We could tell you all about Distraction Agents but we'd probably then have to have you killed. Suffice to say, this is a very well put together escape room-style puzzle game designed, ideally, to be played solitaire but where two or more could 'play' together as a team.
If you order up a copy of Distraction Agents from publishers and theatre group Third Angel, your initial surprise will be the box in which it arrives. Designed to fit through the majority of letterboxes, you'll receive a package that purports to be from a company manufacturing high-end gloves: Delphine Apollinaire. Inside, you'll find a set of numbered envelopes and other items, including a bag sealed by a combination padlock. The premise is that you have come to the attention of the Agency and you have been set a series of tasks to be completed over 'four days'. Each day, the successfully completed tasks and puzzles will generate a single digit number, and the four numbers form the unlock code for the padlock...
We won't give away an spoilers by discussing the various puzzles but suffice to say they are suitably varied and involve logic, basic maths, observation and deduction. The standout feature of Distraction Agents tho' is the instruction videos that you access online as you proceed through the game. If it is a game, that is. You begin to wonder whether perhaps this really is a recruitment device for a shadowy intelligence agency. Distraction Agents is so immersive because the whole package, including the all-important videos, are so very professionally produced. Too often board game videos are peopled with enthusiastic but obvious amateurs. If we're watching actors in Distraction Agents, then they are very good at what they do!
There are many tougher puzzle games out there but you'll be hard put to find a more immersive experience, and especially at such remarkably good value (you can order it for just £17, including postage!) If you're really good at logic puzzles, you can probably complete the Distraction Agents challenge in a couple of hours but that still makes it excellent value for money. And, who knows, it may be that it'll prove to be your ticket to a new career in an intelligence agency.