PostCurious – Adrift [Review]

Watercolors & Artifacts

Location:  at home

Date Played: September 17, 2022

Team size: 1-4; we recommend 2-4

Duration: 2-3 hours

Price: about $49

REA Reaction

We delighted in Adrift’s structured gameplay. It was so well organized. This made it approachable and immensely satisfying for my anti-chaos personality. It expertly on-boarded players, and gradually dialed up the difficulty. While some of the later puzzles were quite challenging, and in one instance a change in gameplay pattern threw us off for a bit, the tangible artifacts kept us engaged and the solutions delivered.

Furthermore, Adrift was beautiful. Every component was crafted with exquisite care. You’re purchasing more than just puzzles here. You’re purchasing art. Although some aesthetic choices gave us narrative pause, the beauty of the components made Adrift that much more fun to play through.

Adrift is the type of tabletop puzzle game that would make a perfect gift for the puzzlers in your life. It packs a few hours of compelling gameplay, which in turn give you back some keepsakes (or even ornaments), if that’s your thing.

A few pieces of advice for your playthrough to maximize fun: You don’t have to play the entire game at once. It’s easy to divide it into sections. Start with yellow and blue, and save red for last. When the puzzles ramp up, don’t be shy with the hints. PostCurious excels at hint delivery, so these won’t spoil your enjoyment of the game. With this setup, Adrift is an accessible experience for puzzle veterans and the puzzle curious.

Who is this for?

• Puzzle lovers
• Art aficionados
• Any experience level

Why play?

• Unique and beautiful artifacts
• Illustrations you might just want to hang on the wall
• Clever and approachable puzzle design

Story

Our client had been having strange dreams. Moreover they were producing gorgeous art that they didn’t have the skills to create. We were looking into these phenomena to unravel the mystery of it all.

Setup

Within the box there were 4 folders and 4 matching bags. Each folder offered three stages of puzzles that built on each other.

We could solve the folders in any order, but within any given folder, the puzzles had to be solved sequentially (which was clearly marked).

Ultimately each folder had us construct and puzzle through a unique artifact.

Gameplay

PostCurious’ Adrift was a collaborative, narrative-driven, tabletop puzzle game. It offered more depth and more challenge than a standard play-at-home escape game. However, the puzzles built up in complexity and would be approachable for a wide range of experience levels.

Core gameplay revolved around observing, making connections, and solving puzzles.

Analysis

➕ Adrift was beautiful. Each component was deliberately crafted: the paper, colors, front and back printing, folders, bags… and even the box. Through and through, the production quality was outstanding.

➕ We build 4 unique artifacts during gameplay. These were really neat and fun to solve through. Furthermore, they were well constructed and satisfying to handle. We are continually impressed by how perfectly PostCurious’ puzzle components fit together.

➖ The aesthetic of the artifacts was too modern for the storyline.

➕ One favorite puzzle reflected a beautiful aha.

➖ In one puzzle, we struggled to differentiate similar colors.

❓Although the PostCurious website says “The game is fully resettable and no components are destroyed during play,” we found that it would be quite challenging to solve the green folder without destroying anything.

➖ It was almost always clear when a puzzle was solved and we should move on to the next component to start the next stage in a given folder. However, there were occasional missteps. In one instance the puzzle didn’t give consistent internal confirmation and we couldn’t intuit that we should progress. In another we were unsure exactly when to engage with the artifact.

➕ The blue and yellow folders solved quickly, but so cleanly. This felt great.

❓ The blue and yellow folders were much more approachable than the red and green ones. The game presented the folders as if they were all equal. That said, the instructions directed us to a starting color if we don’t want to choose yourself. It was wise to follow this direction.

➕ We could easily imagine framing and hanging some of the artwork from this game.

Tips For Players

• Space Requirements: a table
• Required Gear: a pen and paper, an internet connection for viewing hints and submitting solutions

Buy your copy of PostCurious’ Adrift, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.

Disclosure: PostCurious provided a sample for review.