‘Threads of Fate’ Captures Hearts, Challenges Minds (The NoPro Review)

PostCurious’ remastered debut game is a stunning, intense puzzle experience

‘Threads of Fate’ Captures Hearts, Challenges Minds (The NoPro Review)
Source: PostCurious

Threads of Fate is the revised edition of PostCurious’ 2018 at-home box experience, The Tale of Ord, with key components and puzzles having been adjusted. Threads is designed for one-to-four players, with the box itself divided into four large envelopes. This naturally segments gameplay, allowing players to finish the experience in as little as 10 hours over multiple sessions. Each envelope contains a plethora of documents and items, several of which require an internet capable device to solve.

For immersive theatre fans, Threads provides unrivaled moments of narrative and interpersonal interaction that outshine not only other at-home boxes, but many live performance experiences. The story starts with players being hired by Emerens Institutes’ dean to find two missing professors. In starting their investigation, players quickly discover that one of the professors is searching for a Norse mythology artifact; one created to strip living beings of freewill. Yet, the artifact’s existence is noted to be improbable, merely a flight of academic fancy.

It’s a typical mystery beginning, with Threads quick to set up the suspicious dean as our first person of interest. I’ve played enough boxed experiences where the client turns out to be lying to the players. Yet as I neared Threads’ halfway point, compelling evidence convinced me not to trust the professors either. I spent the second half of the experience feeling unsure about who was “right” and who was “wrong,” since arguments for and against freewill were expertly and emotionally made.

Underneath the freewill debate lurks questions about the nature of gods. Is a god an all-powerful, otherworldly being? Or simply a regular person who makes a choice that affects others? Between this subtly laid theme and a growing emphasis on players having ownership in the action, Threads’ resolution is surprisingly and magnificently tied to what the players believe. Discussing further would delve into spoilers, so suffice to say that Threads is a testament to PostCurious’ keen storytelling skills.

Source: PostCurious

Now, I want to make it clear that I greatly enjoyed Threads. Additionally, the NoPro team loves PostCurious’ work — we featured their last boxed experience, The Light in the Mist, in our best moments and experiences from 2022. I want to stress these details because I’m hard-pressed to recommend Threads to anyone other than veteran puzzlers. Causal immersive theatre aficionados with little-to-no-escape room or at-home puzzle experience are in for an arduous time.

In Threads’ defense, it appears to be designed as intentionally strenuous. PostCurious labels this their hardest experience on their website. The instructions note that you can technically play alone, but it suggests it’s best to play with a group. With my intermediate skill set, I quickly discovered I was punching way above my weight class on my own. Honestly, I’m not confident that a group of casual puzzlers would have noticed every clue or made every necessary connection when it came to solving certain puzzles.

This is an experience for people who are committed to the puzzler lifestyle; those who play escape rooms and boxed experiences quite regularly. Players will have to notice tiny details and make highly specific connections. No item or word is included without purpose, initially apparent or not. Later puzzles require the use of items or details from previous envelopes. And while Threads’ always provides either hints or instructions to help in those instances, it’s never both at once, and solutions can remain elusive. Basically, you can never not be tracking several elements at a time, as you never know what’ll be needed when.

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Threads includes puzzle types that may seem familiar but PostCurious pushes many of them to their limits. This difficulty level, paired with the sheer amount of elements, can make the game feel tedious and overwhelming to beginner puzzlers. I floundered at every step in the second envelope, from picking up on a place to start to understanding just how to complete any of the puzzles. My solo playthrough lasted over 20 hours, with many hours spent staring at the piles of documents covering my kitchen table.

Source: PostCurious

But cracking any puzzle in a game like this makes any accomplishment feel not just rightfully earned, but truly magical.

I might not have been the ideal player, but I was able to appreciate Threads’ difficulty level. Threads’ creators didn’t stuff this box with roadblocks or busywork. No, these puzzles have narrative purpose and contextual depth. There are opposing forces at work, each with secrets they’ve protected for centuries. If Threads’ characters couldn’t solve these puzzles, why should it be easy for the players? Each step I took in this game led to substantial progress, and that made me feel god-like, creating a euphoria that in turn fueled the narrative’s theme. Was it mere chance I received these envelopes? Was I predestined to walk a holy path? This intentionality did as much to assuage my frustrations as stoke them.

Related, there’s simply a stupendous level of quality and craft to each puzzle’s design. Players have everything they need — no missing details or broken components here. They simply have to work (very) hard to piece it all together. Threads’ online hint system helped each step make sense (and helped me recognize that I lacked the experience required to succeed on my own).

This is why I believe PostCurious’ hint system remains the gold standard. Each puzzle’s hints are broken out into steps and allow players to click through them one step at a time. Some hints have nearly 20 steps that are always either instructive or inquisitive in tone. For one puzzle, a step just asks if you really want to continue before trying to solve the puzzle again. Since some solutions are non-English words, there’s a separate field to check the solution without having to review all the hints. The whole system has a level of accessibility that’s as considerate as it is kind. Taking a hint doesn’t feel like a failure.

While best-suited to experienced, adept puzzlers, Threads of Fate’s engrossing, thought-provoking narrative and well-designed puzzles will have players believing the fate of the world is in their hands.


Threads of Fate’s Kickstarter runs through May 17th. The Kickstarter price is $86 before shipping. It will be available for retail sale at a later, to be announced date, for $92 before shipping.


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