If you desire a fun toy, have an interest in the design of simple locks, and are willing to skip past the online free-to-play, there is great fun to be had here. The boxes themselves are considerable and rewarding, though the adventure falls sorely short of the mark, being somewhat clumsily-worded, technically insecure, and provably unsolvable in many instances, expecting its forums and paid hints to act as reinforcement schedules to get you to pay real money for a moderately low chance at a cash prize. The Isis Adventure will result in an excellent set of re-solvable puzzle boxes and an adventure ARG that are fun, but both prohibitively expensive. If you desire to play and do not wish to be spoiled, read only this paragraph and close this article: The game markets itself as the hardest puzzle in the world, and claims that players of sufficient skill might be able to “go infinite” by winning cash prizes for solving the riddles provided by the puzzles, their companion website, and the physical aspects of the outer packaging provided with each unit.Ī polite warning to readers: this review deeply spoils the plot elements and set pieces of The Isis Adventure for sake of critical review. One game that was hawked quite aggressively to me because of its profit margin, and which I had politely declined on each previous visit, was a little puzzle box adventure game called The Isis Adventure. Fortunately, the store delivers plenty on games in this genre, within class NP or of higher complexity.
Of course, approaching the store from the position of professional scientist and hobbyist nerd, I only found interest in games that I could not algorithmically solve on the spot.
This delightful abstract gaming store introduced me to a set of puzzle games and toys I had not yet heard of, and at sufficient difficulty for a professional in the field.
Puzzles, in a sense, are now my trade-I work as a professional software- and reverse engineer.ĭuring this lovely visit to San Francisco to sync up with the mothership, I have spent much of my free time in the local Marbles game store.
I now work remotely for a medium-sized software company in San Francisco. But, we always collectively enjoyed the endorphin rush of following the clues and always getting closer, while just narrowly eluding the correct solution each time. Furthermore, the prize pool - one grand prize, a cruise for up to four people-was never terribly enticing to us. It was great fun, and as we met with local friends and perused the artists and vendors set up to capitalize on the event, we always left satisfied.
A balmy Sunday in summer, my father would pick up his clue-laden Sunday edition of The Miami Herald, drive my family and me to Coral Gables, and prop me up on his shoulders as we searched the tourist-laden waterfront for clues. When I was little, my father used to take me on the annual Miami Tropic Hunt.