The Corporation (Puzzaroo) // Review

“The Corporation has tried to contact you through covert means. They are looking to recruit you to their agency but unfortunately, they have had trouble with their subtle ways to contact you. With one last ditch attempt, they’ve collated all covert communications in one envelope to send to you and are expecting you to meet them in a secret location, the whereabouts of which you need to figure out.”

Puzzaroo hit my radar only very recently, but after visiting their website I decided to purchase their first game The Corporation right away; I wasn’t disappointed. Super speedy shipping meant that it was in my hands within a couple of days.

For the purpose of this review, I played the game by myself but it is also suitable for multiple players. I got a good hour and a half to two hours of gameplay out of this, although had I been playing with someone else this likely would have been slightly less.

Use of the internet is required for hints and submitting the final answer to the overall puzzle. A pair of scissors is also required.

First impressions

Opening up a new game is always exciting, but it is made doubly exciting when it comes with a handwritten ‘thank you!’ note and a button badge. These were a lovely addition to the colourful Puzzaroo envelope complete with an embossed stamp of the company’s logo. I really appreciate these little touches!

Inside the envelope, there is a selection of different items, including a newspaper, various flyers, a small sealed envelope, a metro map and some playing cards. All of these were really well made; the newspaper is a real newspaper, the metro map is very realistic and one of the playing cards in particular features a lovely design. All in all – top-notch!

Story

A letter from the mysterious ‘T’ at The Corporation tasks you with solving a selection of puzzles to prove your worth so that you can become a member of the organisation. The answers to these puzzles will lead you to the secret location of a clandestine meeting that you must attend to be accepted.

The story is set in the fictional town of Hebson, this is referenced across several of the game components. Overall the story element of the game is fairly light. Aside from the letter at the start, and what lies behind the password-protected page at the end of the game, there isn’t an awful lot of information about the Corporation itself and what its purpose is. Hopefully, this will be expanded upon in future games.

Gameplay

I had a lot of fun playing this game. Often designers rely too much on the same type of puzzle, which I find leads to some fatigue – but every puzzle here is unique. Some were instantly familiar and others less obvious, however, some of the familiar ones had new twists. You can’t beat a good ‘ah-ha’ moment and there was at least one of those in this game that made me smile.

The gameplay takes place predominantly offline, which means that the game is playable anywhere. You just need to access the internet to enter the final solution and for any hints that you might need.

I do avoid hints as much as possible, but did end up using a couple as one or two of the puzzles had me stumped. Some work could be done to improve the hints section of the website. The first hint I looked at for one of the puzzles gave me more information than I would have liked where I just needed some clarification that I was on the right path. A different hint wouldn’t load properly at all, so I couldn’t read it. Minor issues like this can be fixed fairly easily, however.

[NB: I reached out to Puzzaroo who has now fixed the issue with hints not loading properly].

Multiple components need to be written on or cut up, therefore it isn’t possible to pass the game on to someone else. It is available at a very modest price point (it is great value for money!), so this isn’t too disappointing. I should also point out that most of the materials within are recyclable.

Verdict

About Puzzaroo