Unidragon has produced a follow up to Quezzle Amazing Cappadocia, which was their first attempt at a mashup of tabletop game and wooden jigsaw puzzle.

Quezzle Space Adventures is an all new Quezzle experience with a sci-fi theme featuring many changes from the original, including a lot more tabletop game elements.

Read on to find out what’s changed and our thoughts on this new blend of puzzle and board game.

Disclosure: Thanks to Unidragon for sending us a copy of Quezel Space Adventures to check out. We also need to thank them for the special discount code BELLHOP which you can use to get 10% off at their online store. We are a Unidragon affiliate and links in this post may be affiliate links.

What is Quezzle Space Adventures?

Quezzle Space Adventures is a new mashup of puzzle and tabletop game from wooden puzzle company Unidragon. It is the second game in the Quezzle series with the first being Quezzle Amazing Cappadocia. For more information on the original Quezzle check out our Quezzle Amazing Cappadocia review from back in February of 2022.

This new outer space themed Quezzle game was successfully funded on Indigogo and is due to hit retail on September 15th 2023. Leading up to that date, Unidragon has a draw going on where you can win a copy of Quezzle Space Adventures. For every 1000 entries, they are giving away 10 more games!

Quezzle Space Adventures has you embark on a mission to four different regions of the galaxy each owned by a different faction. You start by building your spaceships, then set out to explore the galaxy by building a one-thousand-piece wooden jigsaw puzzle. From there, you visit each faction and complete quests to unlock a clue from each. You then use these clues to unlock a cryptext which will lead you to the villain. What happens next? You will have to play to find out!

Unlike the original Quezzle game, Quezzle Space Adventures is a single stand alone game which comes in a single, rather large, wooden box.

Inside, you will find all of the jigsaw puzzle pieces, a very unique looking cryptex, a Log Book that you will use to guide you through the game, and a fold out picture of the completed puzzle with hints on the back of it (I suggest not looking at that side too closely until you need it).

As you dig through the puzzle pieces in the box, you will come across a number of wooden punch boards for things like disc shooting spaceships, dice, targets, and more.

The quality of everything here, starting right from the box itself, is fantastic. The puzzle pieces are made of thick laser cut wood and are painted with bright, clear, graphics.

The puzzle pieces fit together perfectly. Though we did find the 3D ships were sometimes hard to assemble. You may want a rubber mallet on hand to get any stubborn bits to slot together.

A nice touch, that’s new to this version of Quezzle, is that many of the items in the images are textured and have an added slight three-dimensional element to them.

I have absolutely no complaints about the quality of this puzzle. Unidragon makes some of the best wooden puzzles in the world and Quezzle is of that same high quality that I’ve come to expect from them.

What is playing Quezzle Space Adventures like?

Quezzle Space Adventures is much more than just a jigsaw puzzle. The tabletop game aspects of this experience start right with getting the box open.

To even get the Quezzle Space Adventures box open you have to solve four word puzzles and then turn the rocketship dials on the box lid to the proper letters.

The next step (after you sift through all the cool bits and marvel at the uniquely shaped pieces) is to grab the Log Book. This book will lead you through the Quezzle Space Adventures story, which has you complete a number of tasks.

We were surprised to find that the first task wasn’t to build the puzzle. Instead, the first step is to build four 3D spaceships.

Each ship is unique and all four of them use elastics to fire wooden discs that you will also find in the box. To go with these, there are also a bunch of wooden planet targets that you can build.

Once you have your ships (and have finished playing around at shooting the targets with them), you move on to building the jigsaw puzzle. Quezzle Space Adventures features a one-thousand-piece puzzle that is going to take you some time to build.

The overall image for the puzzle has a ton of tiny little details, and the puzzle pieces all come in interesting and intricate shapes.

Like all of Unidragon’s Puzzles, a big part of the jigsaw puzzle building experience here is how they have worked in thematic shapes to the puzzle. While putting together this puzzle, you will discover pieces in all sorts of interesting shapes, including spaceships, ray guns, aliens, robots and more.

Once the puzzle is built, the next step is to grab the Log Book and to use it to explore each of the four quadrants of the puzzle. What’s cool here is that you can do the four quadrants in any order which does help with the exploration feel.

The story and quests in each quadrant will lead you to look for various things across the whole puzzle. For example, in The Happy Republic we had to collect pieces of a prototype which consisted of three lab crates and a number of vials.

As you spot these quest items you actually pull them out of the puzzle. Once you’ve collected a complete set, you combine the pieces to form a mini-puzzle. Each completed mini puzzle gives you a clue you’ll need to solve the overall game.

In addition, each quadrant’s quest ends with a simple mini game. These include things like Tic-Tac-Toe, Odds and Evens, building and then rolling dice to see who rolls higher, and a shooting game that uses the 3D ships.

Once you collect the clues from all four factions, you will be able to open up the cryptex. That will lead you to the next step…

I don’t want to spoil the fun, so I think I’m going to stop there and let you discover the rest of Quezzle Space Adventures on your own.

Comparing Quezzle Space Adventure to Quezzle Amazing Cappadocia

Due to the fact that we had a chance to play with and review Quezzle Amazing Cappadocia early last year, I can’t help but compare Quezzle Space Adventures to that experience.

The first big difference you will find is that Quezzle Space Adventures is a single box experience. This is one big, one-thousand piece, puzzle as opposed to four separate, two-hundred and fifty piece puzzles. That means there is just one thing to buy, which I appreciate.

Now being one big puzzle, that did mean that the puzzle part of Quezzle Space Adventures was much more difficult than any of the individual Quezzle Amazing Cappadocia boxes.

The next big thing that Quezzle Space Adventures brings to the table is clarity. The entire game aspect of Amazing Cappadocia was not really clear and I know multiple people who thought they had discovered all that the game had to offer only to read our review and find out they were missing out on half of the game.

Space Adventures doesn’t have that problem. What you need to do, when, and in what order, is very clear. I would even go so far as to say too clear. You are hand held through every step of the adventure here. While this is better than getting completely stumped or lost, that comes at the expense of a sense of discovery and exploration.

A part of this is due to the fact that Quezzle Space Adventures does not have or require an app. There is one part where you do have to scan a QR Code in order to get one of the clues, but it just directs you to a page on the Unidragon website. (Though please do note, you will need some form of internet access to complete the quest as that QR code leads to a vital clue.)

They also dropped the whole AR element (it barely worked and was never fully completed in Amazing Cappadocia). In my opinion, dropping the AR was a good choice.

One new addition in Quezzle Space Adventures that we greatly appreciated was the hints. This was something that was missing from Cappadocia. When you got stuck there, your only option was to go online to find hints and those hints came from reviewers and other players, not from Unidragon themselves. While the hint system in Space Adventures is only a colour coded version of the puzzle graphic to help you find the hidden items, it’s really all that is needed as the Log Book walks you through everything else.

Finally, there are a lot more game elements to Quezzle Space Adventures. There are mazes on the map, the find and seek quests, the arcade style shooting ships, and the very basic tabletop games. This is quite the contrast to the escape-room-in-a-box style experience that we saw in the previous Quezzle game.

While you do get more games here, the games in Space Adventures are very simple. You are looking at things like tic-tac-toe and rolling dice to see who rolls higher.

With these much simpler games and the hand holding the Log Book provides I really get the feeling that this version of Quezzle was created for a much younger audience.

Who should pick up Quezzle Space Adventures?

I think the most important thing to know about Quezzle Space Adventures for our regular audience of hobby board gamers is that the game elements in this mashup of puzzle and game are incredibly simple and basic. We are talking about grade school level schoolyard style games.

I was personally impressed by the number and variety of games that Unidragon did include in this box, especially when compared to the first Quezzle game. I can’t say the same for the rest of my family. They were very disappointed and wanted something with just a bit more meat. They were especially disappointed by the roll a die game and the odds and evens game.

The thing is, all of this simplification makes for a much more accessible and family friendly experience. While the folks in my family all play a lot of games together and wanted something more, I think your average family who loves doing jigsaw puzzles together will likely appreciate these quick easy to play games.

What isn’t simplified is the puzzle itself. The four of us had a great time putting together the actual puzzle part of Quzzle Space Adventures. We ended up building it over two days with many hours spent, broken up throughout that second day. We could have easily split that into three or more days if we weren’t on vacation and needing to wrap it up before we headed home.

One of the best parts of the puzzle is the cute artwork and discovering various ‘stories’ in the graphics. My kids in particular liked coming up with theories on what individual pieces were, what different pieces of artwork meant, etc. As noted earlier, we also really enjoyed discovering the unique shapes hidden in the puzzle pieces, including a couple of two part sets which I don’t remember from previous Unidragon puzzles.

We also had a lot of fun building the mini puzzles though we left the Where’s Waldo-style hide and seek part to the kids. While the artwork in the puzzle is bright and clear, the details are very small and can be hard to see with aging adult eyes.

The quest part of the game was enjoyable and it was fun discovering each piece of the code. Opening up that cryptex for the first time felt great, as did instantly realizing what we had to do next. While you don’t quite get the level of escape-room-in-a-box style series of clues that you got in the last Quezzle game we all found the overall puzzle enjoyable and rewarding.

While solving those quests we also took advantage of the hint page liberally. We turned to it pretty much as soon as the kids got sick of looking for anything. This really helped remove any frustration from the experience.

The only frustrating part of the entire experience was building the 3D ships at the very beginning. The laser cut wood and cut has very little tolerance. Everything just fits.

This did mean that no glue was required, but it also meant that Dad had to help get the pieces to fit. As I mentioned previously, we were on vacation when we played through Quezzle Space Adventures and I really wish I had packed some form of tool for hammering the ship parts together.

Assembling the spaceships is the one part of Quezzle Space Adventures that really does require an adult. If it wasn’t for this I would think this would be a great box to give to some kids and let them discover it on their own.

Overall, building and solving Quezzle Space Adventures was a great family experience. It became a fun part of a great family vacation, one I hope the kids fondly remember for years to come. Despite being a family of hobby gamers who wished the games built into Space Adventures were less simplistic, we still had a great time with this Quezzle experience.

I honestly think that if you and your family, or friends, enjoy jigsaw puzzles you should pick up a copy of Quezzle Space Adventures. It’s a fantastic jigsaw that also presents you with some simple games to play, a fun find Waldo style quest system, and some other unique puzzle elements.

I also think this is a great game to pick up for your kids or perhaps to have in a classroom. Quezzle Space Adventures is very approachable and does a great job of leading you through each part of the game step by step. While the tabletop games included were too light for us, they would be perfect for younger kids. Just make sure you have an adult on hand to help with building those spaceships.

For those looking for a challenging puzzle solving experience or a murder mystery or escape-room-in-a-box style experience, you are going to want to look elsewhere. Quezzle isn’t going to scratch that itch for you. Maybe check out our Body of Evidence, Best Served Cold or La Famiglia reviews for something more to your tastes.

Remember, if you do decide to pick up Quezzle Space Adventures (once it’s available), you can use our code BELLHOP to save 10% off!

Personally, what impressed me the most about this combination of puzzle and game is the progression that’s been made from Quezzle Amazing Cappadocia to Quezzle Space Adventures. This is a much more polished and approachable product.

Unlike Amazing Cappadocia, I didn’t feel the need to spoil parts of the puzzle in this review to make sure people are getting the most out of their game. I still get emails almost every week asking for help with solving the original. I don’t think that is going to happen with this sequel.

I think Unidragon learned a lot from the first game and I’m really looking forward to what they offer up next. I can only assume it’s going to continue to get better.

After all, we do know that another Quezzle is coming and we’ve got a really good idea of the theme, which is hinted at in the final solution of Quezzle Space Adventures. I’m not going to spoil it though. You’ll have to solve Space Adventures yourself to discover what’s next.