Solitaire: Cantaloop

Cantaloop is likely not something that you will have heard of—and there is a good reason for this. Published by Lookout Games, a publisher of board games rather than roleplaying games, Cantaloop has caught the attention of the board game hobby rather than the roleplaying hobby, despite the fact that Cantaloop is not a board game. In fact, Cantaloop—or rather Cantaloop – Book 1: Breaking into Prison—is a solo adventure, part of the Lookout Games’ Paper Point ‘N’ Click line. The name of the line should give a clue as to the inspiration for the line, that is classic ‘point and click’ computer adventure mystery games, such as Myst, Monkey Island, and Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. The designer has taken that inspiration and instead of producing a ‘point and click’ computer adventure game, he has given it a physical form, for Cantaloop – Book 1: Breaking into Prison comes as an eye-catching landscape format folder with a mugshot of the adventure’s protagonist on the front. Inside, the player will find a complete adventure consisting of twenty locations, a double-sided poster which serves as the player’s Inventory, a deck of sixty Item cards, a post card, a trigger sheet, and last, but not least, a decoder! Now this decoder is needed because much of the text is obscured and needs to be viewed through the decoder, which is a transparent piece of red plastic. Place the decoder over the text and it becomes clear! Roleplaying game fans of a certain age will remember TSR, Inc. using a similar mechanic for the adventures MV1 Midnight on Dagger Alley for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and IJ4 The Golden Godden Goddess for The Adventures of Indiana Jones Role-Playing Game back in the nineteen eighties.

The set-up for Cantaloop – Book 1: Breaking into Prison is simple. ‘Hook’ Carpenter is a charismatic and resourceful crook, who ten years ago was forced to flee Cantaloop Island and hide out in Switzerland—as detailed in the free to play Cantaloop – Book 0: The Prequel—and now he is back for revenge! For that though, he needs a team, starting with a Hacker and a ‘Lady in Red’. The Hacker is the problem though, because the best Hacker in town is in prison. However, this is not going to the determined and ever resourceful ‘Hook’ Carpenter. He is going to find a way to break into Cantaloop Island’s prison, bust the Hacker out, and help bring his plan to fruition.

Cantaloop – Book 1: Breaking into Prison is designed to be played by a player aged sixteen and above—some of the narrative’s humour is slightly adult in tone, though not risqué—and can be completed in about five hours or so. There is nothing to stop more players getting involved and working together to help ‘Hook’ in his plan, but really, more than two players and playing Cantaloop – Book 1: Breaking into Prison is going to get crowded. Better for the players to work through it and then lend their copy to the third (and fourth) player to enjoy.

The game opens with a seven-page tutorial explaining what the components to Cantaloop – Book 1: Breaking into Prison do and how the adventure is played. The majority of the book consists of twenty locations, beginning with the lighthouse and eventually ending with—well, lets not spoil that. Each location is given a two-page spread. On the righthand side is an illustration of the location complete with an indication of possible exits and various objects and items which the player as ‘Hook’ Carpenter can examine and interact with. On the lefthand side is a block of obscured text. At the start of the game, the player only has two items, the equivalent of a Nokia 3310 mobile phone and a magnifying glass. These have code fragments down their sides. When the player aligns one of these with the code fragment of an object in the scene it will generate a full four-digit code which can be referenced in the obscured text on the left. Alternatively, two item cards can be aligned to generate another four-digit code which can be referenced with an entry on the double-sided Inventory poster.

When revealed, whether from the Inventory poster or the location, the text might instruct the player to take more items which will help ‘Hook’ in his plan, give access to another location, and more, though sometimes it will just be warnings to the player to not cheat or just nonsense. Certain codes will instruct the player to cross off particular numbers on the Trigger Sheet, which will unlock other areas of the story, whilst other will open up scenes where the player can read the dialogue between ‘Hook’ and another character. Other codes reveal secrets and jokes—none of which are mentioned elsewhere in the game, but are worth finding if the player can.

Just like the ‘point and click’ computer adventure games which inspired it, Cantaloop – Book 1: Breaking into Prison is built around a lot of puzzles. Many of these are quite challenging and when a player manages to solve them, he deserves to feel a sense of achievement. Some of them feel impossible or oddly out of left field though, but when the player really gets stuck, there is a lengthy help section at the back of the folder. Containing more obscured text of course…

Physically, Cantaloop – Book 1: Breaking into Prison is problematic. The storage for the cards—three different pockets is a bit tight, but the main issue is that the paper quality for the pages is poor. The paper is too thin to really withstand much more than the gentlest of handling or be torn from the ring binder. It would have been nice if the decoder had been mounted in a holder for ease of use also, and depending upon the player, the text may be too small to read with ease. However, the artwork is excellent and has a great cartoon feel to it. Lastly, it should be noted that Cantaloop – Book 1: Breaking into Prison is part of a trilogy, so there will be another two parts before ‘Hook’ Carpenter has his revenge.

Cantaloop – Book 1: Breaking into Prison is an incredible piece of design because it successfully translates the digital style of the ‘point and click’ computer adventure game a la Lucas Arts into an analogue format, bringing with it a strong sense of silly, often cheesy humour. Cantaloop – Book 1: Breaking into Prison is a lot of fun to play and it is not difficult to imagine the exploits of ‘Hook’ Carpenter as a cartoon with soundtrack akin to Mission: Impossible which you can hum along to as you play.