When trying to come up with a title for this blog post, I got a bit stuck. Mystery Mail is both the name of the company, and a perfect descriptor for what you get!
Picture this – you check your postbox, and are surprised by a weighty envelope with your name on it, sealed with a wax stamp. You tear it open and find a card of some sort, but it’s not a birthday card or anything. You open it up, expecting to see a person’s name, to solve the mystery of who sent you this immediately, but no luck! All you see are puzzles, and you’ve got a way to go before you know who sent you this mysterious mailing.
I received Mystery Mail cards free of charge, but all opinions of solving puzzles are my own. Here’s my full disclaimer.
The Concept
It’s pretty simple. If you’ve got a friend or family member who you know enjoys puzzles, you simply head to the Mystery Mail website to send them a card. There is the opportunity to send upload a photo or video message, or you can just type something. Your recipient will only unlock the message after puzzling out the mysteries of the card you send them.
This final message is one of the great little feel-good elements of the cards. I knew that I was receiving the cards from Matt, one of the creators of the cards, so the buzz I got when I watched my final video wasn’t quite the same, but it was still a very positive feeling – of both accomplishment of completing the card, and excitement to watch the video and unmask the “mystery”.
The Cards
There are three options to choose from on the Mystery Mail website, and I was sent all three!
- A Very Merry Christmas – a Christmas card aimed at kids, teens and adults
- School of Witchcraft and Wizardry – Hogwarts-inspired, aimed at kids, teens and adults
- Catch Me If You Can – a police investigation card aimed at adults
Each card is well-made and, as I mentioned before, weighty! They haven’t scrimped on the quality of materials and the envelopes were solid, meaning the cards arrived in excellent condition. The exteriors of the envelopes were also very thematic, from the “checked twice” stamp on the Christmas card (“he’s making his list, he’s checking it twice”) to the holographic sticker sealing the policing card.
Rather than being folded in half, the cards are tri-fold, so there’s plenty of space for them to pack the puzzles in. The designs on the front are eye-catching and attractive, and it’s not immediately obvious that they are puzzle cards – particularly good for the Christmas one, as you might stick it up with the rest of your festive cards.
The Puzzles
Each card contains around seven puzzles across the spread. I’m going to discuss the Christmas and Magic cards first, as they were quite different to the Police one.
A Very Merry Christmas / School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
The puzzles are all loosely connected to the overarching theme, but don’t connect to each other at all – you can tackle them in any order, and skip onto a later one if you get stuck. The puzzles range in difficulty and there are definitely some that force you to think outside the box, though that is often due to the puzzles requiring you to make assumptions or guess what it’s asking you to do.
A lot of the puzzles are similar in nature to those you’d find in a Puzzler magazine (which I used to be hooked on as a kid), though as mentioned, tied to the overall theme of Christmas or magic. I’d liken it more to sitting down with a crossword or sudoku book than doing an escape room at home.
There were one or two that were incredibly satisfying to work out – challenging but interesting! Unfortunately there were one or two that were so opaque I’m not sure I would ever have got them without the clues available through their website, which isn’t ideal. Overall, I’d say the puzzles weren’t the most innovative or tricky to solve. In particular, the puzzles for the Christmas card were the easiest, and this one seemed the most targeted at kids, even though I believe I had received the “Big Elf” version of the card (aimed at adults and older kids).
There were some digital elements, in the form of websites you visited, but these were pretty simplistic and normally in the form of an embedded video. They were welcome variations on the format though, and took it that little bit beyond the Puzzler experience I described above.
Catch Me If You Can
My favourite card by a long way was the Catch Me If You Can card. On the website it is described as a murder mystery card, but the tone is more similar to a police investigation.
As the only card fully aimed at adults, it definitely had trickier puzzles and a much less procedural format. It also made use of a few interesting format additions which I’m always happy to see, although as they weren’t in the other cards I was a little hesitant to follow the unusual directions to start with. The website that accompanied this card was also a step-up in terms of complexity.
One puzzle in particular, from Catch Me If You Can, made me smile in a nostalgic way when I figured out the key! A few of the puzzles were a little counter-intuitive, and some aspects of it are definitely pretty far removed from what you would experience solving a real crime, so some suspension of disbelief is required!
As with the other cards, the puzzles are not the most difficult I’ve encountered in at-home puzzle packs. This was the only card I actually timed myself for, and even though it was the hardest I still completed it in under 25 minutes start to finish.
Summary
Overall, this is a cute idea to send to someone you know who really likes Puzzler-style puzzles. I’m not sure I’d send either of the first two cards to my adult friends, but they might be suitable for a teenager or family with kids who enjoy a bit of a brain workout (though admittedly I’m not super familiar with that demographic myself, so I might be wrong).
The third card was the best in my opinion, and for a fiver this is a fun way to send a bit of mystery into someone’s life.
The video at the end was one of the elements that took it from being an alright puzzle experience to something a bit special, so I’d definitely recommend going to the trouble of uploading one if you do send this as a gift.
I received Mystery Mail cards free of charge, but all opinions of solving puzzles are my own. Here’s my full disclaimer.