Finders Seekers – Petra, Jordan (June Box Review)

Location: Your Home!

Players: We recommend 1-4

Price: $30 per box

Theme:

Each month, Finders Seekers invites you to accept a mysterious mission from the head seer. These “finds” are located in cities around the world and involve high stakes, cryptic puzzling, and shadowy societies! You’ll need a clever mind and some google-fu in order to piece together the puzzles and complete the find! And when you do, you might even receive a reward! This month, we travel to our most exotic city yet, Petra, Jordan via an invitation to prove our worthiness and uncover the secrets of the ancient city!

First Impressions:

I have previously completed Finders Seekers’ London and Washington, DC boxes, which were decent puzzle hunts, but didn’t really blow me away. The cities themselves were interesting, but nothing that stood out, and there was always at least one puzzle that just made no logical sense. I decided to give the subscription one more go before cancelling, however, and when I found out the next adventure would take place in Petra, I was already excited!

Soap! Incense! They think we smell!

High Points:

The choice of city was already above and beyond the last two adventures we had received, and that was enough to captivate us from the start! Petra is an ancient city that we don’t really hear a lot about daily, so it was a blast to learn about while immersing ourselves in the puzzles! Like the London box, this one was fully non-linear, which is a much better setup than the fully linear Washington, DC experience, as when we were stumped with a puzzle, we could step back, let that simmer in our minds, and move to the next challenge. Several times, once we’d done that, we were able to come back to the previous riddle fresh, and successfully complete it. The props included are great, as are the puzzles and interactions that they are a part of, and each bit is excellently interwoven with the style and history of Petra. The adventure itself provides varied enigmas to work through, and as it is fully non-linear, everyone can remain immersed in the experience and take on the puzzles that play to their strengths. All in all, this box is what I was originally hoping for when I first discovered Finders Seekers. A well crafted puzzling adventure though an exotic and interesting city that includes fantastic surprises and immersive props!

Low Points:

The first thing about this box was both a great touch, and a terrible addition for certain puzzlers. The soap and incense that is included make the box smell amazing, and really adds to the authenticity of the experience. On the other hand, however, the scent was so strong, it triggered an allergic reaction in my girlfriend! Though she was ok and the reaction was mild, we had to put the soap away and ask for the answer from a member of the hint group on Facebook in order to solve that one. While there, we noticed that a lot of people were having this issue, so it’s definitely something to look out for! One particular puzzle involved quite a bit of tedious cutting, and a ridiculous amount of our solving time was dedicated to this mind-numbing task. A couple of perception puzzles included with this box don’t quite line up as one would expect, and even though we eventually deduced the answers, we still weren’t one hundred percent certain as to how parts of the answer could reasonably be derived. At some points during the meta puzzles, things can become confusing, as some words have been accidentally included multiple times within the puzzle.

Verdict:

Though the Petra box still includes some tedium and an illogical puzzle, the pros well outweigh the cons for this hunt! In fact, it was enough to ensure I wanted to continue my subscription for at least another month. This is the first Finders Seekers box I’d definitely recommend to anyone without caveats, (well, maybe one regarding soap,) and I look forward to trying out their Athens adventure soon! Order your next puzzle hunting adventure here! If you sign up through our link, we’ll earn credits towards a free box, and can bring you more content! They also provide a fun free Chicago mini hunt if you’d like to get a feel for their style of puzzles.

8/10 (Great)