Box TWO

by Neil Patrick Harris (Theory 11)

Players: 1-2 (technically can be more)

Age: 14+ (I'd say 10+ is fine)

*Internet access required

After being blown away by the masterful Box ONE, I immediately went online and pre-ordered Box TWO when I discovered it was coming out this year. Several long months of waiting later, the game was finally available in Australia and I picked it up right away.

It's not easy following up what many consider to be one of, if not the best, mass-produced puzzle games of all time, so I kept my expectations in check, especially as I had heard some mixed reviews about Box TWO.

And now, having finally played it, I can say Box TWO is a strong game and a worthy sequel. It's just that the bar has been set so high that — in an effort to match or even outdo the original — Box TWO falls victim to potentially clunky and uneven player experiences. This is because so much of the game is reliant on a particular mechanism (more on this later) and your interactions with it.

First, the positives. Box TWO looks absolutely beautiful, more like a bespoke, artisan-crafted game than a mass-produced one you'd find at Target. Though much of it is made from cardboard, it is sturdy, weighty, and player-friendly—the main reason why it can be easily reset and played by someone else after you.

Secondly, like its predecessor, Box TWO is full of little secrets and surprises that you wouldn't expect from a box of this size that's made with mostly paper materials. Secret compartments, movable pieces, and sections that fold and expand with the twist of a key convey a sense of journey and adventure.

Thirdly, the puzzles are, strictly speaking, a step up from Box ONE, especially as they incorporate props and tricks you might find in a magic set or science kit. You may have seen some of these elsewhere, but those coming across them for the first time are likely to be wowed by the ingenuity.

All of these positive attributes should technically make Box TWO an enhanced, superior version of Box ONE. However, the biggest problem with Box TWO is its use of the "online chat" mechanism. Essentially, most of the game is guided by an exclusive chat interface on your device (ostensibly with a real person) that tells you what you need to solve next, and to offer clues to point you in the right direction.

In my opinion, this chat mechanism is what drags the whole game down. If the game were released several years ago before AI and ChatGPT overtook the world, it would have come across as much more impressive. Unfortunately, the chat that you interact with here is more like one of those annoying customer service bots on company websites that rarely answer your question properly or take you where you want to go.

You need to type in specific keywords or prompts in order for the chat to progress the way the game designers intended. So if you, for example, discover something you weren't supposed to until later on in the game, the chat won't recognise your response and will end up giving you an awkward reply. Also, if you solve a puzzle faster than you're supposed to, you have to feed the chat specific keywords until it catches up to you. In this sense, even though Box TWO has some great puzzles, the chat made it feel restrictive and overly guided. In fact, even a small typo can confuse the chat.

J and I played Box TWO as a duo and we encountered this problem several times. One time, J accidentally found something that we thought was the solution to a puzzle, but it was actually the solution to a much later puzzle. It became frustrating every time we were not giving the chat what it needed and it wasn't giving us what we needed. The worst part was that we had to pause the game on two occasions and go out for errands. And since the chat was being run on my phone, it disconnected each time we went out and we had to start all over again when we came home!

So while we still had fun and were challenged, the 2-3 hour experience felt somewhat disjointed and occasionally frustrating. My play-through with J can be contrasted with Z's solo play-through, which was much smoother because he—for the most part—interacted with the chat bot the way it was designed and finished in under 2 hours. This explains why the reviews for Box TWO have been a mixed bag and the player experience may vary depending on chance and luck.

At the end of the day, Box TWO is still an excellent game that is better made and more fun than the majority of tabletop escape rooms on the market. It's just unfortunate that, while Box ONE was released at the perfect time (during a pandemic when everyone was stuck at home), Box TWO came out at arguably the worst time (post-AI world). I have read elsewhere that improvements are coming for the chat bot (probably in the form of AI integration), but it's unclear when this will be implemented. Having said all that, if Neil Patrick Harris and Theory 11 have the time and energy to make a Box Three, I will definitely be ready.

8/10