Brian J.
My family and I absolutely loved this game! I had done a couple murder mystery-type games before, and I enjoyed how unique this one was. I played with four other people and it was fun to see how the different types of puzzles played to our individual strengths. I would definitely recommend this game!
Jeffrey L.
So fun. Puzzle in the solarium was our favorite by far. Puzzle in the bedrooms was very difficult and a bit of a stretch for us even with clues. Overall very fun, looking forward to the next one!!
Mary S.
It took us a little over 4 hours. My daughter and I need a few hints, but we're able to solve all the puzzles! It was really a lot of fun, and challenging, too. I'm going to give it to a friend. We made copies and didn't destroy the original documents. We are excited to do the next one!
Michael H.
My wife and I thoroughly enjoyed this game. We were both sick for New Years so this was how we celebrated through the night. Part One was so good I didn’t think it could get better, but then Part Two shines with my favorite puzzles of the game. Can’t wait to acquire the sequel!
Justin P.
This game was awesome! We love escape rooms and have this a try and weren’t disappointed. These puzzles really combined different skills from puzzles, to problem solving, and math. We will be continuing the adventure with the sequels!
Zachary S.
An escape room in a box! My wife and I did this together and it was great fun! The puzzles definitely have a wide range of difficulty, most didn't require any help from the online hints, but we were glad they were an option for 1 or 2 of them 0:)
Highly recommended!!
Anna B.
Great game, hints do a good job and don’t tell too much.Challenging, but not too frustrating. Will definitely be playing the sequel soon!
ROBERT G.
Lots of fun, challenging, we laughed a lot.
Katie J.
Some of the clues were near impossible without using hints, but the majority of the puzzles were fun and challenging. The Bedrooms puzzle in Part II was overly challenging and caused us to lose a bit of steam at the end. Overall, this was a fun way to spend hours using our brains, so thank you! We look forward to our next Puzzling Pursuit!!
Lauren G.
So fun! I got this as a gift for my husband and son and ended up playing along. My husband and I had a blast working together to solve all of the puzzles and only got stumped on the very last one of Part II. We can't wait for our next Puzzling Pursuit.
Nancy
I love “the room”games so this was an added time of fun! Thanks. Looking forward to doing all of these puzzles.
Fletch C.
We all loved it. We're buying the sequel.
Sierra G.
My husband got me this game for Christmas for us to play together, knowing how much I love puzzles! It was SO fun! We stayed up too late because it was addicting solving all the puzzles. We had a hard time solving the puzzle in The Bedrooms, but we finally got it and we can proudly say we finished the game without using any hints! So much fun! I will definitely be recommending this game to friends and family who like puzzles!!
Jan S.
Enjoyable and engaging plot. Liked the puzzles.
Elizabeth C.
So much fun! We do a lot of escape games and this is one of the best
Eric F.
Had fun playing with friends in a cabin in the woods. Liked all of the group puzzle solving aspects. There were a few puzzles that were us watching one person fold a piece of paper. Which was less fun. Wish you didn’t need the internet to play.
Jeff S.
5 of us played this. It was a wonderful variety of puzzles and brain teasers that challenged us and required all of our individual ideas and knowledge to complete. We had a blast. Will definitely order others from you. Thank you for a great night of fun and entertainment!
Matt L.
Thought provoking and challenging! A great evening for the family.
Lori z.
We liked the puzzle but not going on line. It would have been a better experience if we had it in paper form.
Jared S.
Super fun with a lot of variety of challenge and type of puzzles. We had a group of five including an engineer, two medical professionals, a data analyst, and an artist, and we all had the opportunity to contribute based on our areas of expertise and strategies for problem solving.
We loved the depth of the process and the layers in the various prompts and clues.
Thanks for a fun time!
Taryn S.
Great game but it took us 8 hours! 3-4 people works the best.
Steve J.
A great game to play with family on Christmas afternoon!
Amber H.
Very enjoyable game!! Definitely needed the helpful clues, but loved the setup!
Hailey D.
Super fun, puzzles were very intense but after some group thinking we were able to get it done!
Sarah C.
Loved the variety of challenging but doable puzzles with helpful hints that still make you work for it. Can’t wait to do the sequel!
Alicia D.
Complex and fun! A great challenge
Erin S.
We enjoyed Blackbrim 1876 very much. I'd say the puzzles are on par with the Exit series, but the components are bigger which justifies the higher price.
The game comes in two parts, each consisting of 5 or 6 puzzles whose answers make an overall puzzle. We took around 3.5 to 4 hours to solve both parts over two sessions. The game directs you to a website where you can get hints or check answers and this works very well. You are encouraged to check your answers because some of them display elements of the story, though we found that pretty much only the final puzzle in each part had any extra story. The other reason you should check your answers is that solutions are pretty much all words but most of the time the words aren't related to anything so you might find a way to make a perfectly good word and the game tells you "...but that's not the one we were thinking of" .
The story is a bit weak - a criminal genius has kidnapped some police and has left clues for where you can find them (you find that out right away). Since people don't tend to leave intricate puzzles for people every day, it can be tough to have a theme that isn't "pirate's treasure" or "criminal mastermind taunts police" but it still feels a little stale. The puzzles are good but don't come for a rich, thematic story. It is a thin framework to give you a reason to solve puzzles.
The only criticism we had involved one puzzle involving vines which was very clever until the final solution which involved you treating something as a letter that was previously treated as a different letter. We needed a hint (we only took 2 in the entire game) but we had 99% solved it, we were just tripped up by that (but we were stuck for maybe 20 minutes there).
Overall, though we had a lot of fun. I got the game for $35 which felt about right - I see its normal price is $60 and I think that would have felt a bit much since there are only printed components in the box (no objects like you might get in Hunt-a-Killer). The other plus is that 95% of it doesn't have to be destroyed or mangled in any way (the final puzzle needs you to write on it but we were able to do it without) so you can package it back up and give it to a friend. I would definitely recommend it.
Amy
Very much loved this! As somebody who played other similar tabletop games in this genre, I appreciated the succinctness/lack of murky guessing in the majority of this experience! This gave me two fun nights of puzzles.
I will say that a few of the puzzles are a bit of a stretch, especially if you are wary of drawing/erasing on the fancy paper so you can have replayability. And, it's a little bit difficult to understand what they want in the final puzzles without checking out the "Check your Solution" online page. I felt like there weren't enough context clues to indicate what I actually needed to input and why. Those are the only parts I did not like.
P.S. you WILL need the internet to do some of these puzzles.
Donielle L.
Our family of three really enjoyed taking our time with this great puzzle. We spent about 5 or 6 days on it. We all loved it and ordered the next one. Great family time, using our brains and getting away from the tv. Thanks to whoever put this all together.. it is very well done!
Taylor C.
I felt there needed to be more clues to the cipher shift answer. But, fun adventure, much different than others with enjoyable materials and variety of puzzles.
Steven R.
AWESOME!!!! Wasn't sure what to expect but when I saw the ad for it, I thought my wife might enjoy it for her birthday. I had gotten her a subscription last year to a whodunit letter that came monthly with clues but that was too drawn out. This 'puzzle' is great because each challenge is a tough brain teaser. We just loved it and played on her birthday night. Very funny that she asked if they other ones and my daughter and I just laughed...
Michelle T.
Great fun! Very challenging! I'm glad I already ordered the next one!
Julie M.
We couldn't even get off the ground without going to the website to get help. Perhaps we're just too dumb;
but once we got help it was a lot of fun.
Lisa B.
Very entertaining, high quality materials. We found the game challenging and well crafted.
Andre c.
Great game nothing like it out there.
Jana F.
It was fun but some puzzles could have a bit more basic instruction to help get players going. Also wish there was more story in every envelope revealed.
Vanessa S.
Very well done. Many different types of puzzles at a variety of difficulty levels. Looking forward to trying the sequel!
Virinia F.
It kept us entertained for several hours! We tried to do the puzzles with few clues, but did use some. Fun!
Ryan B.
Had a great family night! Even my brother-in-law got sucked into it. My only suggestion would be to include the clues in the package. Or at least have some sort of direction or starting point.
We had a great time, and will definitely be ordering the sequel!
Angela E.
The puzzles were difficult enough to keep us intrigued, but not so difficult that we got discouraged. Lots of cool hands on props. Great game. We did both sections in one 4 hour session.
Leanne P.
All the puzzles were unique and enjoyable. The Solarium was my favourite. I appreciate the quality of the materials and the use of art as well. Thanks for the fun challenge!
Lindsey A.
Fun game playing a detective!!!
Tanner B.
That was some of the most fun I’ve ever had! It really stretched our brains in all the best ways and the hints didn’t ever give away too much. Definitely works your brain out and it will take a chunk of time, but you’ll be glad for it!
John H.
My wife Debbie and I loved Blackbrim: 1876! We finished Blackbrim: 1876 in two 2-hour sessions over 2 days. Very enjoyable as we had to brainstorm ideas to solve these puzzles in a variety of ways.
We found puzzles within that ranged from Easy to Hard, taking anywhere from 5 minutes to 35 minutes for each puzzle, and the puzzles were linked in clever ways. Blackbrim: 1875 comes with a wonderful online mechanism to get clues (if needed) and check your solutions. After solving all the puzzles, we tested the incremental clues and found the 4 step process of guiding those having troubles to be quite helpful.
Puzzling Pursuits provided Blackbrim: 1876 with great quality printing and packaging; we had to improvise to solve a couple of puzzles without damaging the provided materials. This puzzle adventure game is very well organized, with a Read Me pamphlet, an online reference to include an Inventory, and parcels for Part 1 and Part 2.
We look forward to trying more of the Puzzling Pursuits offerings!
John and Debbie
Lucy K.
One of the better at home escape room games we have played We like that it can be reused by others in the future. The packaging was well designed. Puzzles were challenging but not so obscure to make it ridiculous to solve. And now we have a letter opener! We would definitely recommend this game.
Daniellr S.
I’d give the overall experience 8/10! The materials were beautiful, the story line was good, but we had one puzzle that I couldn’t figure out how we were supposed to find the answer without guessing even after looking at the answer. We liked it well enough to repack it and hand it off to friends and then bought the next one.
David S.
Excellent balance of types of puzzles. Progressive hints were very helpful. Breaking it into 2 parts let us easily do it over two sittings without losing our place. Anxious for the sequel
Mike G.
There were portions of this puzzle that seemed to almost speak to us....as if it were tailored just for us. We completed this in two sessions and enjoyed every minute of it! This was a great value.
Rebecca X.
An engaging afternoon for my 6 friends and I! Took us a bit over 3 hours to complete, and was in parts frustrating and satisfying. The puzzles were creative and challenging, and all of the components felt high quality. Will definitely be looking forward to the sequel!
Lisa H.
I play a lot of murder mystery games. This was one of my favorites. It plays similarly but it had new and exciting puzzles I had not yet encounter in others I had played. Highly recommended. Hours of play. Keep em coming!
Joshua L.
We absolutely loved the game! We actually purchased LaFamiglia first and had purchased Blackbrim before we even finished! I highly highly recommend Puzzling Pursuits for anyone who enjoys puzzle solving, escape rooms, etc. I will be checking regularly for the new sequels to be released. These games are a MUST PLAY!!
Vickie P.
Elegantly package. Purchased it for my adult daughter and her family for Christmas. Excited to hear what they think after they open up the present and play the game. Received this purchased with in 2 weeks.
Will W.
My wife and I love escape rooms, but kids and the pandemic make it tough to get out. Blackbrim 1876 was a great way to do the puzzles we like in our own living room!
Merry C.
A perfect game for a girls weekend! We all loved it!
ELIZABETH R.
It's kinda hard!!!!!!!!!!!
Virginia H.
Wonderful and interesting.
Linda C.
Loved this game. Puzzles were challenging, but not possible. Access to internet for research is definitely helpful. The ending was surprising. I enjoyed it so much that I ordered another one for a Christmas present.
Markus C.
We absolutely loved it. We just had one issue as one of the puzzles had a duplicate card and we were missing one.
Other than, we would highly recommend this experience!!!
Cabel D.
A fun set of puzzles, though we wish that there was more variety in the type of puzzle. By that I mean that most of them were word puzzles with only one math puzzle and one manipulative/ folding puzzles.
Marshall L.
This was a fun date idea...Some of the puzzles took a wide left turn, from what we thought, but the hints helped a lot. We spent a good part of are evening doing the first part and the next night finishing it up. I recommend to anyone who wants to be challenged.
Adam M.
It was really fun. Very clever puzzles
JAMES B.
Like having to solve multiple puzzles for each section or room, and takes some thought and research to solve.
Rebekah D.
Fun and interesting. Some of the puzzles were a tad too difficult to figure out without the hints (but that didn’t stop it from being fun!)
Susan R.
My daughter, two grandsons, and I played for four hours on a Sunday afternoon. Difficult, intriguing, fantastic! Ordered La Familia.
Linda E.
Played the game with my husband and our two 16 year old granddaughters during our vacation with them. It was challenging and had several different types of puzzles. Loved it, and bought another copy and sent it to my daughter and her husband.
James P.
Our family of six adults played Blackbrim this last weekend and loved it! We really enjoy puzzle-oriented escape room type games, and this fit the bill for our family weekend get-together. The quality of the game pieces was exceptional!
Ysabelle L.
Lots of fun, however, we weren't expecting to have to research things online which was definitely difficult whilst camping in the woods... far away from civilization and cell signal. The clues were vital to the game play and the box could definitely benefit by having the clues in the box rather than online, BUT we figured it out for the most part and really enjoyed solving the problems together :))
Aaron L.
Challenging, but not impossible. Really got our group out of our usual grind of playing something online. This was awesome! Old school, analog fun!
Laura V.
My husband and I had such a fun time playing this for our date night. We used a few hints. They were just enough to give us a little push, but not too much to give anything away. We will definitely be buying the next game.
Emily M.
Great fun! Brought it with us when we visited the grandparents, and everyone from 11-75 had a good time. We did end up getting a couple of hints, but most of the puzzles we could work out ourselves. Will definitely buy the other puzzle, hope they make more.
Ron F.
Great puzzles!the kids and I loved it!
Nick S.
An awesome experience!! Just the right difficulty…!!
Jay W.
Fantastic family night. I played with three or four smart highschoolers and we had a blast-
Gary D.
Have played several other games from different companies. This was far and away the most creative, challenging game leaving us satisfied and excited for the next one
Jay S.
Made for a great, and challenging, family game night!
Mark J.
A very good game. I bought another for someone as a gift.
Holly F.
My boyfriend and I played it over two nights. We could have done it one one but we didn’t want it to end! It can be tricky, especially with only two people playing but that’s all part of the fun. It took us longer that the predicted 4 hours, however if we got stuck on something we tried for a long time to figure it out before heading to the hints online. It was a great rainy night and wine date night!
James S.
Difficult for two people, but fun!
Arthur G.
Excellent entertainment.
Anna H.
I played it with my parents and we had a lot of fun.
Roy W.
Great game. Was going to do the two parts at different times but could not stop.
Jeremy D.
Great games! We played them both nd love them. Hope you keep them coming.
Marilyn L.
I purchased this game for my 14 year old granddaughter. I was immediately impressed with the quality of it. I asked her to review the game after she had played for a while. This is her response:
“I like the interactiveness of it. Everything is connected and it requires ‘out of the box’ thinking.”
Geoff C.
A lot of fun. We needed a couple of hints to help get our brain cells aligned, but once we got the gist, we really rocked it. Well worth it.
John M.
It was a lot of fun, though we enjoyed the first part a little more than the second - it lent itself to cooperation more than some of the second group of puzzles like the folding one. Still, fun.
Michael P.
We love it and have had so much fun!
FELIX P.
We had a good time with Blackbrim 1876! Played with my wife and our two daughters. We started with each taking a single puzzle and if we got stuck we traded, then if still stuck we all worked together and eventually solved them all without needing to cheat with hints (although we used hints to verify we did indeed do it correctly).
Heather P.
My husband and I used this as a date night activity. It took us 4-5 hours to play the entire game though we had a few interruptions. LOL! We had a ball! It was so much fun! We definitely will be purchasing another game from puzzling pursuits. The next one we may do with a group of friends now that we know how game play goes. This is a great, fun, challenging activity. I would recommend it to anyone to be done solo, as a couple or in a group. Really great fun!
Tracie B.
We solved this two part mystery over two evenings. The variety of puzzles was fun - and admittedly a few hints were helpful in getting us set in the right direction.
Janice D.
We played it at our family gathering day we had a lot of fun with it. I will be buying the next puzzle for another time.
Kiley L.
We had so much fun doing this for my birthday, I ordered one for my parents for their anniversary.
Nadine C.
We played it over a few "date nights" and had a great time solving the puzzles, grateful for the help of a few clues. Very fun!
Jeannette B.
Brought the game with me on a family vacation weekend. Everyone loved it! There were puzzle elements that played to each person’s individual strengths and that keep the group engaged. Even my mom, who said she didn’t want to do it, was sucked in!
Christy C.
First part was super fun. The second part was much more difficult. We had 3 players and took us five hours. I would have like to have more info in the puzzles than have to look up every single puzzle clue. We've managed other escape rooms with much less problems. We did have a good time though
Donna C.
I purchased Blackbrim for my husband and I to play, and we had an absolute blast! The types of puzzles cover such a wide range of skill sets and subjects, which made it really fun to work together. He is more of a left brained/analytical/math person while I’m more right brained/creative/visual person, and it was just the perfect combination for this mystery – we really got to work as a team. The sense of accomplishment from completing even just one piece of a puzzle was amazing! The hints online are also perfectly organized – you can ask for just a nugget of info to push you in the right direction without revealing the whole answer. We did need hints a few times, but I would definitely say the overall difficulty level was perfect (there was only one tiny piece of a puzzle that I don't think we would have ever gotten without a piece of information in the hints, and even then only because it was centered around a term neither of us happened to be familiar with). Overall, it was an incredibly fun way to spend an evening, and I would highly recommend it. We can’t wait to play La Famiglia and any other mysteries Puzzling Pursuits puts out!
