Cara Mandel Archives - Page 2 of 18

Mojec Hyper Industries – Dracula’s New Friends [Hivemind Review]

21 October 202131 October 2021 by REA Hivemind, posted in Hivemind

Dracula’s New Friends is a live-hosted point-and-click game created by Mojec Hyper Industries.

Illustration of a grand study with large statues and an animal pelt rug.

Format

Style of Play:

Online native experience (can NOT be played IRL)
Point-and-click within Telescape
Interactive NPCs

Required Equipment: computer with internet connection

Recommended Team Size: 2-4

Play Time: 65 minutes

Price: $25 per person

Booking: book online for a specific time slot

Description

Dracula’s New Friends combines point-and-click gameplay (run within the Telescape game engine) and live interaction with characters through Zoom. There are numerous puzzles and activities that allow you to advance from location to location in a version of the classic vampire story.

Host character with an illustrated live background of a chair.

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Enigmailed – Chocolateral Bars [Hivemind Review]

15 October 202123 October 2021 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 clues 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."

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Paradox Games – Cyber Crime Unit [Hivemind Review]

13 October 202123 October 2021 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 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 solve 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 players are forensic investigators. Players will have different information appear on the screen and will need to communicate to effectively 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.

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Second Maze – Milo and the Magpies [Hivemind Review]

4 October 20217 October 2021 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.

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Neon Dreams Mystery [Hivemind Review]

11 September 202114 September 2021 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.