The Curious Correspondence Club – Chapter 1: The Custodian’s Keys (Review)

Location: Your Home!

Players:  We recommend 1-4

Price: $19.95 Monthly, $179.00 Yearly

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Theme:

From the Curious Correspondence Club website:

Welcome to the M.B. Franklin Museum of Natural History, a place of knowledge, learning, and curiosity.

When a serendipitous discovery grants you an audience with the Museum’s Custodian, a peculiar occurrence launches the hunt for a secret hidden within this storied institution.

Will you be able to unlock the secrets?

First Impressions:

The Curious Correspondence Club’s first chapter arrived in a small to medium sized envelope, but I was impressed with how much was packed into the game, as well as how high quality everything was!

High Points:

The Curious Correspondence Club is absolutely dense with puzzling, and for $19.95 (or less with a yearly subscription,) this game is more than worth the price of admission. The clever inclusion of every single item as part of the puzzling or story is extremely well executed, and upon opening the envelope, I was intrigued to see that even this was used as part of the experience, delivering the mysterious introductory story as it folded out. I was consistently thrilled to see that even the most innocuous of props became a part of the story, and the many ah ha moments that were delivered via connecting these props together were supremely satisfying. Though this game mostly relies on paper props, the experience always feels incredibly polished and fun to work through, and the adventure’s theme is well portrayed by the myriad items included. The story itself is highly mysterious, and had us hooked from the start, it sort of reminded me of a somewhat more grounded version of the video game Control, and that is absolutely a good thing. The videos that are included as an intro and epilogue are well voice acted, and they started and capped off the experience fantastically.

The game flow is incredibly smooth, and allows players to work on the initial puzzles non-linearly at their own pace, and great, tiered hints are provided for those who need a little more direction, ensuring that frustration remains absent from this game. The variety of puzzles is excellent, and I really love how everything fits together intuitively from start to finish. I really love how puzzles built on each other over the various exhibits, and reading through everything helped narrow our investigative routes organically. The meta puzzle was easily my favorite part, as all the information we’d collected came together into a really cool and climactic finale, introducing us to a mysterious world of secret societies, and setting up upcoming adventures amazingly. Without a doubt, this was one of the most exciting at home games we’d played recently!

Low Points:

The set up of the game can allow players to skip one puzzle by process of elimination, though that may be a high point for players who come across a more difficult puzzle they’d like to jump over. For players that are looking to complete every puzzle, the final conundrum they solve will be spoiled somewhat. One puzzle combines a couple more banal interactions, including seek and find and counting elements that aren’t overly exciting.

Verdict:

Without a doubt, I can say that I recommend The Curious Correspondence Club to anyone looking for a new puzzling subscription to try! Enthusiasts and newcomers to the hobby alike can look forward to a beautifully crafted hour or two of engaging puzzling that’s well worth the price. I absolutely love the clever puzzling, as well as look forward to seeing how the intriguing meta-story plays out, and cannot wait for the next envelope to arrive! Join The Curious Correspondence Club here!

9.5/10 (Excellent)

Full Disclosure: The Curious Correspondence Club provided a complementary envelope.