The Mind's Eye

Played this as an Escape Enthusiast (235 rooms) with one friend. We were able to make it out with less than a minute left - with me doing 99% of the puzzles and leg work. A great room for 2 enthusiasts or 4 casual players. Very unique experience with great puzzles. Lighting cues are key!

Summary: one room, high tech, linear, not very tactile, brain puzzles I'm of two minds here. The great: The room used high-quality materials, told a good story, and presented unique puzzles. The puzzles are thinking-heavy, not things like placing pieces in the right order/location, bouncing lasers, balancing scales, etc. The meh: The room was not very tactile. There was hardly any doing jigsaw puzzles or opening locks, etc. Honestly it felt like the whole thing could be a virtual escape room and not lose too much of the enjoyment. For the high price, this was the biggest issue for me with Minds Eye. We had four players, and that was fine. 3-4 is probably ideal since any more and some people wouldn't be able to get in on the puzzles.

I’ve been sitting on this review for a little while turning it over and over in my mind (no pun intended). We had just done The Inventor’s Paradox earlier that day & I was excited to play another game from the creators. This game had just debuted a week prior. In some ways, this game is completely different than Paradox. Paradox is massive in terms of scope and physical space and is an older game with more classic tech. Mind’s Eye was all set in one room & while the room itself was big, all the puzzles and everything access are only a few steps away. And absolutely more tech. There is an overarching storyline between the games and this one still involves Daedalus who is still heartbroken over the death of his son, Icarus. We were tasked with entering his mind & changing his memories to bring him peace. What a beautiful concept. The puzzles were not easy. Even though there were only two of us, we did barely escape. That said, much of the room is linear (and again, it’s all one room) and I’m not sure if bringing a lot more people would have made a massive difference, other than use of extra brain power, not manpower. Let me be clear. I really like this game. It’s not your traditional escape with many puzzle types I’ve not seen before. It’s so completely different than Paradox that it isn’t fair to compare the two. I expect it to start earning awards as word of mouth and Do yourself a favor & come and do both.