The Book of Rituals Review

boardgamequest.com:

We review The Book of Rituals, a new puzzle game published by Boards and Dice. The Book of Rituals is a cooperative game self contained in a single book that has narrative puzzles for the players to solve.

My partner’s in her lab again. I can hear her joyfully exclaim when she discovers, growl when a breakthrough slips through her fingers. She’s been at this for days, alone and working by candlelight, ever since we stumbled upon the final ingredient to the philosopher’s stone. Something seems to call to her, which is most apparent when she emerges (rarely) with a faraway look glittering behind all the grime splattered across her face. I call her name. Her brow furrows, sight lost to thought, and back to the lab she returns.

I wish we’d never been mysteriously sent The Book of Rituals, published by Board & Dice, and designed by Jakub Caban and Bartosz Idzikowski. It’s a sinister book of puzzles that plays cooperatively from one to four players. There used to be four of us. I think.

The Book of Rituals is set in the Escape Tales universe of games, though knowledge of this series is not needed to undertake the deduction within. As you flip the front cover, you’re presented with short introduction that leads into Chapter I: Elements. There are three chapters in all, and you must progress through each in order, though the order you complete the puzzles in each section jumps around.

Before diving into the puzzles, it must be noted that the introduction has a QR code that provides access to a web-based application required to answer each puzzle. The application also provides a space for hints to help players progress, as well as video tutorials when the solution is too hard to discover on your own. As such, players don’t have