Deadbolt Mystery Society - The Unknown Passenger

The Game: The Unknown Passenger

The Creators: The Deadbolt Mystery Society

Age Level: 13 +

Average Completion Time: 2-3 Hours

Player Count: 1-4 Players

Difficulty Level: 7/10

Type of Box: Single One Story Box

Can it be replayed? Yes! This box can be 100% reset to be replayed again

Disclaimer: We were provided this box at no cost in exchange for our honest and unbiased review.

Pre-game Research: This was our first box by Deadbolt and we wanted to go in with as little info as possible so we did no pre game research on this one. 

Synopsis: 

When you boarded the train a few days ago, you didn’t know what to expect. This was your first time on a luxury train ride, after all. The ride to your destination is scheduled to take five days, but, thus far, the opulent accommodations have made the travel more of an extravagance than a chore. On the morning of day four, however, you are awakened by a commotion in the hallway. Opening your door of your cabin, you hear the words every good detective story begins with: "There's been a murder." The victim is an anonymous gentleman who has no identification and no ticket. Who is he? How did he get on board? Why was he murdered? Will the murderer strike again? Those are the questions you must answer as you attempt to solve the mystery of The Unknown Passenger.

Storyline: 

The storyline on this one was fantastic. Everything was cohesive and while the game allows for free independent play, there was a steady flow as it continued to unfold. Most characters were well thought out and developed, while others we suspected to be red herrings early on. Overall it was very well written and a great effort on the writers part. 

Gameplay: 

We had a lot of fun playing this game. As our adventure unfolded, we fell into the world created for us through a mixture of well created interviews, documents, and props all tying together and serving a purpose to advance the story. Each additional envelope provided another level of mystery and puzzle solving. The puzzles were creative and well thought out. There was a large amount of online content allowing you to interactively search rooms, continue interviews and interrogations, and gain additional information. This created a great immersion effect that we were both really happy with. 

Difficulty: 

The puzzles were very engaging and while some were very clear, others really flexed our brains. A lot of creativity and thought went into making some of the puzzles. The ciphers took a while. At the core they were somewhat simplistic, but they were tedious and added quite a while to our total play time. 

We agree with their difficulty rating of 7/10.

Final Thoughts:

We really didn’t expect to play this one for almost 3 hours. The sheer number of puzzles to solve, objectives to complete, and clues to uncover, were really surprising to us. While we would have appreciated more difficulty in actually figuring out the logic of the ciphers rather than spending so much time on actual decoding, it didn't take away from the fun of the game that much. We really enjoyed escaping into the world created for us. Extra credit has to be given for the immersion level of this game. There was way more interactive content than we anticipated and it was really appreciated. The effort that Deadbolt Mystery Society puts into their games is abundantly evident. Overall, when we saw the size of this box, we didn’t expect to get a lot out of it but we couldn’t have been more wrong. This small box packs a large punch and sticks the landing!

Our Completion Time: 2 Hours 45 Minutes

Our Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Where To Get It: Want to play this game? Here’s where to buy it!

Deadbolt Society Mysteries has single box purchase options (starting at $26.99 USD plus $5.99 shipping or free shipping for orders $50 and up) as well as a monthly subscription ($26.99 USD plus $5.99 shipping with discounts available if multiple months are chosen), both of which we feel are a great value for the product received!

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