The Deadbolt Mystery Society – The Cabin (Review)

Location: Your Home!

Players:  We recommend 1-4

Price: $24.99 per box, plus $4.99 shipping

Chh chh chh… ahh ahh ahh…

Theme:

From the Deadbolt Mystery Society website:

20 years ago five camp counselors were brutally murdered at Camp Grand Echo. Now, those who survived have been summoned back to the camp by an eccentric millionaire and offered a large sum of money to spend one more night there for an upcoming reality show. No one seriously thinks the killing will start up again…until the headless body of the millionaire is found. The murderer, it seems, has returned. Old secrets will be unearthed. Bodies will fall. And The Reaper, once more, will reap. What truths will be uncovered in…The Cabin?  

First Impressions:

October is here, and with that come pumpkins, candy, and the best thing, horror themed mystery subscription boxes! As a huge fan of classic horror slasher flicks, the announcement of The Cabin had me excited to receive this box and dig into the mystery of The Reaper!

High Points:

Reminiscent of great horror stories like Friday the 13th and the best season of American Horror Story, Roanoke, (Shut up, it definitely is,) The Cabin is an amazing story based experience that really engaged us in ways I wasn’t expecting. Shaking up the usual Deadbolt formula, instead of investigating a murder after the fact, with The Cabin you’ll be trying to eliminate suspects before The Reaper can do the same, except in a slightly bloodier fashion! This has the excellent side effect of placing you within the story more directly while the events unfold. This is further effected through the experience’s phenomenal use of several out of the box, internet based interactions. The game flow is excellent as usual, allowing for non-linear solving while still gating off the most important parts expertly until the most appropriate moments.

Puzzles themselves continue to evolve, and while there’s some of the usual codebreaking, it’s mostly new and cleverly implemented. Other new puzzles present tidbits of the story throughout the game, and new revelations are around every corner! The story is fantastically engaging, and keeps up its intensity for the whole adventure, which lasted over 2 hours for us! The climax is surprising, presenting a perfect ending to the story, as well as a possible set up for a further meta-story, an amazing addition to the Deadbolt Universe that I can’t wait to see explored further! Overall, the 80’s slasher vibe of the box is perfectly implemented, and I love the way that The Deadbolt Mystery Society has grown into an even more story focused experience without sacrificing gameplay!

But wait, there’s more (to uncover!)

Low Points:

There’s really not much I can say regarding low points for this box! There was a small typo in one article regarding the date of the murders, but that literally doesn’t matter. Everything is intuitive and exciting, and is amazing fun to investigate!

Verdict:

The Deadbolt Mystery Society has been on an absolute roll lately, and I have another new favorite Deadbolt box just a month after my last favorite, Terminal! In fact, the updates to the Deadbolt formula and constant surprises we encountered make this the first subscription box on the site to receive a 10 out of 10! The continued innovation and quality of these boxes are awesome, and I cannot wait to see what comes next during the Carnival of Chaos in November! Join the Deadbolt Mystery Society here! Right now, you can get 30% off your first box with the Promo Code ESCAPE30! You can also see the rest of our Deadbolt Mystery Society reviews here!

10/10 (Phenomenal)

Full Disclosure: The Deadbolt Mystery Society provided a complementary box.