will you, too, become lost in the exhibitions of time?

Video above is property of The Detective Society

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Episode 1 came in a cardboard envelope. A white envelope labelled, “begin your investigation here,” guides players to the starting point with a brief introduction, note about the hint site, and a nudge on where to begin your investigation. The envelope contained a bevy of paper documents, a few curious props, and a locked zipper pouch that was begging me to open in. I found the components to be a high quality and fit well with the theme. I could very much see these items in a museum at the information desk, in the archives, and office spaces. There are a series of website you will visit over your journey and you will be given the URLs as you move along.

Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers

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This game has a focus on logic puzzles as you track down people, where they travelled, and what there were doing. Your ultimate goal is the locate the missing artefact that Claudia was last seen with, but you’re also learning a little bit about the ongoings of the museum and the history of this artefact. There is a woven narrative that I greatly enjoyed reading through and I encourage players to take the time to read the information. For me, it encouraged me to invest in the experience and I received a more rounded experience by learning more about this strange artefact. In this series, the gameplay involved you emailing the conclusions of each puzzle to a character, in this episode it is Angus. If what you said is correct, you’ll be given the next steps.

Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers

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This series definitely encourages a more detective style of puzzling. You are tracking the movements of characters using evidence from the police and hunting down contacts who may have the answer to what you need. Perspective is also another element to the puzzling that I really enjoyed as it had me stop and look from a different angle then I am used to. Often, you’ll see similar elements to puzzles across games but with The Detective Society there was also a refreshing twist that made the puzzles new and exciting. The documents, websites, and props will work together to provide a greater view of what happened and hint at what is coming. I found the puzzles themselves to be not very difficult, but you need deduction to really get the full answer for the game.

Keep in mind, you will be emailing people of the course of your journey so make sure you use only one email and put the information into the body text to ensure you receive accurate and prompt replies. There is also a bit of texting that happens, and I recommend downloading WhatsApp if you are in Canada/USA in order to get a response from the numbers. I found texting them with my phone garnered no response but using WhatsApp got me one.

I enjoy a good detective experience and I felt this episode really provide an excellent balance of online sleuthing and physical investigation. There is nothing like the feel of getting a lead thread and rifling through your papers to find the one item to corroborate your thought and I was able to get quite a few of these while playing.

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As this is a six-part series, the ending of episode one of “The Cursed Exhibition” left me with even more questions than I started with. I am fascinated with the premise and am desperate to learn more. They built a rich narrative within their mystery that provides players with enough information to engage with the story without information dumping, which is a fine line I appreciate a great deal. I am excited to see what happens next! This series it not fully completed, yet, with only the first three episodes out currently and by January 2022 the series will conclude. If you enjoy monthly mystery subscriptions this is a great option, but if you prefer to binge your subscriptions, The Detective Society also has two addition series completed that are ready for your at home investigation, “The Disappearance of Claire Makova” and “The Sudden Silence of Timothy Lee.”

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

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

Disclosure: We thank The Detective 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.

#JillianRaymond #AtHomeGames #PuzzlesByMail #SubscriptionGames #Detective #Mystery #TheDetectiveSociety #UnitedKingdom