The Deadbolt Mystery Society – Catch Me If You Can: The Collector Part 2 (Review)

Kara’s Note: This review was brought to you by me! 🙂

Location: Your Home!

Players: We recommend 2-4 Players

Price: $24.99 + shipping

Theme:

From The Deadbolt Mystery Society website:

The Collector has returned to finish the grisly business he began last year and the stakes are higher than ever. He’s abducted someone very close to you and has given you a deadline of 24 hours to catch him. Failure is not an option. It’s time to put an end to The Collector’s reign of terror. Difficulty Level: 8/10 Note: This is a sequel to The Collector. We do not recommend purchasing this box if you haven’t done The Collector.

First Impressions

At last – the long awaited sequel to the Collector! The first box ended on a highly mysterious note and set up an extremely interesting story, so I was curious to see how Deadbolt would follow-up and resolve this killer mystery.

Yay Points

I am very happy to report that the story did not disappoint! Instantly, details of Part One rushed back to me as the premise of this new case was revealed. The introduction was a nice segue from the first box and set up this mystery well. As we advanced through the plot, it was clear how well-crafted the story was as well. The conclusion to this two-part saga was very fulfilling, as the Collector’s motivations and actions culminated into a climactic ending that left me satisfied.

I am always impressed by just the sheer amount of items that are packed into each Deadbolt box, and this one did not disappoint. Once we laid everything out, it was pretty easy to match the various pieces of evidence together so that things quickly become manageable. We had a clear starting point due to the physical set-up of certain evidence. Though this involved some initial non-linear solves, the rest of the box quickly led down an intuitive path.

The puzzles themselves were extremely well-developed. They were multilayered, multifunctional, and included a lot of good twists. It was really clear where to apply the solutions, and some of solutions themselves had an additional benefit of helping to establish a pattern for solving a subset of puzzles. Also, the design of the puzzles was well thought out, as crucial parts for solving later puzzles were hidden until the story was ready for them. (As someone who accidentally jumps ahead to puzzles, I was pleasantly surprised at this aspect since it prevented me from solving parts too early.)

As usual, we enjoyed a diverse amount of puzzles in this box, and appreciated the easier wins at the beginning before the game ramped up the challenge. There were also some nice tactile interactions that I thought were clever ideas, and as always the puzzles were well integrated into the storyline and were just plain fun to solve. Overall, we felt like this box was ever so slightly easier than Part 1, boasting a moderate to higher range of difficulty.

Pondering Points

There was one puzzle early on though that was a bit of a leap for us. To be fair, it’s possible we were overthinking things. Perhaps a smaller additional clue would have been helpful to guide us to the right path.

There was also one puzzle that we felt was a little misleading, as the process for solve this conundrum depends on the accuracy of interpreting certain pieces. However, one part is misrepresented in guiding us to the solution. While we were able to figure out relatively easily what we were meant to do, we feel like this part could be clarified so that there is no question.

Final Verdict

I would highly recommend The Collector Part 2 (and of course, Part 1, which we recommend doing first in order to ensure you get the full story experience). The plot is intriguing and the puzzles are a fun set of challenges. These boxes would definitely be better suited to those who are more familiar with puzzling though, as they might be slightly overwhelming to beginner sleuths. 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!

9/10 (Excellent)

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