December 8, 2018 – Christina and I were looking for a winter getaway less than two hours from Chicago. Lake Geneva is an obvious candidate, and Madison could be fun, but we looked at the map a little closer to see what else might be around to the west, south, and east. To our surprise, St. Joseph, Michigan fit the bill. Given that Illinois doesn’t neighbor Michigan, I’ve never thought of Michigan as a candidate for a short jaunt, but our adventure proved spending even 24 hours in the town of St. Joseph made for a refreshing weekend.
Puzzlemental is located in the heart of St. Joseph. I previously wrote about the town itself in its own article- St. Joseph is set on the Lake Michigan waterfront with plenty of beach to explore and a few lighthouses, plus a cozy town with plenty of “weekend getaway” type stores (ice cream parlors, souvenir shops). It makes for a great town to explore on foot, even in winter, and I imagine it gets quite busy during the summer.
Christina and I found Puzzlemental and quickly started with the Henchmen’s Hideout room. The room borrows from real life mobster lore related to the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, and the room is set shortly before that event as you carry out a hit on one of Al Capone’s safehouses to earn a spot in Bugs Moran’s gang.
In order to enter the room, players need to descend into Puzzlemental’s basement, which had the nice touch of being decorated to have an exterior to the room the players are going to spend an hour in. It doesn’t impact gameplay at all, but the little bit of added theatrics does help the whole experience feel like a cohesive story.
The room has a good mechanism for progressing toward the ultimate goal. Your group is working to assemble what you need to carry out the destruction of the hideout, so finding each of the pieces is satisfying and builds toward a rewarding finale.
The room requires a good amount of seek and find elements as well as logic and puzzling. The balance was struck well, and there are plenty of clever ways to interact with the space. Mobster-themed rooms tend to lend well to simple designs, but Puzzlemental was very creative in applying cutting edge tricks and technology to make the space interactive without breaking the 1920s era aesthetic.
Christina and I solved the puzzles and took down Capone’s lair. Our reward was to enter the service of a lesser known mobster, so maybe it wasn’t the greatest prize ever, but we had a lot of fun doing it.
Before leaving, Christina and I played the quick-hitter dueling jail cell room Puzzlemental offered.
Even though it only lasted a few minutes, it was a blast. I love the idea of dueling rooms, though I find for larger groups we have a challenge trying to find the appropriate balance in teams. In a 1 vs. 1 scenario, we didn’t have that problem, so we jumped right into the challenge itself.
I liked how close the rooms were to each other, which allowed Christina and I to hear when the other made any significant gains. Some of the tools and containers made unique sounds when handled, so by listening carefully it’s possible to gain an edge, or at the very least catch up when your opponent gets ahead.
In the end I finished first, by about half a puzzle, (but I DID pass the keys to Christina so she could escape first). The finale to the versus challenge was clever as well and enables both participants to fight to the very end.
All in all, I highly recommend St. Joseph and Puzzlemental as an ideal getaway for any season. Though St. Joseph may offer more during the warmer months, there’s a charm in being able to explore the town in the off season, and the escape room is open year round.
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