Editors’ Choice Games

July 2020

Finders Seekers Mystery Adventure

Review by Angie Kibiloski

Many of us are sitting at home right now, twiddling our thumbs, wondering if there’s anything fun we can do other than binge another streaming series, or assemble another jigsaw puzzle.  After 4 months of the same, we’ve read all the books on our shelves, leveled up to the max on all our video games, and baked more loaves of bread than we can count.  It would be great to get out of our homes, out of our cities, and explore the planet, but traveling in the real world isn’t much of an option right now.  What if you could have a little at-home travel adventure, learning fun facts about all sorts of landmarks in a new city, and putting your Holmesian sleuthing skills to the test at the same time?  If this sounds like a winning idea to you, it’s time to introduce you to Finders Seekers, the company that will deliver a new mystery into your living room each month, filled with mind bending puzzles, and featuring a different city from around the world in each box.

Finders Seekers is a mystery subscription box service, providing hours of intellectual fun, by giving your brain a workout with a variety of interesting puzzles, cyphers, and riddles, all while learning about an exciting new city.  I tried them out for the 1^st time a few weeks ago, with their June box, set in Paris.  It had 10 different puzzles to solve, all very different from one another.  I won’t tell you too much about the specific puzzles, as the Paris box will be available again in the future, and I wouldn’t want to spoil the fun.  What I can tell you is that each puzzle required a different method of thinking, which kept the whole experience fresh, and really woke up all of my puzzle solving skills.  Each puzzle featured a different location or landmark around Paris, giving me interesting facts about each, so I was learning as well as problem solving.  When you begin your puzzle journey you’ll start from their website for that month’s city, setting the stage with the plot of the story, and giving you a location and puzzle to start with.  You’ll then go back and forth between the physical puzzle items that come in your box, and that website, in order to progress through the story, with each solved puzzle getting you closer to your mystery goal.  When you solve each puzzle, and enter the solution into the website, you’ll get the clues needed to start the next puzzle.  Once you make your way through the entire sequence of location related puzzles, you’ll get all the information you need to solve the big, final puzzle, which will wrap up the mystery plot and give your story its ending.  Also, after fully completing the mystery, you’ll have the chance to enter to win that month’s prize, which is usually some sort of gift card.  That’s a pretty cool bonus for one lucky sleuth!

There are currently 17 different cities they cycle through, with 3 new cities added each year, so if you join now, you won’t run out of new content for a full 2 years.  You can either be totally surprised by which city will arrive in your box, or contact the makers to find out what the next few months may bring, in case you want to pick and choose which destinations you travel to in your living room.  I’m afraid it’s too late to hop on the July mystery and travel to Boston, but you can join anytime before August 20th to be virtually whisked away to Beijing.  If you act quickly, you can also grab one of the very few Paris boxes still available, here, and enter code PARIS2020 for 20% off.  Personally, I can’t wait until September for London, my favorite city on the globe!  You can choose a month-to-month subscription, for $30, or pre-pay for a 3-month, 6-month, or 12-month subscription, and save $1, $3, or $5 per month.  You can also buy a single box as a gift for someone, which will not renew as a subscription.  Shipping is included with the price of each plan.  You can cancel the month-to-month anytime, and you can skip months with all of the plans, allowing you to bypass a city that you may not have much interest in puzzling through, or if you circle back to a city you’ve already solved.  Keep an eye on the Finders Seekers Facebook page for promotional discounts throughout the year, or use the code SMART anytime for $5 off your 1^st box.  If you join before the end of July, use the code HALFOFF for 50% off your 1^st box.

Finders Seekers is a family run company, launched in 2017 by a creative man named Cody, who wanted to find a job that would allow him to spend more time with his family, while incorporating the things he loved, like travel, culture, and mysteries.  You can see his passion for the company in each box, illustrated through the well-curated, high-quality materials and engaging city information.  3 years later, he has developed so many great city adventures, and has a dedicated online community of thousands of mystery-loving puzzle solvers.  I’m very happy to have joined that community of sleuths, and I had a really fantastic time unlocking my Paris mystery and learning about the various locations around that awesome city.  I broke up my adventure into 3 sessions, to prolong my enjoyment, but all in all, it took me about 4 hours of active puzzle solving to finish everything.  I’d consider that a great value for the money!  The puzzles varied in difficulty, and kept my mind fully captivated throughout.  I’m really looking forward to my next box, to have some more fun in a new city!  If you want to join this sleuthing community as well, and be virtually transported around the world from the comfort of your sofa, go to www.FindersSeekers.com to get started.  You can also check out their Facebook page to get an idea of past months, or interact with other puzzle lovers.  Enjoy you adventure!