The Puzzle Box: Der magische Rätseltisch

All three of the Puzzle Box games we tried were distinctive and impressive, but for me there was a clear standout, and it was this one. For a start it’s a beautiful object. The others were appealing and well-themed, but this looks like a hand-crafted piece of quality furniture, something you’d be happy to display.

Secondly, it’s far less linear in construction. There are many secrets to discover in the octagonal cylinder, and many of them can be discovered in any order. As you find them and solve the puzzles they lead to, you begin to recognise the pattern being built up, which gradually leads to the final grand puzzle. In that sense it’s reminiscent of a (very accessible!) puzzle hunt, where you not only have to solve the puzzles but also identify the puzzles and how they work, and finally bring everything together for the last meta-puzzle.

This style of game is somewhat more challenging and more suited for experienced players, good for those who enjoy puzzling and are happy to persist even when initially baffled. The payoff of reaching the solution is correspondingly greater.

More than anything this felt like a real-like version of the computer game The Room, which features a single enigmatic box that you open one panel at a time; but here it’s tactile not digital. It’s aesthetically lovely and mentally challenging, and was a delight to play.