Tag: Cara Mandel

Enigmailed – Chocolateral Bars [Hivemind Review]

by REA Hivemind, posted in Hivemind

Chocolateral Bars are chocolate bars wrapped in puzzles, created by Enigmailed.

A piece of chocolate resting on its green packaging, labeled, "Mind Dark Chocolate, The Case of the Fatal Experiment."

Format

Style of Play:

  • Light puzzle hunt
  • Play on demand

Required Equipment: Mouth, tongue, and eyes. Also, lactose tolerance.

No other equipment needed, but pen and paper helps for writing down answers.

Recommended Team Size: 1-2

Play Time: Each bar took about 15 minutes to solve. One reviewer adds, “and a little less time to eat” while another writes, “but longer to eat the chocolate.” We conclude that chocolate consumption speed varies more than solving speed.

Price: £5.50 per bar (plus shipping)

Booking: purchase and play at your leisure

Description

Step 1 – Read mystery on the packaging.

Step 2 – Eat chocolate while solving puzzles, using context clue in packaging. Share if desired.

Step 3 – Enter answers on webpage via QR code… and order more chocolate.

Step 4 – Go to Step 1.

Packaging for two individual chocolate bars: green, labeled, "Mind Dark Chocolate, The Case of the Fatal Experiment." Yellow labeled, "Honeycomb Milk Chocolate, The Case of the Honeycomb Sting."
Continue reading “Enigmailed – Chocolateral Bars [Hivemind Review]” →

Paradox Games – Cyber Crime Unit [Hivemind Review]

by REA Hivemind, posted in Hivemind

Cyber Crime Unit is a collaborative, ARG-style, puzzle/ detective game created by Paradox Games.

Cyber Crime Unit web page welcome's Forensic Agents.

Format

Style of Play:

  • Online native experience (can NOT be played IRL)
  • Play on demand
  • Light puzzle hunt

Required Equipment: computer with internet connection, mobile device, and access to email and Facebook

Recommended Team Size: 2-4

Play Time: no timer, probably less than an hour

Price: $19.99 per team

Booking: purchase and play at your leisure

Description

You’re working at a Cyber Crime Unit and there has been a murder case at a suspicious company. You have to figure out who the killer is and what their motives were.

This is a website-based game where you look at pictures and different websites, send emails, make a phone call, etc. Once you solved a puzzle, you input the solution on the website to get more information.

All players log into a shared link. Whoever purchases the game is automatically assigned as the detective. The other platers are forensic investigators. Players will have different information appear on the screen and will need to communicate to affectively solve together.

Teams need to set up their own communication (via Zoom or any other platform).

A menu evidence to examine, including fingerprint identifier, frequency decoder, and UV blood tracker.
Continue reading “Paradox Games – Cyber Crime Unit [Hivemind Review]” →

Second Maze – Milo and the Magpies [Hivemind Review]

by REA Hivemind, posted in Hivemind

Milo and the Magpies is a point-and-click game created by Second Maze.

Milo and the Magpies load screen depicts the rooflines of a European town.

Format

Style of Play:

  • Online native experience (can NOT be played IRL)
  • Play on demand
  • Point-and-click

Required Equipment: computer with internet connection

Recommended Team Size: 1-2

Play Time: about an hour

Price: $1.99

Booking: purchase and play at your leisure

Description

Your job is to guide Milo, a lost kitty, back home while avoiding hostile magpies and other hazards. To do so, you search a series of nine scenes for hotspots that trigger animations, reveal information, and/ or collect objects to use with other hotspots. Each scene has a central puzzle to solve in order to progress to the next scene.

You need to purchase through Steam and play on a laptop or desktop computer.

Beautiful illustration of a backyard behind a house, a koi lives in a pond, a magpie sits atop a shed.
Continue reading “Second Maze – Milo and the Magpies [Hivemind Review]” →

Neon Dreams Mystery [Hivemind Review]

by REA Hivemind, posted in Hivemind

Neon Dreams Mystery is an ARG-style puzzle game.

Purple code falling vertically, with the words, "Let's Go" written in the middle.

Format

Style of Play:

  • Online native experience (can NOT be played IRL)
  • Light puzzle hunt
  • Includes video-based elements

Required Equipment: computer with internet connection, mobile device

Recommended Team Size: 2-5

Play Time: 2-3 hours

Price: $80 per team

Booking: book online for a specific time slot

Description

You are assigned a mission and given a briefing via pre-recorded video. Your task involves figuring out how a set of mysterious deaths might be related, and you explore websites, hack email, and send live operatives to collect the information you need.

This is an ARG-esque game, so you’ll need to browse through different websites, text/ phone characters, or sent emails.

An agent named Briggs, briefing the team over Zoom.

Hivemind Review Scale

REA's hivemind review scale - 3 is recommended anytime, 2 recommended in quarantine, 1 is not recommended.

Read more about our Hivemind Review format.

Continue reading “Neon Dreams Mystery [Hivemind Review]” →

Crux Club – Mob Treasure [Hivemind Review]

by REA Hivemind, posted in Book, Hivemind, Products

Mob Treasure is a puzzle book treasure hunt created by Crux Club.

Mob Treasure book cover and open book displaying a puzzle.

Format

Style of Play:

  • Book
  • Light puzzle hunt
  • Play on demand

Required Equipment: computer with internet connection, mobile device, pen and paper, scissors

Expect to use an internet-connected device (phone or PC) to do research for some of the puzzles.

Recommended Team Size: 1-3

Play Time: No game clock. Chapters took anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour or so of active puzzling.

Price: $15.99

Booking: purchase and play at your leisure

Description

In this book, you are on a quest to find the rumored treasure of mobster Dutch Schultz. This treasure hunt is divided into fifteen chapters full of illustrations and a bit of text, and each chapter contains about five puzzles. To solve each puzzle, you must analyze the information within the chapter and sometimes consult outside sources. You verify your answer by comparing it to the solution list in the back of the book. Once you have completed all of the puzzles within a chapter, you may proceed to the next chapter.

Continue reading “Crux Club – Mob Treasure [Hivemind Review]” →