Survivalist
Location: at home
Date Played: October 22, 2019
Team size: 1-6; we recommend 2-3
Duration: 60 minutes
Price: about $17
REA Reaction
The Mystery of Eldorado was the fourth installment in Deckscape’s card-based, story-driven escape game series. We were lost in the Amazon (rain forest… not website) and Deckscape added a survivalist twist to the puzzles.
In The Mystery of Eldorado, we had to make decisions – lots of them. Our choices came with ramifications: some foreseeable, others that came out of nowhere. In puzzle-driven games, if you’re solving well, you usually feel in control. The Mystery of Eldorado, however, always felt a little out of control, which was equal parts thematic and annoying.
This was a strong installment, especially for Deckscape fans. The art was good. The story was playful. There were plenty of puzzles to fill a play session; we just wished that there was a little more variety to the puzzle types.
All in all, this was a fun game for the price and a good value for table top escape room players.
Who is this for?
- Story seekers
- Puzzle lovers
- Survivalists
- Players with at least some experience
Why play?
- Some truly unusual puzzles
- An interesting story
- You’re a Deckscape fan
- It’s cute
Story
While searching for the lost city of Eldorado, our plane had crashed in the jungle. With limited resources, and danger lurking in the leaves, we were committed to finding the legendary city or to die trying.
Setup
The Mystery of Eldorado followed the same structure and core mechanics of Deckscape’s previous games. We explained this in detail in our review of Test Time & The Fate of London, so we won’t rehash it.
As with previous Deckscape games, the print quality was great, as was the art.
Gameplay
Deckscape’s The Mystery of Eldorado was a standard play-at-home escape game with a moderate level of difficulty.
Core gameplay revolved around searching, observing, puzzling, and reasoning though options.
Analysis
➕ The Mystery of Eldorado had a fun premise. It didn’t take itself too seriously… but it also worked well. It was a good balance.
➕ The writing was entertaining and the game world was funny. We played in English, which was a translated version. The writing held up.
➕/➖ There were many choices to make within The Mystery of Eldorado. That was cool because they were often consequential. However, many of them were blind choices and the ramifications felt haphazard.
➕ The artwork was great and had a consistent look about it.
➖ There were a few instances of eye-catching red herrings within the cards. Deckscape seems committed to their gotcha moments.
➕ Most of the puzzles were delightful and satisfying. The survivalist twist was well executed. It was surprising to have to attempt to reason through some of the more realistic logic puzzles.
➖ A minority of the puzzles were pretty dubious, which is kind of a thing with Deckscape. That said, there weren’t too many of these.
➖ There wasn’t quite enough puzzle variety for our liking. A few puzzle types were repeated with minor alterations.
➕ Deckscape created diegetic hints. They crafted characters and props within The Mystery of Eldorado that would provide the hints. This was fun.
Tips For Player
- Space Requirements: a small table or the floor
- Required Gear: pen and paper
Buy your copy of Deckscape’s The Mystery of Eldorado, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.
Disclosure: Deckscape provided a sample for review… and we lost it when we moved. So we bought our own copy to review it.
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