Boxes: Lost Fragments – A Mysterious Mansion Full of Mechanical Enigmas

“I’m dark matter. The universe inside of me is full of something, and science can’t even shine a light on it. I feel like I’m mostly made of mysteries.” – Maria Dahvana Headley

Overview

Boxes: Lost Fragments is a cryptic puzzle game set within a mysterious mansion full of curious machinery and compelling conundrums. It was created by Big Loop Studios, creators of Doors: Paradox, a relaxing puzzle escape game full of 3D dioramas!

Gameplay

Boxes: Lost Fragments begins with a brief tutorial that serves to provide the player with the basics of gameplay. The intuitive controls utilise just a mouse making it very easy to pick up. The game has five different levels, each containing doors to four different boxes that contain fragments that are needed to complete a further puzzle in the level’s main room. The final puzzle in each level will yield a token that will unlock the next level.

Each box has a different theme, such as railroad, Aztec, Greek mythology or entertainment and contains a unique set of puzzles. The challenges are very varied and include things such as matching symbols and colours, logic-based puzzles, lining up mechanical components, mazes, sokoban, hidden objects and much more. They vary in difficulty, ranging from simple interactions to much more thought-provoking and demanding.

There are hints available for most puzzles as well as the option to skip a puzzle if it is too difficult. This makes the game very accessible and ensures that everyone can reach the end and experience the entirety of the narrative. There are no timers or high-pressure puzzles, so even during the more challenging moments, the game maintains a fairly casual feel.

Narrative

Boxes: Lost Fragments has a curious and intriguing narrative with sci-fi vibes touching on things such as artificial intelligence and attempts to harness dark matter. The player takes on the role of a thief exploring a peculiar and lavish mansion while attempting to complete their most recent assignment. The story is told mostly through notes left by a mysterious author that are dotted throughout the various puzzle boxes and ends with something of a cliffhanger, hopefully meaning that there will be future games in this series.

Styling

The detailed and realistic art style of Boxes: Lost Fragments is very reminiscent of The Room. The overall aesthetic, the atmospheric lighting, and the use of contrasting warm and cool colours, especially orange and teal, feel heavily inspired by this series of games. This is probably made more prominent by the similarity in the style of puzzles and the way the game progresses.

The music is very minimal, even absent at times, and consists of low droning, echoing sounds, and ethereal hums. This adds to the overall atmosphere in a subtle way without dictating a heavy emotional response and feels quite appropriate to the style of the game and its narrative. There are a lot of sound effects creating a high level of immersion. From ship cannons to mechanical whirring and clocks chiming, the various noises really bring the different scenes and objects to life and create a believable world for the player.

Summary

Boxes: Lost Fragments is a great example of a point-and-click puzzle game. It provides atmospheric visuals, immersive sound design, a variety of interesting puzzles that range in difficulty, as well as an intriguing and original narrative. It is not the most challenging puzzle game out there but it is very satisfying and offers quality, casual gameplay and is a lot of fun. It can take anywhere from 3 to 5 hours to complete depending on pacing and puzzle-solving ability so value for money may be subjective. That being said, it is a quality experience, I thoroughly enjoyed my time in-game and would happily recommend this to puzzle lovers as well as fans of both The Room series and Doors: Paradox.

Looking for more puzzle games? you may also like these reviews:
Escape from Mystwood Mansion – An Exceptional Puzzle Experience – Relax and Solve Puzzles – What Never Was – Cats in Time – Travel the World in Search of Lost Cats!

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