Dispatch I, Spy Game by Breakout Games #5 (Final Installment) Review + Coupon

Dispatch is a monthly subscription-based mystery from Breakout Games that "tests your detective skills each month with a new delivery of clues."

This is a review of the third series, which is called I, Spy:

By some twist of fate you have been mistaken for the top secret agent known as Wolf. Now you’ve been sent an assignment to stop the assassin known as The Raven from acquiring and using a nuclear device. You’ll track The Raven down with the help of a mysterious friend and use spy craft to ultimately sabotage the nuclear threat. Can you track down The Raven in time?

This box was sent to us at no cost for review. (Check out the review process post to learn more about how we review boxes.)

About Dispatch: I, Spy by Breakout Games

The Subscription Box: Dispatch

The Cost: $24.99 a month + free shipping

ACTIVE DEAL: Save $10 off your first box!
CODE: dispatchsignup10

The Products: Physical clues to help solve a mystery. 

Ships to: US

Dispatch I, Spy by Breakout Games #5 (Final Installment) Review

I love that the boxes for this subscription are always so interesting and add to the mystery of the game!

We received a little intro card complete with a checklist on the back, which is incredibly helpful when there are clues everywhere and you never know what you might be missing.

The following items came in our first box, but are useful for each installment of this mission:

In case we need any help along the way, we received this card from Bailey Detective Co. with a link to their website that we can use for help if we get stuck.

Since we'll be traveling, we need a passport. This one looks authentic, and the pages appear to be blank, but with this box, you never know when a clue might appear.

We also received this envelope full of cash. Too bad it isn't real, although it does look and feel somewhat authentic—not of the Monopoly money variety.

We received this book on Code Systems that is full of information about Morse Code, Braille, Navy flag signals, and more.

They even included information on Baconian Ciphers and American Sign Language and left a space for notes.

This month's box felt a little sparse considering the only other item inside along with our contents checklist was this large envelope. On the front, it warned that we were not to open the envelope until we had the four digit code.

We headed to the listed website and were taken to this page asking us to begin our escape.

The first page was cryptic message along with an image of a typewriter.

On the next page, there was a space for us to enter in a code. We had to use some information we had uncovered from a previous box to get through this one, along with our code book!

Once entered, we were taken to this note from the Raven which could only be read by having a red filter over each word, which was built into the site (cool!).

Now it was time to unlock the safe. That little message in the corner was very helpful once we figured out what it meant!

Entering the correct code led us to this page, which didn't make too much sense at first, until I saw what our next task was.

We needed to play a little tune! Fortunately, I took piano as a kid, so this was fairly easy for me once I refreshed my memory on which keys were which. That first page came in handy here, by the way.

We were able to escape! There was a brief message after this that provided us with a symbol that "might" help us, which turned out to be our 4-digit code for our envelope.

Our envelope was actually full of various items including a compass, an ID badge, a large map and a few other pieces of paper that proved to be quite useful.

We received a card from the Raven which contained a poem and several Raven's feathers printed at the bottom.

The first thing that really stuck out to my husband was this large map of Hlewlai City with an X on it.

It had a note on the back that told us everything we needed would be within a certain radius from the X, so using the included compass he was able to mark a circle for us.

We also received a newspaper article about the velour casino in Hlewlai.

We received this receipt from Great Panda which is the restaurant you might remember from our previous box. The Chinese Proverb at the bottom stood out to me, but I didn't know what to make of it just yet!

Upon looking closer at some of the other items we received, we began to discover several hidden numbers throughout our box. By using our red spy glass from Box 3, we were able to make out what this said, which helped us come up with a number.

We also received this high roller card on which we found another hidden number.

We received this playing card with a nice image of a wolf on it. The front had a casino website so we decided to check it out.

We had to enter the four-digit code that we had uncovered in the vault!

Once on the casino site, we received this pop up with a recording from the Raven.

We were asked to sign into our employee account which was when we needed to use this ID badge from our envelope.

Once in, we saw security footage from four separate cameras with a message asking us to locate the explosive device.

Every so often, these mysterious pictures would pop up very quickly and then disappear (getting a screenshot of this is some of my finest detective work, I must say!) and we were able to use some of the information from our box to help us select the right one.

Yay! We chose correctly, but now we had to disarm a bomb! In order to defuse the bomb, we needed all of those numbers that we had collected from our materials in the box. That Chinese Proverb also started to make sense!

Once we defused the bomb, we received a recording congratulating us and explaining a bit more about what had happened. Our mission was a success!

SPOILER:

I just have to share one of the fun places we found a number, which was on one of the raven's feathers from our note. My husband actually came across it, I don't know how, but it is heat sensitive so when you rub it, the black fades and a number appears. How cool is that? It really has me wondering what little nuances such as this we might have missed along the way! I sort of wish there was a checklist for the end of each box so you could make sure you actually saw everything since they really put a lot of time and effort into these fun clues!

Verdict: Our final installment of our I, Spy box was a fun one! The mystery of that large black envelope that we couldn't open until after escaping the site was a fun way to start off our final installment of the game and I liked that we had to use a lot of the information from previous boxes. Overall, my husband and I had a great time working on these boxes and solving the clues each time. It was just the right amount of challenge for a game/date night with the husband and one of the things we were both really impressed by was the production value of all the clues and game pieces they sent us. The newspaper articles looked very realistic complete with printing on both sides, that ID badge was just like a real one, and all of the other details like the menus and money were very well done. We could tell that a lot of thought and time went into developing these games, which we really appreciated. I would definitely do something like this again!

To Wrap Up:

Can you still get this box if you sign up today? This is the fifth and final box in the I, Spy game series. Although everyone receives a new box each month, subscribers will receive different boxes depending on where they are in the story.

Coupon - Use code dispatchsignup10 to save $10 off your first box!

Value Breakdown: This box is the fifth in a series of five total boxes each costing $24.99 for a total of $124.95 for the series. Considering this box gave us a good solid chunk of unique, quality entertainment time, I definitely think it's worth it!

Check out all of our Dispatch reviews and the Geek + Nerd Subscription Box Directory for more mystery and crime-themed boxes!

Keep Track of Your Subscriptions: Add this box to your subscription list or wishlist!

What do you think of the fourth installment of I, Spy?