Matthew BaileyToday’s review, game 8 in our “Reviews Leading Up to (and now in) the February Half Term and Valentine’s Day” series, is “The Detective Society: Family Adventures” and in the case of the photos here “The Smashed Piñata” which is the 3rd case in this box.
Played with Jack(.8.) and Toby(5).
The Detective Society is a series of escape room-style at-home boxed games that usually retail around the hundred-pound mark and are played over a number of sessions.
The Family Adventures consist of three relatively short puzzles designed to be played with kids. In this session, we played “The Smashed Piñata.”
Now, I’m going to be relatively vague here as I don’t want to give anything away, but essentially, the game is a mixed-media puzzle. You start by receiving a video from a police officer telling you about a Piñata that was smashed, ruining a kid’s birthday party. It’s up to you to solve the case, find out who smashed the Piñata, and along the way, solve an altogether larger case.
The storytelling is sweet, light, and whimsical, and the puzzles are pitched just right for the audience. As an adult, I found it not crazy difficult but there were a few moments where I did have to think as we were solving the puzzles, but most of the work was done by the boys, and they absolutely adored it.
Its worth nothing you do need a way of accessing the internet to be able to play these.
I have done many of these escape room-type puzzles before, and this was the first one I have done specifically with children in mind, and I must say that it is really very good.
We actually played the other 2 a while back and I wanted to complete all 3 before I gave my recommendation.
These are not games “per say” and are not something you would (or could) play time and time again. These are very much one-time experiences, but for £15, you get three really fun adventures that are going to take you about 45ish minutes, and in terms of value for money, I think these are excellent.
I much prefer escape room-type games that have objects in them, which this one certainly does. And I preferred this series to the child-friendly versions of Exit and Unlock that I have also played.
Definitely worth a go, as long as you go into it being well aware that these are very much one-time experiences.
Disclaimer: A copy of “The Detective Society: Family Adventures” was kindly provided by The Detective Society via their partnership with “Big Potato Games” for the purpose of review. All of our thoughts and opinions are our own.
