Dispatch – On the Run: Box 1 (Review)

Location: Your Home!

Players:  We recommend 1-4

Price: $25 per box, 6 boxes in the first “season”

Special Delivery!

Theme:

Your close childhood friend recently married a beautiful and rich heiress, but soon thereafter she was murdered during their honeymoon! As the chief suspect of the crime, your friend has gone on the run and has been missing for some time. While the manhunt rages on, you receive a mysterious delivery, which turns out to be from him! Use the clues and tidbits inside to unravel the mystery and hopefully clear your friend’s name!

First Impressions:

We had previously enjoyed the rooms at our local Breakout Games, and were excited to see that they were breaking into the hugely popular subscription box market. Though we had tried other boxes with friends, they weren’t quite as exciting as we thought they might be, but with a new series coming out from a well known brand, we were interested to see what one of the big dogs in the escape room business could do!

Slightly blurred to protect the secrets!

High Points:

Box 1 of On the Run weaves a exciting and mysterious tale of intrigue and conspiracy, and includes quite a few high quality props to help immerse you in the story. Just reading through everything provided in the box and on the web takes up a good hour and does a great job of setting up the world of Dispatch. Once the puzzle solving begins, you’ll need to look back through the story to pick out the pertinent parts, which are sometimes very clear, but are other times buried beneath levels of story. This was, for the most part, a fun investigation, and luckily there is help available on the forums and via an in universe detective agency if you get stuck. The other great thing about Dispatch is that you will 100% know when you are finished with a box, as once the final puzzle is solved, it becomes very clear that you have done what you needed to do. Most other boxes I’ve played around with are very unclear in this area, and I’m glad to see one that has a definite end point for each leg of the story.

Low Points:

The first box is definitely an introductory experience, as there were only a few puzzles included with the massive amount of great world-building. Puzzles were appropriately challenging, and though I was able to solve the box alone, another brain would’ve definitely helped! Those expecting this to be an escape room in a box will be disappointed, as it doesn’t quite have enough puzzles or capture that feeling of breaking out. The writing inside the journal included feels less polished than the rest of the reading materials, but conveys the initial story well enough. The experience, once you are solving the puzzles, ramps up a lot in difficulty after the first one, which could frustrate players who would like a quicker game flow.

Verdict:

On the Run Box 1 was a fun introductory adventure, and I am interested in seeing what comes next. For future boxes, I’d like to see a more even puzzle flow, along with more puzzles in general, but the story and high quality items that were sent make this a definite subscription for me. You can sign up to begin your monthly investigation here!

7.5/10 (Good)

Full Disclosure: Our first box was provided by Dispatch for free.