Mr. and Mrs. Q’s helpful and reliable reconnaissance droid, MM7, is starting to ask questions all robots inevitably ask, “What is Love?” and “How do you know you’re loved?” You’ll be tasked to help MM7 decipher the complex and puzzling ways of love in our world in order to help focus him on our daily mission to save the world from the villainous network of the Evil Professor.

Rating: Romantic!
Completion Time: 33 minutes + 25 minutes
Date Played: 21st – 22nd February 2021
Party Size: 2 (1)
Recommended For: A Valentine’s activity

I did Mechanics of the Heart in two sittings – complicated? Yeah! Maybe. But hey, it makes for an interesting perspective and hopefully an interesting review. So here goes…

Valentine’s Day unfortunately got away from us this year inbetween playing the Civilisation board game (sorry babe for giving you the plague and sacking your city if you’re reading this!), baking brownies, and watching films. So we tackled Mechanics of the Heart 7 days after the big red day – as if I need an excuse to have a second Valentine’s Day!

But, puzzles aren’t really my Player 2’s thing, so we tapped out at 33 minutes after getting a bit stuck (and a little bit prosecco-and-cheese-lazy too). But not before secretly making a note of answers so I could come back to this in my own time at a later date. Which I did the following day!

So how did I find this Valentine’s themed game for two as a solo adventure? It still worked! That said, the main selling point of Mechanics of the Heart that are that it IS really a game for two to share together perhaps sipping red wine beneath a gorgeous sunset. For example, there’s personalisation. You can input your partner’s nicknames, ideas for cute dates, and funny stories from your relationship. I put a couple of jokes in mine and only misspelled my partner’s pet name once (with hilarious consequences).

Another way in which it’s best played with two players are the style of puzzles. Many of the puzzles actually benefit from having two pairs of eyes, for example comparing lots of information quite quickly. There’s a cool bit of “divide and conquer” which worked well in a play at home setting. I’d look at one half of a puzzle, or one half of a folded paper divider and try to describe what I saw and my partner would do the same and opposite.

What this tells me is that ClueQuest (as usual!) put SO MUCH thought and effort into making this game perfect for ‘the season’ and with a lovely plot and beautiful illustrations to boot, it makes Mechanics of the Heart an exceptional game in the printable escape room genre!

“So what is that plot you speak of?” I hear you ask. The story goes, MM7, one of the ClueQuest droids has their heart (no pun intended) set on becoming a secret agent! But Mr. Q has his doubts, arguing that secret agents must be able to understand EE-MO-SHUN. So this is your quest, to help MM7 understand the most powerful emotion of them all: Love.

It was a surprise not to meet Mr. Q in this game (I suspect he’s still in peril after Prison of Memories), but I’ll never say no to learning more about the ClueQuest world lore, and this game’s got buckets of it.

I’d recommend this game for a date night, for any level of puzzler. This game is all about affection, compatibility and like NY Times’ 36 Questions to Lead to Love, it might just make you fall in love.

Mechanics of the Heart can be purchased for £15 via the ClueQuest website.