The Mystery Agency: The Man from Sector Six (Play at Home)

Good, resettable puzzling fun

A mysterious agent’s warnings hidden in a locked folder. Solve brainteasers, and hack into a hidden website. Evidence are real-world objects, including a brass rotating cipher wheel.

It feels like a lifetime ago that we were all told to stay at home, and play at home games had their time in the spotlight. Five years later and the number of new play at home games being released has dwindled, but every now and then a new one appears that catches our attention. This time it was The Man from Sector Six, by The Mystery Agency.

I must admit, we have played a number of games by The Mystery Agency and for some reason we just didn’t click with them. We tried not to think about that, and on a cold and dark November night, we sat down by the fire, to see if we could break our odd Mystery Agency curse.

If you’re considering playing The Man from Sector Six, you should know that although this is a play at home game, you need internet access to be able to progress. We played using a laptop and this worked well. It’s possible it would also work on a mobile device, but at least one puzzle could be a little more challenging, although still totally possible. This game is recommended for 1-6 players, ages 12 and up, and I think that’s probably spot on. As a two, we both had things to work on, but there was nothing to stop it being solved solo.

CONCEPT/EXECUTION

The previous games we played by The Mystery Agency have all been top quality, at least in terms of production value, but The Man from Sector Six felt like they had massively upped their game (no pun intended). From the moment we opened the box, we were impressed with the quality of the contents found within.

I think the high quality goodies in this game was a decision made to help justify the not insignificant price tag that it carries. At £50, it is not a cheap experience, but none of The Mystery Agency games are particularly cheap. However, this game is designed to be played multiple times and is fully resettable. So when you’re done, you could sell it on, or perhaps break it out at Christmas and make a competition of who can complete it the quickest – suddenly the ‘cost per play’ is reduced, and I think you’d actually have a decent value game here.

A box game that is reliant on the internet is only as strong as the internet portal that accompanies it. Fortunately, the online portal was decent and worked flawlessly, which was useful as the first puzzle could only be solved once you hit ‘start’ on the portal.

You have two choices when you start the game, either play against the timer, or play in your own time. We chose the timed option but still didn’t feel rushed – the bonus of the timed option is that at the end of the game you get a certificate that shows how long you took. You may still get the time on your certificate if you do the untimed option, but I can’t confirm that. So if you’re competing with friends, then be sure to choose the timed option, and only hit go when you’re actually ready to start.

PUZZLES

The puzzles in this game clicked with us, which meant it was a joy to play and we had no frustrations. This is a game that you can play solo, so none of the puzzles really involved teamwork, but they did generally revolve around; following directions, observation and decoding – nothing too challenging, but still plenty to keep you going.

One thing I do like about The Mystery Agency games is that the puzzles don’t just result in codes for website entry, there are actual physical padlocks to unlock – three in total. It’s always nice to have something tangible to enter a code into, even if it’s just a few three digit padlocks.

GM/CLUE SYSTEM

Unlike our previous experiences with The Mystery Agency games, we had no issues at all and no reason to look at the hint system – testament to how fair and well signposted the puzzles were. In the interest of thoroughness however, I have gone back into the game and checked out the hint system.

From the very start, in the Mystery Agency portal, there is a button you can click that gives access to a dossier containing any help that you may need. Each puzzle has its own line so you know exactly which clue to click on (and won’t accidentally get the wrong help). When you click on the puzzle you’re stuck on you can choose two hints, and if you’re still not getting it, you can reveal the answer – meaning that one way or another, you can, and will solve the mystery.

FINAL THOUGHTS

We were impressed with The Man from Sector Six, not only for the quality of the materials and the puzzles, but also for the fact that they’ve designed it so that it’s fully resettable so you can pass it on to someone else (or the whole family can play). If your Christmas involves competing with family, then this would be a great choice for a few hours of family fun (split into teams, and take it in turns).

If I had to really pick one gripe with this game it would be that despite the clearly high production budget, the one bit in the game that required spoken words, they used AI to produce it. There are so many talented actors out there, that I’m sure it wouldn’t have been hard to find a human to voice it – and it would have been easier to understand too. But that’s it, a small gripe.

TOOLS REQUIRED

• Internet
• Pen and Paper (for note taking)

Final Rating:

Team: 2 players

Time Taken: 51 minutes

Website: https://themysteryagency.com/

*Disclaimer: we weren’t charged for this experience, but this has not influenced our review