Perplex City – My Intro

I went out to Forbidden Planet on Wednesday and got myself a starter pack for the card-based alternate reality game Perspex Perplex City. (Damn you Aleks for mentioning exciting new things on pay day!)

What is Perplex City? It’s a really convoluted treasure hunt where you solve puzzles to gain clues and there’s a leaderboard to compare your wits against other people.

Why is it good? The cards have a huuuge range of puzzles from lateral thinking to historical research to geography to straight maths, to plain old exploration and lots more besides. Over the past couple of days I’ve had to use maths I haven’t done since GCSEs, email a company I’ve never heard of, google stuff, dig out an atlas… makes a nice change from the same old boring stuff you have think about at work. Also a useful way to tide you over until Brain Training comes out

I just have the starter pack at the moment but more cards are winging their way to my flat. I’m hooked already! Many photos below:

The cardboard box. Exciting, huh?

The contents – A magazine with some introductory info and tricksy puzzles, the folder to keep your cards in, 4 packs of cards, a CD, and a beginner’s leitmark which I forgot to include in the photo. Check out my office’s blonde wood desks, intriguing pen and pot plant… suck on that, GeekOnStun!

Leitmark: Strange keyboard-button-shaped badge given out as merit badges for certain Perplex City achievements – like being sucked into their addictive and money-consuming game, perhaps?

The inside of the CD case – anything hidden amongst all those words?

The back of the CD case – not many tracks there. Wonder if there’s a secret message on it…

Some cards – these are from the easier (and more common) end of the scale. In my first 24 cards I had 3 duplicates and one fiendishly difficult rare-ish one, so this could get pricey.

The cards in my starter pack are all from the first print run, for anyone who’s interested in that sort of collecting. Quality control is a little dubious – I had one pack with 4 cards and one with 8 when they should all have 6 inside and two of my card have corrections listed on the website. Each card also has a unique code hidden behind a silver scratch panel so that only one person collects the points from each card but on another of my cards the silver panel was a good couple of centimetres below the code! I hope the next print runs are better.

‘Tis a good game if you like thinking. Try it out. A pack of cards should only cost you £2.50 from a shop if you live near one or buy them online from Firebox.com where the starter pack plus postage is £3 cheaper than from Forbidden Planet.

We’re also gathering together a sociable group of people to pool brains and resources and get involved in future UK live events. If you want to join the mailing list, comment below entering your valid email address (which won’t be published) and I’ll add you!

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