Our favourite of the series
Chapter II takes you to Padstow Wharf to find the second of 12 ancient artifacts hidden among the hundreds of shipments arriving and leaving the warehouse.
Hot on the heels of another agent who went missing in action, you must use the map, film negative, and cargo panels she left behind to piece together the artifact’s location before it is moved and lost forever.
We’d played Chapter 1: The Custodian’s Keys a little while ago but to be honest we didn’t really get on too well with it, so we gave it a long break before we decided to return for Chapter 2: Warehouse on the Wharf. We were actually on holiday in a lovely little cottage on Dartmoor so it seemed like the perfect time to break our Chapter 2 and see if things had improved since Chapter 1.
Knowing that Chapter 1 needed a lot of table space to play, we made sure to clear the table before opening the envelope to Chapter 2 – as it turns out I think it needed a similar amount of table space to Chapter 1, clear the decks!
The envelope to Warehouse on the Wharf felt very familiar as it had the same quality feel as the previous chapter, only there were subtle differences to show that this was a different chapter (Curious Correspondence Club seem all about attention to detail). So with the envelope open and the story infront of us, we put on our usual gaming Spotify playlist and began our mission.
CONCEPT/EXECUTION
Like the first Chapter, this game is heavily narrative driven, the opening narrative took us a little while to read but certainly set the scene for what we were there to do. They hadn’t provided a Spotify playlist this time but that didn’t really make any difference to us as we already have a playlist we like when we game (it’s pretty good).
On opening the envelope we were confronted by a number of curious items and were unsure how we would use them or when they would come into play. There is a lot to take in at the start and finding the starting point is always tricky, but trust me when I say it does become clear.
A word I seem to use a lot when talking about Curious Correspondence Club games is ‘quality’, and I’m probably going to use it again here as once again the quality of components were top quality. Obviously you’ve got to remember that these games are designed to be posted around the world so they keep weight down by using thick card for the printing, but the quality doesn’t suffer.
My favourite bit of this game is probably something that goes unnoticed by many people. The way they created a clipboard purely out of card was pure class. It was so simple and lesser companies wouldn’t have bothered, but CCC are all about the attention to detail, and this little detail gave us both a smile.
PUZZLES
We didn’t get on with the puzzles in Chapter 1 so we were really hoping things were better in Chapter 2, and I’m pleased to report they were! We found that the signposting was also stronger and generally we were steered in the right direction to get to where we needed.
The puzzles in this game relied heavily on observation and attention to minor details but there was also a puzzle that involved something a bit more tactile and was really clever, it took a little while for us to assemble (four hands are better than two here) but once we did, we instantly knew what we needed to do – very clever.
Some of the puzzles were also multi-step puzzles and unlike Chapter 1, had to be completed in a set order. If you look close enough at some of the items though you will see subtle details that will help you work out where to go next.
GM/CLUE SYSTEM
On the same link that you use to enter your final solution, you can also find the hint system that will help you get where you need to be. The clues were broken down into each individual puzzle and then further broken down into two parts – hints and solution.
If you needed help it was possible to reveal three hints for each puzzle. These hints were gradual so you could still solve the puzzle yourself if the first hint helped you enough, but if not, you could look at the solution so you can still complete the game.
FINAL THOUGHTS
We enjoyed this game much more than Chapter 1. The puzzles made sense, the tactile components were clever and a joy to work with, and the final video brought a close to the story and our mission.
TOOLS REQUIRED
- Internet connection
- Pen and paper for notes (optional)
Final Rating:
| Puzzles | |
| Concept/Execution | |
| Clue System | |
| Value for Money | |
| Enjoyment |
Team: 2 players
Time Taken: 56mins
Website: https://www.curiouscorrespondence.com/
*Disclaimer: we weren’t charged for this experience, but this has not influenced our review.
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