Every experienced detective knows that unravelling a mystery is similar to solving a puzzle. You have to know how to put the pieces – like evidence and other information – in the right spots. Not literally I mean because then it is a case of planting false evidence… Detective Mark Eidos probably never expected the mystery of Quatro City (made by PuzzleUp) to involve a literal jigsaw puzzle. Will you know how to solve the puzzle and its mysteries?
Quatro City is a unique wooden jigsaw puzzle with special shapes and many unique pieces. In total, there are four puzzles that in the end form a huge and detailed illustrated picture of a city. After you have finished puzzling, the adventure is not over yet, as Quatro City also contains a gripping mystery to be solved. Quatro City contains four chapters. Each chapter is contained within an envelope which contains part of the puzzle. There is also an envelope with an intro to the adventure and some helpful tools (a magnifying glass and vacuum gripper) that will make your investigation go just a little smoother.
The puzzles are beautifully and colourfully illustrated drawings, and each illustration contains many secrets and easter eggs that tie in nicely with the players’ quest. The drawings remind us of Where’s Wally (Waldo) and Micro Macro’s drawings. There is plenty of detail and colour in the drawings, but some of the buildings, vehicles, environments and people look similar, so you are often times caught off guard during the puzzling. Perhaps you thought things would be easy? You would be wrong as this puzzle contains almost 2000 pieces and can be quite a challenge to complete.
As soon as players have completed the puzzles, they can scan a QR code and the rest of their adventure can begin. The many mysteries, jokes, scenes, stories and easter eggs you may have encountered while puzzling will slowly start to make a narrative sense. In the game mode, a web app guides you through the story led by enigmatic detective Mark Eidos. With the vacuum pen, you can easily lift pieces out of the puzzle for closer examination during the investigation. With the magnifying glass, you can easily zoom in on the smallest details of the puzzle. The magnifying glass is particularly useful for studying scenes that take place inside buildings.
Jigsaw puzzles are particularly addictive, and wooden puzzles in particular always appeal to us. We also found Quatro City hard to put down. Despite the size of the puzzle, we managed to complete the jigsaw puzzle itself over a long weekend in fairly long concurrent sessions. Time and our weekend passed by early without our noticing. Having spent the weekend puzzling, we are eagerly going to take the time to complete the stories and mysteries soon, once the game is available. We really like the fact that after puzzling, the fun is not over.
