The Curious Correspondence Club: Warehouse on the Wharf | Review

The Curious Correspondence Club: Warehouse on the Wharf | Review | Chapter II takes you to Padstow Wharf to find the second of 12 ancient artifacts hidden among the hundreds of shipments arriving and leaving the warehouse.

Hot on the heels of another agent who went missing in action, you must use the map, film negative, and cargo panels she left behind to piece together the artifact’s location before it is moved and lost forever.

Completion Time: 70 Minutes
Date Played: October 3rd 2021
Party Size: 1 
Recommended For: An incredibly inventive, stimulating, and varied at-home experience

Chapter II of the Curious Correspondence Club leads you from the museum to the wharf for an exciting continuation of your journey as a new recruit of the mysterious organization. Following the footsteps and clues left behind by the missing AGENT RED, I found this chapter to be even more immersive and engaging than the first (check out my review of Chapter One here). 

Once again, I was blown away by the variety, beauty, and inventiveness of the game pieces that came in the envelope. Intricate is an understatement. The variety of items that the creators portray in a 2D format is fascinating (I found the film negative to be particularly delightful)!

Just as in Chapter I, be prepared for a variety of puzzles that cater to different types of thinkers. In my previous review, I admonished myself for diving into these mysteries as a “solo agent” and suggested playing with at least one other person, however, I rarely listen to anyone, including myself, and therefore attempted Chapter II while home alone on a chilly autumn night. Luckily for me, I did have an easier time with Chapter II, in part because I was familiar with the foundations of what makes the Curious Correspondence Club tick, but also due to the setting.

While I loved the museum setting of Chapter I, I found the objectives within Chapter II more directly connected to the puzzles at hand, something that I struggled with in the first chapter. The puzzles were not necessarily less challenging, however, I did find them, to their benefit, more easily completed because of this correspondence (no pun intended) to the in-game tasks. Given that I am now a full fledged agent rather than going through my initiation, I hope that the following chapters follow this model, as having clearly defined tasks laid out handily in the introductory note gave me more time to focus on the actual tasks at hand rather than questioning what I was supposed to be doing. 

As a humanities minded individual, I was initially unsure if I would be well suited to solving the code breaking, observational puzzles contained in Chapter II. To the contrary, I found them more intuitive and satisfying to solve (and more easily done without hints!) than the museum-set Chapter I, perhaps because I didn’t have any outside knowledge about the Greeks or dinosaurs clouding my thought process. I very much enjoyed taking on the role of a secret agent for the evening, next time I’ll have to break out my black polo neck. 

I definitely relied a lot less on the hints this time, although I would use them to “check my work” if I wasn’t 100% sure of my answer because I learned from Chapter I that a wrong solution in one section could lead to disaster later down the line (disaster here meaning I had to unnecessarily redo things, something that I find very annoying). When I did use the hints, I found them to be more helpful than last time, again I think the plot structure of Chapter II definitely helped in this regard. 

The one tactile/building puzzle in the envelope, while very interesting in concept, proved to be an absolutely impossible task for me as a solo player. That being said, as I stated in my previous review, fine motor skills are by no means my strong suit! The rest of the puzzles I could have managed alone, but I think every player could benefit from an extra pair of hands when it comes to this task. 

The Verdict

I found Chapter II to be a brilliant instalment of the Curious Correspondence Club that creates an excellent blueprint of how the future chapters could play out. Like the Godfather Part 2 or Shrek 2, I’d class it as a rare sequel that surpasses the original.

It made me very excited to play the future episodes, perhaps I will even finally listen to my own advice and make my partner play Chapter III with me. I would highly recommend this game to all puzzle lovers who are up for an exciting and unique challenge.

Warehouse on the Wharf can be purchased as part of the Curious Correspondence Club subscription on their website here.

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