As promised previously, here’s the fourth review in the Revomaze series, available from Revomaze and also in limited numbers from PuzzleMaster. The last few of these puzzles are currently being made, and it’s unknown whether more will be made of the Silver puzzle, so if you want one, get it now!

The Silver Revomaze Puzzle

I’ve already covered the basic puzzle in my first review of the blue, so for general information on the Revomaze puzzles, I’d suggest reading that post here.

The fourth puzzle from Revomaze is the Silver. This puzzle, like the Bronze isn’t available as a plastic puzzle, as it’s not possible to create some of the internals in plastic.

The Silver is rated by Revomaze as having a difficulty of 90/100 (extreme) and an estimated opening time of 160 hours. (Yes, 160 is correct, it’s not a typo!) It is described as a dynamic maze and is the hardest puzzle to be released to date from Revomaze. This is a big jump up from the Blue and Green puzzles, and is a big learning curve from even the Bronze.

While the Bronze puzzle had a trap that you couldn’t get out of very early in the puzzle, Silver seems even worse. When you start, there is a tiny ‘L’ shape you can explore, one trap and nothing else. It seems that Chris has this puzzle locked up tight. The new elements added to Silver are numerous, and understanding each of them takes time. New in the Silver is the added difficulty that how you orient the puzzle while solving it affects things in the maze.

The biggest kick in Silver though is what is lovingly referred to in the forums as the “not-a-canyon”. You’ll know it when you get to it as the shaft will freely spin 360 degrees, with no seeming obstructions at around the half way mark on the shaft. Short of growing wings, there seems to be no way of crossing this gap. The puzzle gives you no feedback as to what’s going on, and at this point the only way over is to put the puzzle down and Think (c) Allard.*

There is a web clue on the Revomaze website which if you can figure it out might help you across. There’s nothing about the clue that is simple, so deciphering it may take as long as crossing the gap itself. (yes, that was a hint for the Silver clue but it’s all I’m giving you!)

Worse than this is that the SWAMP awaits you once you cross the not-a-canyon, and it’s even stranger. The spinning canyon is the easy bit! Once in the SWAMP, you’ll find walls appearing and disappearing and no obvious way out. It’s time to put the thinking caps on, and figure out what could be going on to cause the strangeness you’re experiencing. Only when you truly understand it will you be rewarded with progress. There be crocs in there!

Having eventually found your way out of the SWAMP, you’ll see that glorious dot on the shaft. You’ve made it. Your hands are shaking at this point, and you’re excited. Wait, no, what the? The dot stops a centimetre from lining up with the dot on the sleeve. What could Chris have possibly done to leave you so close yet so far from the end? The final twist to the Silver really shows you just how cleverly built these puzzles are, and just how evil Chris is.

It took me around 150 hours to open the Silver. It’s an amazingly tough puzzle, but when you finally open it, and see the beauty of that maze inside, it’s all worth it. Not to mention that you can stop swearing at Chris and his ingenious mechanisms.

I’m asked fairly frequently whether you need to have solved one of the other puzzles in the series before opening Silver. The only answer I can give is that no-one so far has opened Silver without having previously opened another puzzle. With only approximately 36 Silver puzzles opened since their launch in October 2009 it’s not an easy puzzle, and truly deserves its name as one of the most difficult puzzles in the world.

You may remember me mentioning back in the first post in the series of reviews that the puzzle was pretty tough and hard to break. Well Silver when initially released had a small problem. Something inside didn’t quite work the way it was supposed to, and as a result a number of the original Silvers were un-openable. When Chris realised the issue, he sent all the people who had a V1 a free replacement for their puzzles. So V2 was issued which had a couple of small tweaks inside to fix the issues, and ensure they worked the way they were intended. Now that’s what you call good Customer Service. All Silver’s sold now are V2, and although they no longer have the double dot on the sleeve to confirm they are V2, it’s safe to say that when you buy one it will be the V2. The V1’s are with their original owners in most cases, or still with Chris in a few.

The one word of warning I’ll give is that if you do decide to buy one, and I highly recommend you do, this one will take its toll on your fingers and your sanity. You have been warned. This is a brilliant puzzle, but it’s by no means easy.

* If you want to know who Allard is and why he Thinks a lot, then join the Revomaze forum!

As promised previously, here’s the third review in the Revomaze series, available from Revomaze and also in limited numbers from PuzzleMaster.

Revomaze Bronze Extreme Puzzle

I’ve already covered the basic puzzle in my first review of the blue, so for general information on the Revomaze puzzles, I’d suggest reading that post here.

The third puzzle from Revomaze is the Bronze. This puzzle isn’t available as a plastic puzzle, as it’s not possible to create some of the internals in plastic.

The Bronze is rated by Revomaze as having a difficulty of 80/100 (extreme) and an estimated opening time of 40 hours. It is described as a dynamic maze and is the first puzzle in the series that really challenges you to think as well as feel your way through the puzzle. This is a big jump up from the Blue and Green puzzles, and this is where many people seem to get stuck in the series. It’s no longer just a simple maze to get from the start to the end. There are obstacles in the way which you really need to think your way around.

The first big challenge you meet in the Bronze after only six moves is lovingly referred to as “The Pool”. This is a trap, with no easy way to reset the puzzle. So from the first few turns in this puzzle, it’s clear that the rules you thought you knew have been broken. Also gone are the nice straight lines you have been used to in the previous two puzzles. This one is full of curves, which adds an extra challenge. The puzzle falls into three sections, with some real thinking required to move from one section to the next. To begin with, you can only move through around the first quarter of the space available in the puzzle, with no seeming way to move further. The way forward is in understanding the new elements in this maze, and getting over the feeling that “You know how this works” and “That can’t be possible”. The biggest challenges in this puzzle are your assumptions as to what is happening inside. More often than not they’re wrong.

The key to solving this puzzle, as with most of the puzzles is in creating the best map you can. You should also be used to how the pin feels when it’s in the maze by now, and that is key to understanding what’s going on. The dexterity required here also goes up a notch, and having toughened up your fingers on the previous puzzles will certainly help.

It took me around 6 hours to open the Bronze, but I’ll admit I had already played a little with the Silver before I attempted Bronze, so I understood some of the new mechanisms that were introduced in Bronze, making that a little easier. Bronze is my favourite in the series, and probably the one I’d recommend if you want a real challenge, and can only afford one puzzle. You’ll not regret it as seeing the core of this puzzle is a work of art. Don’t blame me if you spend many hours on this one though. It’s a tough puzzle but well worth the effort.

I’m asked fairly frequently whether the Blue and Green are needed before solving Bronze. In all honesty, I don’t think they are, but the challenge is much tougher if you’ve not done at least one other Revomaze before attempting this one.

The one word of warning I’ll give is that if you do decide to buy one, and I highly recommend you do, you’ll end up getting more. After solving one, there are few who can resist coming back for more.

As promised previously, here’s the second review in the Revomaze series, available from Revomaze and also in limited numbers from PuzzleMaster.

Revomaze Green Extreme Puzzle

I’ve already covered the basic puzzle in my first review of the blue, so for general information on the Revomaze puzzles, I’d suggest reading that post here.

The second puzzle from Revomaze is the Green. Again, I have the extreme version which is the heavier metal version of this puzzle. Again it’s also available as a plastic Obsession version.

The Green is rated by Revomaze as having a difficulty of 60/100 (challenging) and an estimated opening time of 10 hours or just 3 hours if you’ve already opened the Blue puzzle. It is described as a static maze and really is a nice step up in the learning curve for the series. The puzzle introduces a new element not seen in the Blue puzzle, and extends the trickier sections from the Blue to be really very challenging in this puzzle. It is a nice step up from the original puzzle, and took me around 5 hours to open. Mapping the maze in this puzzle definitely helps in the trickier sections. If you were to try to solve this as your first puzzle in the series, it’s definitely harder, but not impossible. That reset line is ever present in this puzzle and there are many more blind turns to throw you off the correct path.

The one word of warning I’ll give is that if you do decide to buy one, and I highly recommend you do, you’ll end up getting more. After solving one, there are few who can resist coming back for more.

As promised previously, here’s my first review in the Revomaze series, available from Revomaze and also in limited numbers from PuzzleMaster.

Revomaze Blue Extreme Puzzle

The first puzzle from Revomaze is the Blue. I have the extreme version which is the heavier, and also more expensive version of this puzzle. It’s also available as a plastic puzzle called the Obsession which is much lighter and cheaper. I’d recommend the plastic puzzle if you want to try out the puzzle before the more significant investment in the metal puzzles, but there are differences between the puzzles which I’ll point out later that are worth being aware of.

The biggest difference between the two puzzles is that the weight of the Extreme is a big challenge in itself. At 600g these are heavy puzzles, and do take some getting used to. Your hands, wrists and fingers will find it difficult to work for more than 5-10 minutes initially on these puzzles before getting tired and sore. Don’t overdo it, short sessions are a must. The plastics are light and don’t have this added challenge so may be easier to get to grips with (pun intended).

The quality of the build and machining of the metal puzzles is excellent. This is a really high-end puzzle, and it is worth the asking price. It’s really hard to damage these puzzles as well, so you can happily pass this to friends to try, and short of dropping it end first on the floor, it’s not going to come to any harm. This is one puzzle line that you should be able to pass down to your kids one day.

The object of all the puzzles in the series is to remove the core into which the maze is etched from the shaft of the puzzle by pushing, pulling and twisting the shaft to navigate the maze. There is an indent of the coloured sleeve, and a corresponding one of the shaft, which once lined up will allow the shaft to be removed from the sleeve. Once you have opened the maze, you are presented with a certificate and a clear plastic map which are wrapped around the inner draw of the puzzle. Note: On the Obsession line, the shaft cannot be removed from the sleeve to see the maze without breaking the puzzle. There is also no clear plastic map as the Obsession line does not qualify for the competition which this plastic map is part of. Sounds simple right?

The really clever part about the puzzles is that the maze is not one-dimensional. It’s not even two-dimensional! The mechanism that makes the puzzle work is the spring loaded pin which is used to navigate the maze. The pin rides on top of the maze, and is being pushed against the maze by the spring which is located in the coloured sleeve. This allows the maze to operate on several levels, one of which is the dreaded reset line.

The puzzle has a unique system where if you make a wrong turn, you can ‘fall off’ the maze, into a reset line with a satisfying click, at which point, the only progress is back to the beginning! This isn’t like an ordinary maze then where you can follow the walls and make it to the end. There are parts of the maze where one wall or both walls are removed leaving the pin free to fall into that reset if you’re not careful. Early on in even the blue, there is a tricky section, where you can fall into a reset, and it seems that there is no way to progress. Don’t be disheartened though, your puzzle isn’t broken, and there is a way forward. The only advice is to map the path, and map the reset lines. If you still can’t make progress, then map better!

Blue is rated by Revomaze as having a difficulty of 50/100 (challenging) and an estimated opening time of 6 hours. It is described as a static maze and really is an introduction to the series. There are enough twists and turns in the puzzle to keep you busy for a good few hours, and in total it took me around 4 hours to open this puzzle for the first time. There’s one spot in the puzzle that gets everyone, leaving many saying “There’s no way to progress. My puzzle is broken”. As we have all found out, there is a way, the challenge is in finding it.

The one word of warning I’ll give is that if you do decide to buy one, and I highly recommend you do, you’ll end up getting more. After solving one, there are few who can resist coming back for more.

I’ll be reviewing the rest of the puzzles in the series in the coming posts, so check back for info on the rest of the series.