The Mystery Agency: The Man from Sector Six

£50.00

With multiple escape-room style puzzle games already under the Mystery Agency name, award-winning writer and star of The Play That Goes Wrong, Henry Lewis, returns with the newest instalment of the mind-bending The Mystery Agency series. In this edition, The Man From Sector Six sees you take on the role of lead investigator set on uncovering the identity of an unknown intruder lurking around a top-secret research lab. Armed with only a locked document case, it is your job to figure out their identity and what mysterious monumental crisis surrounds the research lab facility.

If you’ve ever played an escape room-style board game, then you’ll be very familiar with the kind of cryptic and outside-of-the-box thinking required to make your way through the documents and objects to uncover the truth of the game’s premise. The Mystery Agency: The Man from Sector Six is no different and requires this top level of clue deciphering to filter through documents and objects to reveal the warning left by a recently disappeared secret agent.

I took the game for a test run with some friends who have played a few different escape-room style board games and everyone was super impressed. One of the main things that stood out about The Man From Sector Six was the quality of all of the materials. In the box, you get documents, objects, a padlock and even a golden cypher dial that are all essential to figuring out what has happened. For each one, the group were scouring for clues and even stumbled across a few hidden websites that added an extra fun layer to the game. Without revealing too much of the mystery or any of the vital clues, we were incredibly impressed with just how immersive the game was from the start. Each clue and object had been so well thought out and really added to the overall story.

I will say we did get a little stuck a few times, as it always takes us a little while to get into the mechanics of the game and start thinking in the slightly out-of-the-box way that games like this require. We were glad to see that we could get some hints online to help get us to the next bit of information where it all suddenly made more sense. However, I don’t think you need to have played an escape-room-style game before to get on with The Man From Sector Six. Whilst experience with the kind of thinking needed is helpful, part of the fun is working with your friends and family to play detective and uncover clues for yourself – and it's super satisfying when your hunch works out to be true! Plus, the immersive storytelling lends itself well to being fun and exciting throughout whether it is your first venture into the escape-room board game world or your fiftieth!

For me, a board game makes the perfect present as it brings people together and allows you to do an activity that is a little bit different. Personally, escape-room or puzzle-solving games are the best for this, as it lets everyone have a go at solving riddles that often require multiple different ways of thinking. I found having multiple different people playing is ideal as one person may look at a clue from an entirely new perspective that the rest of the group hadn’t even thought of. Therefore, I think any of The Mystery Agency games would make an excellent Christmas present, but especially the new Man From Sector Six, as it’s a great immersive story, and every single component feels so well thought out.

Pros:

• So many different components that all have been super carefully put together for the story
• Immersive plot and introduction to get you into the game
• Satisfying clue resolves and clue deciphering
• Hints available online

Cons:

• The game requires internet usage to unlock and crack codes, so can’t be played without being connected