Maine Escape Games is a company I can count on to deliver excellent, tangible, puzzle-forward experiences with both unique settings and shocking amounts of high quality content per game - included many fun and surprising twists. Allister’s Secret pushes further into puzzle design than their previous games, allowing its classy and minimalist set to hide a plethora of satisfying secrets. While the set is nice, interactive, and everything looks right, it’s not the focus. Instead, I think this has many of their best puzzles and will appeal to practically anyone who likes puzzles - from large teams of beginners to smaller, more concentrated enthusiast groups. There’s a massive assortment of practically every kind, often baked into the set and making use of fantastically integrated environmental cluing. Nothing was overly difficult - the volume crated the complexity as there was always a lot to do and many avenues open at any given time. The best made use of beautifully constructed contraptions, many presented through classically intellectual / highbrow props (which made the puzzles thematic beyond their integration into the set). The few low points are mostly trivial. Two puzzles were a little underclued - while superficially obvious, I think some added complexity might actually make it less confusing. A few required mild outside knowledge: this is a tricky one because one in particular was excellent as a set of clues, but in practice would require somewhat specific knowledge (this puzzle is relatively easy to bypass with partial knowledge). As a small overall note - I think there was an opportunity to increase the drama of the experience. The narrative is interesting, the moments are fun, and there’s a great twist - but there was an opportunity for more emphasis in both the reactions from the set, and from the flow of the story. To be clear, this is indicative of a game in the upper echelon of the medium - many games never reach a level where the only real major improvement would be to make it “cinematic”, so to have that as a goal shows everything else is already pretty much perfect. Even if it isn’t necessarily a “dramatic” game, there’s plenty of wow moments in terms of solves, transitions, and interactions that absolutely make this a premier game in the New England area. I would highly recommend a visit to Maine Escape Games for all their games, from their older games that got me to their newest, high tech experiences.
With the exception of two puzzles that seemed a little underclued, the variety and quality of content on display was impressive.
Simple, elegant, and with plenty of depth and hidden elements.