We've enjoyed playing clueQuest's real-life games in London - they're full of cartoonish fun, with a rich set of characters and high-quality puzzles offering interesting interactions. So we had high expectations for this game. Unfortunately, it becomes apparerent that cQ's experience does not lie in creating paper-based games, and this adaptation feels awkward.
Firstly, there's the preparation: it took me, no exaggeration, 40 minutes to cut out all the pieces before starting to play the game. While the game itself took us only one hour to complete. Some of that cutting out is not strictly necessary (I'm sure most players would be fine with looking at a printout of a photo on a full A4 sheet without it needing to be cut to 6"x4" size, for example), and whoever does the cutting out gets some pretty big spoilers (if not the actual solution) of the puzzles while doing so.
The printed artwork and accompanying web videos are high-quality, but somehow fail to capture the fun of the cQ franchise.
And the puzzles are solid enough but, in all honesty, I've seen better executed elsewhere.
For the next game in the series, I'm hoping cQ learn from experience of others more practiced in creating puzzles for printed media - D.A.S.H. or Puzzled Pint, say - as I'd love to bring Professor Blacksheep and chums into my home once more.
