Photos above are property of The Mysterious Package Company
Company: The Mysterious Package Company
Game: HASTUR
Country: Canada 🇨🇦
Language: English
Type of Game: Puzzles By Mail 📬
Genre: Horror, Mystery, Occult, Lovecraftian
Date Played: April 2, 2021
Difficulty (based on 2 players): 8/10
Size of Team: Unlimited
Time: Unlimited (Suggested 6 Hrs)
Price: $299.99
🆃🅷🅴 🆂🆃🅾🆁🆈
A strange letter arrives at your door with a ticket for a performance that you have only missed by a few days. As you begin looking into the strange happenstances surrounding you acquiring of this ticket you learn all is not as it seems with “The King in Yellow” performance by Phantom of Truth Productions. An ongoing investigation, a curious wooded crate packed with relics, and a temptation to learn about the King in Yellow offers you a chance to explore the chaos and calamity that is HASTUR.
Video above is property of The Mysterious Package Company
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Hastur is an at home experience that comes in two separate mailings. The first mailing includes an invitation to the performance of “The King in Yellow” and a letter from the ticket agency. The second mailing arrives in a wooden crate nailed shut that contains a statue of a primordial being, aged rune scrolls, star charts, a wax tablet, a curious stone bowl, and a dossier of papers streaked with blood that will help you piece together the mystery of what happened at this performance and what roll you now must play. This game requires no outside research but there is some online content you must access related to mailing one and the conclusion of mailing two.
One thing MPC has excelled at countless times is creating true art pieces with their games. Pages are aged, bloodied, wrinkled, coffee stained, and smeared with dirt while the box smells old as if the contents have not been seen in decades. All your senses are engaged as you literally pry open the box and dig into the contents. You feel truly involved, as if you are really unwrapping an ancient antiquity with a mysterious past. This game is definitely display-worthy… if you don’t mind a statue of HASTUR in your curio cabinet.
Photo above are property of The Mysterious Package Company
🆃🅷🅴 🅶🅰🅼🅴 🅿🅻🅰🆈
The opening mailing of HASTUR seeks to tempt you. You will explore what looks to be a regular website and the ultimately you end knowing why and how you will be receiving a second mailing. There is a slight delay in one element as you must wait on an email at a certain point but the eeriness of this first mailing helps lay the platform for the second mailing. This mailing is all about exploring rather than puzzles so don’t be afraid to click all the links.
The second mailing brings you into the calamity. There are two avenues of exploration. On one hand there is a large aged scroll that contains a ritual that is begging your attention but on the other hand is a curious stack of newspapers, pamphlets, and various other ephemera that reveals a strange series of events. The scroll (and accompanying ritualistic items) contain the puzzles while the stack of papers builds the narrative. This experience is based off of Lovecraftian lore and while you do not need to know anything to play the game, this stack helps piece the story together for you so I recommend unpacking that before beginning the ritual.
Photos above are properties of ESCAPETHEROOMers
🆃🅷🅴 🅿🆄🆉🆉🅻🅴🆂
As mentioned above, the initial mailing doesn’t necessarily have a puzzle aspect. It is more exploration to find hidden information that will lead you to a clear ending of mailing one. Mailing two has a linear puzzle system as you move through a series of steps in the ritual. As you complete each step the puzzles become increasingly difficult as you translate runic symbols, match strange scrolls with mythological events, orient star charts to learn constellations, and more. Each puzzle is layered to build off another which means you need to be careful as mistake can throw the final step off. Take careful notes as you move forward as you may need to backtrack to make slight corrections. There is no hint system for any Mysterious Package Company games so I encourage you to join Puzzle People Facebook Group to ask for help or contact MPC at concierge@mysteriouspackage.com for assistance (there will likely be a delay in assistance).
What I loved most about these puzzles was that they involve a lot of physical interaction with the game components as you turn, flip, roll, and rotate. This helps players really connect and feel immersed. You become an active participant in bringing this ritual to life. Each ritual step encourages you to look at the board in a different light and there is an ambiance of mystery and intrigue as you continued on your journey with each solution. These puzzles work to aid the narrative rather than hinder it because they are thematic and woven carefully into the components. As such, they provide a balance of challenge and complexity that provides the best “aha” moments.
🅲🅻🅾🆂🅸🅽🅶 🆃🅷🅾🆄🅶🅷🆃🆂
HASTUR is, to me, the best puzzle immersive experience that MPC has to offer. The narrative is rich with lore and works seamlessly to share a fascinating story alongside challenging yet rewarding puzzles. Over the course of your journey you become privy to secrets that have been hidden for centuries and each puzzles brings you closer to the truth. At the end, though, you must make a choice based on all you learned. Will you help HASTUR or will you save us from his madness?
(If you do decide to try this game, please remember to let them know that you heard it from"ESCAPETHEROOMers"!)
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