Lost in the Shuffle (Spencer is Puzzling) // Review

I first heard about Lost in the Shuffle shortly after its hugely successful Kickstarter campaign ended in November 2022. It was very frustrating to have just missed out on backing this, but I vowed to get my hands on it once it became available for general consumption. Two years later, and thanks to a partnership with The Detective Society, I finally managed to purchase a copy.

First impressions

It was such a fantastic feeling when the pack of cards arrived and I finally got to crack it open. Scanning the deck it was clear that there was a wide variety of puzzles to work through of differing difficulty levels. Having played quite a few puzzle games over the last few years, I felt well-equipped to jump in. That being said, there were enough ‘easier’ puzzles that someone new to the puzzle genre would be able to find their way in and build up their puzzle skills throughout the game.

During the unboxing, I logged on to a website where I could enter/check my answers and earn ‘brain matter’ along the way. There is an extremely handy code sheet hosted on the site which lists ciphers used in the game. It was a welcome addition that I now use when playing other games, but particularly beneficial for puzzle newbies.

Gameplay

Gameplay is where Lost in the Shuffle excels. Whilst it was tempting to work through each suit in order, I soon abandoned this approach and embraced the fact that I could randomly work through the cards picking off some of the easier ones first. As I progressed, I attempted some of the more challenging cards, many of which required the use of more than one card in the deck. The range of puzzles was really impressive – it certainly didn’t feel at any point as if the game became repetitive. Packing 52 (or is it 53?) games into the deck and keeping the game fresh and engaging is no mean feat. Spencer nailed it! The game is also peppered with some great ah-ha moments and surprises that I am still thinking about.

The portable nature of the game lends itself to travel, along with the fact that it is so easy to stop and start your game sessions. It can also mostly be played offline, so as long as you keep a note of your answers you can enter them into the web interface at a later point.

The innovative web interface kept track of progress so that I could easily pick up where I left off in a previous session. I loved that you could enter the answer for any card into the answer box and it would automatically log it, if correct, against the correct card/cards. Unlocking brain matter felt super satisfying, especially as it also unlocked prompts to help with some of the puzzles that up until that point I had found slightly more challenging, along with some entertaining videos alluding to a mysterious 53rd puzzle that can only be unlocked once you hit the maximum brain matter level (which requires having completed all 52 puzzles).

Verdict