Location: Your Home!

Players:  We recommend 1-4

Price: $24.99 per box, plus $4.99 shipping

Ever dance with the Devil in the pale moonlight?

Theme:

Return to Saturn Hills Asylum, where yet another murderer has struck! This time, a newly hired nurse has been found dead, and a few mysterious clues are baffling local authorities. It’s up to the Deadbolt Mystery Society to crack the case, and determine if there isn’t more to this killing than meets the eye.

First Impressions:

Asylum, one of Deadbolt’s first mystery boxes, remains one of our favorites. I had great props, a chilling mystery, and a rogue’s gallery that was second to none. When Sanitarium was announced, I was thrilled to hear we’d be returning to the harrowing halls of Saturn Hills. Though we were introduced to an all new cast of crazed characters, this new caper was absolutely a satisfying sequel.

High Points:

Sanitarium follows up the amazing Infected with another elegantly crafted and interestingly themed adventure. The recent boxes have been even more creative than usual, with themes that really catch our attention. Though Sanitarium is a spiritual sequel of sorts to Asylum, in that it returns to Saturn Hills, the story itself is all new, and has plenty of surprises right out of the box. The conspiracy runs deep here, and the murder committed is much more complex than initially realized. I love that the suspects were all part of a RPG group, and this element of the game makes the usual suspect elimination mechanic of Deadbolt even more engaging than usual. The cast remains just as colorful as Asylum’s, and though there are fewer suspects in general, they remain larger than life personalities that will haunt your investigation throughout!

The game flow is superb as always, and the puzzles vary from simple wins to deeply layered mind games. As a non-linear experience, there’s always plenty to do, and when we were stuck, we could easily pop over to another piece of evidence for a while until a lightbulb went off in our heads. Some of the more challenging puzzles we solved within this box were enormously creative, and may be the most satisfying moments of revelation we’ve gotten from Deadbolt. I continue to feel the more escape room like vibe from this box, and though it isn’t quite as escape room-y as Infected, it still scratches that itch well for me.

The story is twisty, and new turns are always exciting as puzzles are solved and the narrative develops. Each bit of story satisfies while adding further mystery to the experience, and the climax and epilogue are great at tying up the game while planting some conspiratorial seeds in the fertile soil of Valley Falls. It really does feel like something bigger is afoot throughout, and we were and still are raring to find out how everything will culminate!

Murder, mayhem, and a quick game of Wastelands of Warael!

Low Points:

Many of the clues for this box were hidden within readings of interviews, which we don’t generally mind, but the text did feel more dense this go round, and I know some folks aren’t fans of that sort of thing. Other than that, I can’t think of anything that could be categorized as a low point!

Verdict:

The Deadbolt Mystery Society continues to knock it out of the park with their newest boxes, setting up new and increasingly threatening conspiracies throughout the town of Valley Falls. It feels like something is building, and we are excited to see what’s coming next, as these newest themes have been ultra creative and fantastically fun. If you’re not a subscriber already, you should be! 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!

9.5/10 (Excellent)

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