Journal 29: Revelation

Journal 29 #2

by Dimitris Chassapakis

Journal 29 Revelation is a unique book game where you can solve puzzles and submit your answers online to get the keys and move forward in the story. To solve the puzzles, you need to think out of the box. You can write, draw, search, fold pages, combine different methods and try to get those puzzles right. Journal 29 Revelation is a 152 pages physical book with over 52 puzzles to solve.

The story of Journal 29 Revelation takes place after the events of Journal 29. It is not necessary to have solved Journal 29 to enjoy Journal 29 Revelation.

Genres: Puzzles, Nonfiction, Mystery

148 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2018

Reviews

[Melanie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'll always enjoy difficult puzzles like these. And this time there was a bit more story to it too!

[Mirjam Dijksterhuis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Niet allemaal makkelijk, ik heb de hints wel nodig gehad. Erg leuk om je hersens zo aan het werk te zetten

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it!

Took me two days to finish with the secret Easter eggs in the end!
Some puzzles where frustrating but with the hint's they where not that bad!

loved to solve them all!

[Jiří Pavlovský · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nedávno jsem hodnotil knihu Escape Room Puzzles, kterou jsem řadil spíše do kategorie úmorných. Tohle je pravý opak. Pokračování řady Journal 29 je naplněné hádankami, které vypadají šílené komplikovaně, ale řešení je obvykle elegantní a prosté, takže když na to konečně přijdete, mlátíte se do hlavy, že vás to nenapadlo okamžitě. Jsou tu jak klasické hádanky, tak spousta vážně nápaditých. Pracuje se tu s vašim očekáváním a často vás to vede, abyste se upnuli na chybné řešení a neviděli to, co máte přímo před očima. Někdy musíte i zalistovat zpátky a nápovědu k řešení najdete u jiné hádanky. Funguje i to, že při vyluštění jedné věci získáte heslo, které pak může být součástí dalšího úkolu.
Na rozdíl od jedničky je tady i nějaký příběh, ale upřímně, je tady spíš jako bonus a z celé knihy zabírá jen pár stránek. A využití mobilu je taky fajn. Obvykle slouží hlavě k tomu, že do něj zadáváte řešení a pokud se trefíte, dostanete heslo, ale párkrát se stane součástí hry.
Zatím považuju Journal 29 jako nejlepší z těchhle "escaperoomových" věcí. Navíc u dvojky není nutnost cokoliv stříhat či ofocovat, což jsou další body k dobru.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I devoured the first book and immediately got this one as I just loved the mix of puzzles Unfortunately, for me, Revelation just wasn’t anywhere near as engaging as the original.

I know there was some feedback in the reviews for the first book that people wanted more of a storyline, more of a narrative to the book, but honestly I don’t get it? For me the narrative added absolutely nothing, in fact it was just a little bit annoying. If I want to read a storyline I will buy a novel. I picked this up purely to have fun with some puzzles.

My only criticism for the first book was that I would have preferred to have leaned on the internet less, and it seems like Revelation required even more internet usage which is such a shame.
For me, I want to be able to do a puzzle book without having to google things - I don’t want to google the periodic table or know the author or a book I’ve never heard of… I want to be able to do the puzzles based on a little bit of general knowledge and the information in the book. I want to stretch my brain not my internet searching abilities.

Overall this was no where near as satisfying or logical as the first book.

[J.D. Dresner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining and puzzling. Good to pick up and put down. Some of the puzzles (once solved) weren't very user friendly. As in, they weren't realistically solvable. Example: finding oddly shaped numbers within overlapping animals - the numbers barely looked like numbers. Otherwise, clever and fun!

[Buhtichka · Rating 5 out of 5]

At first it was great, then at some point the puzzles got too hard for me and it was a little frustrating I had to use so many hints. At the end I started enjoying it again. I'd love another one!

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

A worthy successor to the first volume, perhaps with slightly easier puzzles but a nice expansion of the story.

[Xapphirea · Rating 4 out of 5]

+ cool illustrations
+ awesome puzzles. No doubles
+ story is cool
- sometimes the illustrations are not very clear
- some puzzles are not logic unless you are from the us
- no dtagons

[Helena Paciorek · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just not as satisfying or as logical as the first episode - though the storyline made it more sensical and have some sort of reasons for solving attached.

[Marchewix · Rating 5 out of 5]

Slej czasem było trudno ale i tak slej

[Josée Leon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, I think this one was tougher. Thank goodness for online hints. Still loved most of it though!

[Stephen Stewart · Rating 4 out of 5]

This puzzle book is the sequel to Journal 29 by Dimitris Chassapakis. Like the previous book, the puzzles were interesting and engaging, ranging from simple to very complex. One of my critiques of the previous puzzle book was that while the book itself was atmospheric and interesting, the puzzles felt divorced from any narrative. Journal 29: Revelation corrects that in a very good way, by weaving in actual journal pages and incorporating them into several puzzles. I am very happy with that change, though I still wish the book had gone farther with weaving together the puzzles and narrative. Let's just not ask why the reader needs to solve these puzzles to progress through a journal. I liked how the book added additional materials at the end that factored into the puzzles, which gave the book greater breadth, as well as puzzles that required backtracking. Humorously, I lacked an appropriate clear cup to solve one of the puzzles.

While I overall liked the puzzles, I do have some familiar critiques like the last book. First, one of the challenges of the book is understanding what parts of the page are part of the puzzle, and what parts of the page are just illustrative decorations. Second, I was unhappy with puzzles requiring knowledge outside of the book, and I again approached this book with the philosophy that everything I need to solve it should be contained within the book. There was yet another chess puzzle, with the stumbling block being me not realizing it was a chess puzzle. The Tetris puzzle was a puzzling inclusion and required knowing how the game was played. The Benjamin Franklin and Alice in Wonderland puzzles felt the most egregious with requiring specific outside knowledge.

In summary, this sequel puzzle book was entertaining, with some puzzles being really fascinating and deep, and others unfortunately being more trivia contests in disguise. While I was very happy to see this book improve the interweaving of puzzles and narration, I'm still left wanting more in that regard, and I hope future books like that can continue to develop in that area.