Finders Seekers: Washington
Finders Seekers: Washington
- Played April 2020
- 2-4 hours
- 1-5 players
- Varying subscription rates ($20-$25/game)
- Good for families
- What People Say
Finders Seekers: Washington is another in the Finders Seekers series of cooperative play-at-home games that has you (virtually) visiting famous landmarks in well-known cities and solving various puzzles along the way. Finders Seekers: Washington takes place in the city of Washington, DC and during the course of the game you’ll visit such places as the Washington Monument and the Smithsonian. We quite enjoyed Finders Seekers: Chicago when we played it; would Washington live up to the same high standard? Read on to find out…
The component quality in Finders Seekers: Washington is decent but nothing overly special. The game comes in a cool cardboard box which is a nice touch but of course the box doesn’t come in to play when you’re actually playing the game. The game components are nice enough, with a variety of textured papers and props, some nice full-colour illustrations, and some solidly-constructed puzzle pieces, but there is a bit less “wow factor” than some of the other games in the series. A large part of the game takes place through the game’s website, which gets the job done but is nothing too flashy. Overall though the quality is decent and there is a bit more physicality to it than some other game series.
When it comes to immersion, the game again does a decent job but we felt there was still room for improvement. You’ll visit a number of famous Washington landmarks, and each is introduced with a picture and a brief historical summary. Some of the puzzles also include physical pieces themed to the location, while others take place entirely through your web browser. It’s almost like taking a walking tour of the city from the comfort of your own home, and you’ll definitely learn a few tidbits of interesting trivial along the way. However, the story was very bare-bones and wasn’t developed as we played through the game which we felt was a bit of a missed opportunity. Also, a soundtrack might have helped out with the immersion too, although this is something you could always supply yourself. May we suggest some John Philip Sousa or Aaron Copland?
The puzzles were somewhat on the challenging side, and there wasn’t quite as much variety as we would have liked, as a number of the puzzles were variations on the same theme. There were the same number of puzzles (around 9 to 11) as the other games in the series, and the difficulty level of 3.5 out of 5 seemed appropriate as it definitely felt geared more towards experienced puzzlers as opposed to beginners. This game requires a bit more online research than most of the other Finders Seekers games, but as long as you know how to use Google it shouldn’t be a problem. Also, the puzzles fit into the theme well enough, but we felt they could have been a bit better tied to the story.
Finally, we come to the fun factor: did we enjoy this game? Frankly, we did find it slightly tedious at times, and we felt it had slightly less “flavour” than some of the others in the series. Those who enjoy online research will likely get a little more out of it; this game has more “investigative” fun than “interactive” fun compared to the other Finders Seekers locations. However, if you want to take a quick tour of Washington, DC from the comfort of your home or learn a bit more about US Constitutional history, this is a great way to do exactly that. We’d suggest a group of 2-4; any more and it’ll be hard for everyone to say involved as it gets harder to share the puzzle pieces. In terms of difficulty, this one is aimed more towards experienced puzzlers, who want some good challenging puzzles to while away the time. If that describes you though, this is a good, fun activity to do together and as a bonus you might even learn something along the way!
Final Verdict: | 6.7/10 |
