Number of Reviews: 8
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Interesting, fair, and fairly-short puzzle-fest, December 5, 2016This is an interesting little puzzle-fest that may be narratively thin for readers who don't subscribe The Mysterious Package Company. The "MPC" is a real-life delivery service that mails intriguing packages with facsimile artifacts to their customers, and this game appears to be a tie-in to their service, with optional content for subscribers.
Being locked out of the optional content didn't detract from the overall experience, but I did feel like I was getting only part of the story, due to the many narrative references to stock mysteries and tropes, such as a jackalope skull in the starting room. Many of these references ended up feeling like window dressing instead of depth, and it'd be interesting to see what would happen if the piece was gently disconnected from the underlying MPC structure or if it better explored that structure: why am I really in this room? What's my relationship to a figure known as the Curator? Why does the MPC do this work?
I'm being tough on the lack of scene-setting and urgency not because this is a bad piece; in truth, it's a very good piece with fair, fun, consistent puzzle design, much better than most puzzle-centric pieces. If you really enjoy puzzle-centric work, you'll like this quite a bit; if you really want more narrative depth in a work,you might feel a little nonplussed.
There is a huge level of delight in solving the many puzzles scattered about, and the design isn't difficult due to the fairness and consistency of the puzzles, leading to a number of 'happy' moments when just the right thing works in just the right way.