The Puzzle Box: Der Biosphären – Decoder

Visiting Munich, we had the chance to sample some of the games available from Puzzle Box, a.k.a. escape room legend (and friend) Heiner. These games are what’s sometimes called ‘crate’ games, available for hire to play in a location of your choosing, though the term ‘crate’ doesn’t do them justice. Each is some version of a large box, not a box that you open to take out the components but a box that you investigate and examine and gradually unlock its mysteries.

We played Der Biospären as a two, and that’s emphatically not how it’s intended to be played – it’s intended for team building exercises and other such events. There’s always a limit to how many people can comfortably fit around a puzzle box, but this one is designed to allow the players to split into four groups, each group working on what’s more or less the same set of puzzles. That would work well for 4-16 players, particularly beginners; with two, it meant that for part of the game we were essentially applying each solution four times over.

There’s a clear linear structure here, which divides players into parallel groups then increasingly brings them together as they approach the game conclusion, with a clear progression from the engaging start through to a satisfying payoff (at least, if you were paying attention to the story). The style of the box and of the puzzles is tech-heavy, matching the theme, and although the tech was a little fussy for us in a couple of places, it made it a very thematic and pleasing object to slowly conquer.

Solving it was entertaining for a pair of enthusiasts, but where it would really shine is in its intended use for entertaining a larger group, particularly if some or all players haven’t played many escape games before.