PuzMat Review

If you need something to bring you and your family together in a crafty, puzzly, escape room-type activity then PuzMat is the thing for you. I have never seen my youngest lad so invested in such an activity before. Everyday it was “Dad, can we finish the mat-thing?” or “Dad, when you finish work can we do the next section?” and to be honest it was lovely seeing everyone crowded around crunching through various puzzles and challenges together. This is PuzMat, part puzzle and part mat, makes sense when you think about it.

A Mat-Based Escape Room

It's hard to talk about the gameplay without ruining some of the puzzles and their various elements but I will be brief and spoiler-free in my musings. The PuzMat comes in three flavours, all of which follow the same style but are different in their content. Each mat is full of puzzles and challenges and will have you and your group crowded round wondering what the heck to do next. Puzzles lead you on to the next clue and work your way to the overall end-game which for the first mat, is getting a code to access a real-life website and getting a reward for doing so.

The mats will have you cutting stuff out, drawing all over them, grabbing objects from around your home and doing an all manner of interesting things. I loved how there was a nice mix of hard puzzles, that had me scratching my head and easier puzzles so my youngest lad could get involved. Nothing was too difficult though and everything functioned perfectly.

The first mat we did took a few sessions to complete but you could easily do one in in an hour or two if you put your mind to it. We took a very chilled approach to the whole thing and it was lovely on a Sunday morning to get the kids off their PlayStations and get them working the old grey-matter. There are even some very nice design choices that make it easy to check your doing the right thing and we never once made a wrong turn or got to the end and realized we messed it up. It was a very well designed fun little system that everyone enjoyed. In fact, we have already started the third one as my son has turned into a bit of a PuzMat fiend!

One Big Mat

Component-wise there's not too much to talk about, it's just a big mat. However, the mat is very well designed, very well printed and is made of just the right sort of material. It's thick enough to be nice and light but also durable enough not to rip when hurling it around your living room. You will be spinning and sliding it around to look at various clues and if it was any thinner, I could see there being issues.

I also thought the text, icons and images were all very clear, very crisp and never an issue to anyone playing. This may seem like a given but in a product like this legibility and readability are key factors in making the experience an enjoyable one and it certainly exceeds in that regard.

Final Thoughts

As I said above everyone who joined in, including me, thought that the PuzMat was brilliant. Not too easy, not too difficult and very inclusive. Working out where to go next and what to do is great and when you, as a group work things out, the feeling is great and very rewarding. Using items around your home is a nice touch and the way the mat tracks things and checks your progress as you go is superb.

I never felt once I was too lost and never had to worry that we made a wrong turn somewhere. It was also very simple to pick up even after leaving it for a day or two. All in all the PuzMat is a very cheap, very entertaining experience for anyone who wants to get involved. Top notch work.