Order here - Countdown To Chaos
WBG Score: 8/10
Player Count: 1-4
You’ll like this if you like: Feeling smart about yourself!
Published by: Joe Mills (I), Tristan Rogers, Dan Wiseman
Designed by: The Detective Society
This is a free review copy. See our review policy here. This will be a SPOILER FREE review
Countdown to Chaos is a new, short, escape room-style puzzle that acts as a prelude to the larger, more complete experience, Murder on the Moon, which we will be reviewing on the site shortly. This is a single one-hour experience that tees up the story you will experience in Murder on the Moon. It is fully replayable; nothing will be destroyed or messed about with. However, once you know the answers, it has limited replayability for the same player or group as the challenge is somewhat gone at that point. But for a one hour puzzle, this sure does seem like it could be fun? But is it? Let's get it to the table and find out.
How To Set Up Countdown To Chaos
Get a piece of paper and pen to take notes, and make sure you have a device that can get online to hand. A phone, tablet or laptop will all work just fine. Open the envelope and take out all the components. Find the letter with the QR code and read this. You are now ready to start. In fact, in reading this letter, you have already begun!
How To Play Countdown To Chaos
The idea of the game is to solve a mystery that will unravel itself as you play the game. The opening letter will give you all you need to make your start, along with prompting you to head to an online portal where you can "talk" with someone involved in the story. On this platform, you can also ask for help and get clues if you ever get stuck, which is handy if you do stall. But within this hour-long experience, you will find there are around five main set pieces, mixing online and physical clues together, that you will need to piece together to find your ultimate answer. Answers will be entered into the online portal, which will then tell you where to look next for the next part of the puzzle.
The story, as explained in the opening letter, so this is not a spoiler, tells a tale of a private company looking to launch a new Moon mission. But "rumours of espionage are rife!" And it is your job to find out who is behind this sabotage, what they are trying to do, and stop them before it is too late. But don't worry. It won't ever be too late. You do not play in real time. There are no ways for wrong answers penalised you when entering anything incorrectly into the portal. It will simply nudge you in another direction. There is no end game score or final grading. You will simply get to the end and be told "Congratulations" and then be encouraged to check out the next game, Murder On The Moon, with a very cool little set piece I will not spoil here. But it certainly made me glad I had a copy of the next game.
Is It Fun? Countdown To Chaos Escape Room Game Review
If you are buying this as a one off, I could suggest you will need to seriously consider the price of the next game too. You will feel incomplete if you do not play that as well. You absolutely can just play this one game. It will be fine and is a complete experience. But the story will end abruptly on a bit of a cliff hanger, teeing up the next game - so take note of that. But it can absolutely be played as a one off if you want.
And the one hour or so you will spend playing this will feel enjoyable to anyone who likes to solve puzzles. There is a nice variety of styles and ways the puzzles are presented to you. The difficulty was just perfect for me. The game says it has a difficulty rating of 2.5 out of 5, which I would say is about my level! Nothing was too taxing, but the payoff when you find the answer was enough to make me feel happy about my time spent with this game. I needed one clue from the portal, and the way this presented itself was very good. I entered the wrong answer for an early clue, where one of three answers is needed, and they are all very similar. I had not noticed that and entered one answer thinking it was close enough. The portal then simply said to me it thought I might be wrong and suggested I look again. It was a satisfying way to get something wrong and did not make me feel like I got too much help to eventually solve the puzzle correctly next time.
There is a small amount of cutting out needed with the above clue, but you don't need to be accurate. Just cut the two circles out so you can move them independently on top of one another. I tend not to like too much "arts and crafts" in games, mainly as I am not good at that part of it. But here, it was minimal, and you really do not need to be careful.
I was a little unsure of the art. It looks a little AI-generated to me. No artist is listed, and I have not asked anyone for confirmation on this. It is just my assumption. But if you look closely at these people, there are a few anomalies usually associated with AI. But it is fine, and fits the purpose perfectly. I am just not personally a fan of AI art in games. That said, this may not be AI art. It's just an assumption.
If you are a fan of puzzle games like this, then I would heartily recommend this game. But really, only if you are willing to spend the extra money on the follow-up, Murder On The Moon. This game is just under £12, and Murder On The Moon is a penny under £70. So, it does feel a little like those magazines where the first week it's only £1, but there are then 25 more weeks at £9 a pop! I would much rather this simply be one game at £82. But I understand the world doesn't work like that, and it certainly is not this publisher's fault this is how consumerism or marketing works. I am just personally not a fan of it.
But with the marketing and cost aside, this is an excellent little one-hour experience that I thoroughly enjoyed and would recommend to anyone who enjoys puzzle-style games such as this. There certainly is a lot that goes into the story, writing, and web design for these games, so personally, I think the cost is quite fair. And the experience and enjoyment I get out of them certainly merits the cost.
Comments