Produced by theory11 in partnership with the legen-dairy Neil Patrick Harris, Box One is a single-player puzzle game with plenty of tricks to keep those gears turning in your head. For overall time, you only need to set aside a couple of hours or so alone to enjoy this stimulating adventure.
I’ve delved into the game and played it myself recently, and I’ll be sharing my experience with you today. Yes, we do sell Box One here at The Escape Effect, but we wouldn’t do that if we didn’t believe in its quality. I promise that my thoughts here are my own as a lone puzzle addict.
If you haven’t played Box One yet, we highly recommend doing so before reading this review! Puzzle games are the kind of thing you have to experience blind to truly see their beauty. And this is a work of art you don’t want to see spilled out as text on a blog when you see it for the first time.
WARNING: This article contains spoilers for Box One!
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A Classic Start . . .
Box One kicks off with some seemingly innocuous trivia cards. The first few cards of the deck almost seem to be Neil personally writing to you to build up anticipation for the game, allowing you to take a deep breath before plunging into this web of puzzles.
Then the trivia begins, and everything feels very standard at this point. But there’s still enough of a trick to it to hold your interest. Some cards will use the previous answer as part of their prompt; or you’ll have letters from an answer correspond to numbers, which then help you solve a future card.
You’ll be moving quickly through the Box One trivia, making note of some unique cards – either in the content on them, or the shape of the cards themselves! But then, just as you think you’re about a third of the way through this cute little trivia game, you draw a card, and. . .
. . . That Flips On Its Head
You can’t draw from the rest of the deck! You take off the top half of it and reveal a hollowed out stash taking up the lower half of the card box. Aside from some misshapen cards in the first act, this is the first big clue that nothing in Box One is as it seems!
The stash expands the game beyond its initial scope. Inside are three items:
- A cool, weighted Box One coin – which doubles as the first half of a cipher disk! We’ll hold onto this for later.
- An “NPH Games” staff key chain with the name Marten Maloney written on it – we’re about to learn a lot about him.
- A handwritten note from Marten that says Neil has kidnapped him!
The note tells you to use some of the oddly shaped trivia cards from earlier on the plastic tray within the box. Once you find the “keyholes” on the underside, a panel lifts up to reveal a black envelope with even more clues!
Inside this is a floppy disk (well, Neil is 51, so that checks out), another note from Marten, a fortune from a cookie, and a fully-stamped reward card for a free peanut butter cup, just sitting there, waiting to be redeemed – don’t play this game on an empty stomach…
The little hand-scribbled note suggests we go to the website on Marten’s staff key chain. If you thought we were in the meat and potatoes of this game already, just you wait!
Marten’s Digital Footprint
Once you figure out Marten’s login info, you can get onto his account on nphgames.com/staff. From here we can see the history of the game’s development (note that this has become a meta reality, where NPH Games exists instead of theory11, and Neil is actually a villain that kidnaps game devs and shoves them into his basements – at least I think that’s just a part of the game).
This site has tons of different files, and part of the game is figuring out which pieces are there to help you with the puzzles, and which are simply filler. One file is just an image of handsome Neil himself – it has no clues in it whatsoever! Man just wanted to throw in a “feeling cute, might delete later idk” pic.
The files include images, emails and audio messages, and videos. They focus on the interactions between Marten Maloney and Neil as Box One is being developed. It seems like they were initially partners, equals creating interesting puzzle ideas together. But then Neil’s ego took over, and he forced Marten to finish the game alone, while he would take all the credit!
But making Marten the sole developer would be Neil’s downfall. While the basement Marten worked in was under surveillance, he managed to sneak extra clues within a game box – the notes and items we’ve found hidden beneath the surface level of our own game! With these, he’s guided us to slowly figure out the truth, all while blending it naturally with the original Box One.
Eventually we manage to get into a chat with Marten! He has to be sneaky, so he can only come on at the top of every hour (there was a card we put in a freezer earlier that had a hidden message, it was a whole thing). Once we finally reach him, he needs a few things to be able to trust us.
Unfortunately, one of those things is waiting 24 hours. If you can’t wait, you could always turn the clock forward on your device temporarily. Otherwise, you’ll just have to wait – going throughout your day, knowing Marten is rotting down in that dreary basement alone.
While we’re waiting to regroup, we can crack open the floppy disk to find more items inside it! I was a bit scared to tear off the metallic sticker holding it together until Marten told me to. But inside is the next half of the cipher coin – and we’re going to need that as we progress into the final act of this game…
It’s What’s Inside The Box That Counts
The last trick Marten has up his sleeve is a secret stored within the game. Literally. One final hidden compartment reveals a map of the NPH Games facility printed on the box’s innards! A route drawn out from the basement to the exit shows you this is Marten’s escape plan. All he’s been waiting for is our help.
Every room has cameras that need to be deactivated so he can proceed. We’ve found the website that lets us access these cameras, and each one has a code used to deactivate it. These codes are referenced on the map, and we have to use the cipher key coin the solve them!
Box One’s finale has us chase down hidden messages distributed throughout the game we’ve already done. Letters assigned to other letters in the cipher, hidden within the cards and other pieces. We have to use the map clues to find the correct cipher keys for each camera, and decode them to use on the website.
The game combines the physical and digital elements for a fun finale where we see Marten escape each room individually, and then wait with bated breath for us to type in the next password. The excitement peaks as Marten finally makes it out of the building, off-screen to freedom!
Box One: Conclusion
Box One is a brilliant puzzle box that any escape room enthusiast worth their salt should give a chance. Don’t let the contrarian, anti-mainstream bug get to you on this just because it’s made by a popular actor.
The game starts with simple trivia cards, and then expands into a wild hunt for answers to save someone’s life. The digital portions reminded me much of the rabbit hole you can go down in the game Inscryption.
I’ll tell you, I’ve been confused by a couple of elements of this game, but absolutely never bored! Even the basic trivia at the beginning had my neurons zooming. And once we got to the game within the game, I was hyper focused. I was irritated by having to wait a day for Marten’s chat message, that did seem unnecessary. But a quick time change can fix that, if it also bothers you.
My only other negative was not being able to redeem the peanut butter cup reward card at my local Aldi. Such a shame.
At the very end, Neil Patrick Harris speaks to us in a video, explaining the process he went through with theory11 to make the game; he informs us that Marten Maloney isn’t real, and that he never actually put anyone in his basement (likely story). Of course, this means that Maloney is . . . Baloney.
The game repackages itself nicely for reuse, though I did accidentally tear the final envelope when opening it. I’m pumped to watch my friends play this, though. Any puzzle connoisseur absolutely needs to experience Box One!
We want To Hear Your Thoughts!
We love Box One, and we’re excited to see what you think about it!
If you’ve played it, or once you do, tell us about your experience with it on Social Media. The only thing better than a puzzle is seeing another person’s reaction when they solve one, after all!
