(suspenseful music)
- Yo, what's up and welcome back.
Today we're taking a look at this box here,
Box One by Neil Patrick Harris.
If you guys haven't checked out the full interview
that I did with Neil, which was incredible,
we talked magic puzzles, escapes, and much more,
you can check that video out, it's yesterday's upload.
If you're here to find out about Box One, don't worry.
We're not gonna be posting any major spoilers,
obviously we're going to look what's inside the box
and we might delve into the solve a little bit on camera,
I don't wanna give away too much
'cause I do want to give you guys a chance to get this.
To my knowledge,
this is only available in Targets right now.
So I believe only in the United States, unfortunately.
There will be probable distribution
afterwards internationally, but until then,
if you can find a buddy that lives in the United States
to maybe cop it for you, go ahead and do that,
if not, you can live vicariously through my videos.
So here we go, Neil Patrick Harris,
let's take a look at the box.
So this box is made by Theory11, designed by Theory11.
They did a really, really great job on the packaging here.
There are some little symbols,
there's a little bit of symbolism here throughout,
including it looks like a floppy disk, a key,
a fingerprint perhaps, a lock,
you got Neil's eye peering through this keyhole,
"A game for one created by one."
And it says, "An ever-evolving game of trivia, codes,
puzzles, and discovery."
They even have this cool little sticker seal
that's on there, which I think is really dope.
And this hole in the back where this eye is,
I dunno what that is,
but in the back,
it says, "Presented by Neil Patrick Harris.
Box One is an ever evolving game of trivia,
code breaking and puzzles,
uniquely designed to challenge only one person.
And it seems that person is you, and only you, alone.
Prepare to set out an exciting adventure like no other,
as you discover, unlock, and decode the secrets of Box One,
the game for one created by one, ages 14 plus,
internet access required."
If you guys may recollect on the interview that we had Neil,
he said there was no modern component.
I politely called BS on that
because it says internet access required,
so there is some component that, you know,
you need to be online for.
That being said, so here we go,
we're gonna open Box One for you.
And I have previously opened this box
and I've just blurred out the website that was here.
And you'll see why in a second.
"Box One.
Hey friend, it's your friendly friend, Neil Patrick Harris.
I hope you're alone and excited to challenge yourself
because you're about to dive deep
into my crazy awesome new game, Box One,
you'll be using all of the items you find inside
to complete the Box One challenge.
Are you by yourself right now? Seriously, are you?
Okay, great.
The game involves a series of challenge cards
that you need to play in order.
Follow every instruction strictly and keep your eyes peeled,
as you never know when this game might take a turn.
Use the notepad and pen to jot down any thoughts or clues
you discover along the way.
Feel free to consult the internet
for any help you may need," ah,
"To begin, find the black envelope
in the game box, it contains an important message inside.
Read it now.
After that, open the box of challenge cards
and read the first card.
If you truly get stuck and need a hint, visit this site.
Good luck, N.P.H."
I wonder if there's like clues on this thing here.
There may be, maybe like braille, is this braille?
No, okay, definitely not.
So look at this.
This is the beautiful packaging over at Theory11,
they always, you know,
they've done stuff like this here,
which is a beautiful brick box of cards.
They've obviously also designed Neil's playing cards,
which we did a video about, which are these here.
So just screams luxury really.
It's a nice little package.
It feels like a classical board game, which is really cool.
I'm a big board game fan, by the way,
I'm a fan of lots and lots of board games,
and obviously a fan of puzzles.
So this is right up my alley.
It says "The black envelope."
Before we look at that,
let's have a look at the items
that we are given here right now.
So you're given this envelope, says "Box One."
We were given a box of challenge cards
and even the box challenge cards is quite nice.
Really a lot of attention to packaging here, which is nice.
The unboxing experience is quite splendid.
The pen with Neil's design here, his logo here,
and we have our notepad.
Just looking to see
if they're being sneaky at all, you know?
If we lift this up, no, there's nothing under there.
So this is our notepad to take notes.
We will take this out.
"Box One, you will need this card later," okay.
"Welcome to card number one of Box One.
Prepare to take a journey like never before
in this ever-evolving game of trivia, puzzles,
riddles, and cryptic codes.
I really hope that you are the one.
To successfully complete Box One,
You must follow all of my instructions very carefully,
now take a deep breath and let it out.
Okay, now you come back to normal breathing.
Did you do that? Fantastic.
Just a simple test to see
if you are good at following instructions."
Apparently I am.
"Now take the card from the black envelope
and put it in your freezer and leave it there.
Seriously. You have to do it.
Once you've done that, come back and keep playing."
Okay. Be right back.
All right,
okay, we done that.
"Stop!
So the next card is super important, proceed when ready.
Now make sure you play all the cards
right underneath me in order.
Okay, set, go.
Using the capital letters from the previous card,
solve this.
Blank is the capital of which country?"
So that's P-A-R-I-S.
Okay, well it's the capital of France.
Again, this is like the first main mission.
If I feel like I'm getting too spoily,
I will not include it right now.
We're just kind of doing like the first layer
to give you a taste of what's going on in this game.
What is the most famous landmark in that country?
Well, that's the Eiffel tower and this is one,
oh, this is cool,
two, three, four,
wait, one, two, E, I.
Those are two Fs. Are there two Fs and Eiffel tower?
I guess so. So those, those are numbered, okay.
"Using the letters in specific order
from the previous answer to complete the quote,
there is nothing so important as."
This is cool.
As trifles?
"'There's nothing as important as trifles,' who said this?"
Ah, so this is the part where you get to use the internet
to find out who said that quote I'm guessing, okay.
You know what? Let's look it up.
Conan Doyle, Arthur Conan Doyle, gotcha.
Conan Doyle.
Okay, so at this point,
what we're experiencing is we have our number code
and it's asking now,
okay, what his most popular character was.
I'm just gonna take a peak here, ah.
It does get increasingly complex.
So these are very basic starter clues,
but then it starts to get into pretty random things,
like the last word from the answer to card number 13
mixed with, you know, the previous cards answer.
And then also the red house is on the white street
and the blue house is on the red street.
Where is the blank's house?
So it does get a little bit more cryptic,
I'm not gonna to go any further than that for you guys.
But you can see where this is going.
So this is the initial phase
that you have to follow in sequence, which is very cool.
I really enjoy this a lot.
I'm going to go ahead and skip past some of this,
just so that I don't spoil it for you.
Okay.
Suddenly something's starting to make a lot of sense.
You guys remember in the previous video that I did,
which was the interview with Neil,
and there was an awkward moment.
There was like a bizarre moment where Neil was flustered
by me asking him about who helped him create this game.
You created this with someone else, correct?
This was not just you.
You were like, there was a team?
- No, no.
- All right, well, I mean- - No, I mean,
I spent a lot of time,
like, you spend a lot of time on a singular thing
to then be asked if someone else was like involved in it,
in the creation of it, which is disappointing.
- He was very weirded out about that question.
The very reason for that, if those of you are wondering
why Neil was acting this weird,
the reason is actually very important.
And it has to do with this game,
believe it or not, which is crazy.
This man is a human enigma,
but I guess he laid down some clues in that interview
about what to expect in this box.
For those of you have this box,
you understand what I'm saying, that's really crazy.
All right, I'm gonna take a break here
because there are some things
that I have uncovered that are hidden to...
Are supposed to be, I guess, kept secret.
I will show you what those items are.
I won't show you how to get those items.
And I won't show you what those items do,
but here are some of the extra things
that happen along your journey.
We do find this coin, which is very sick.
I won't tell you where this coin is found,
but you do find this coin,
and there's something mysterious about that coin.
You also find somebody's key chain.
There are a few other items,
like this floppy disk, which I did not expect.
It's really hard to be cryptic.
All I wanna do is keep solving this for you guys.
But obviously we're not gonna do that.
I can tell you from my perspective,
this is going to be a lot of fun
and definitely only play it by yourself,
and I know that's going to be hard to do,
but it's meant for one person,
if you are with some other person,
I suppose you could play together,
but probably meant, you know, for one person.
That being said, the amount of ingenuity and thought,
I had to put a card in the freezer, by the way,
as you guys remember,
something very strange happened with that card.
And I'm not gonna tell you what that is, but it's crazy.
There are a lot of really cool, hidden secrets
in this box
and it is not at all- (phone ringing)
Sorry.
It's Mr. Peter McKinnon, hold on.
Hello?
- [Peter] That's so funny.
- What's funny?
- [Peter] I'm trying to undo this puzzle box
on the side of a road in my hoodie with a key
and I was vlogging it and I leaned down to the camera,
and I was like, "I just need Chris Ramsey here to help.
I'm not a really a puzzle guy."
And I literally couldn't figure it out.
There's a number of carved in the side.
I don't know the number
because you're Chris Ramsey in my phone,
so I call it, it's Chris Ramsey.
- Here, can I put you on FaceTime?
- Yeah, hang on.
- Couldn't be timed out any better.
- What's up, man?
- I'm currently in the middle of solving a mystery myself.
- [Peter] Are you? - Yeah.
- So I pulled this here box
from a chain over the edge of this ravine
because I found a pirate sticker on the railing.
That went well.
But the key, I can't get the key to work.
All right, show me the lock. - It had your number,
your phone number
on the side. - it had my number engraved?
Show me the lock.
All right, so what you got to do, Pete,
the key to that lock is actually completely useless.
It's just a red herring.
Yeah, you can put that right in your pocket.
There you go.
So you wanna turn that middle pin
to where you can't see the hole.
- Where you can't see it.
- Yeah, does that makes sense?
And now pull the pin upwards.
And that link, the link that the lock is on,
is actually a ring that you have to turn.
- The link that the lock is on.
How do you do this with your fingers so big?
- (laughs) Yeah. That's part of my curse.
- Okay, so the hole is gone.
- Yep, the pin is up?
- Oh, okay, I think I'm figuring it out.
- And then you got to rotate.
- Rotate the actual lock part.
- Rotate the actual lock part, correct.
- So close, Chris.
- Yep, and now just rotate that,
so you can fiddle around with that middle pin part
until the link frees itself.
And you can kind of just rotate it out of place.
- Damn.
Oh, that is sick.
That is sick, guys,
Peter McKinnon puzzle channel coming soon.
- (laughs) What's in the box?
- Dude, that is so rad.
- Give us a clue, what's in the box?
- That guy.
- Ooh, an actual key, the hunt continues.
- Guys, if you want to go see what Pete is up to right now,
This is pretty hilarious
that you happen to call me during a puzzle video by the way.
- [Both] Coordinates.
- Pete is currently on a scavenger hunt
for his birthday.
And yeah, well, I won't say any more than that,
but a few of us had a hand in it
and you're vlogging this, correct?
- Oh, I'm vlogging it.
- All right, so if you guys wanna go check it out,
go see Pete's channel.
Probably one of the dopest little puzzle solves
you'll ever see.
Yeah, man, the vlog is a little all over the place,
but you know, we'll make it work.
So is mine now apparently.
- Thanks, I'm sorry.
- It's all good, bud.
Hey, enjoy and good luck. Call me later.
- All right, I will, bye. - Bye bye.
For those of you who don't know,
So obviously, Pete and I are really good friends,
but Pete and I also share a managing company
and managers who are also our friends now.
And they've set up this extravagant treasure hunt
for Pete's birthday with some really cool stuff in it
and we added a puzzle layer into it
with my phone number engraved on the side of the box,
knowing that he doesn't know my number by heart.
And so he didn't know who he was calling.
And I guess when I answered, he's like, "Oh, this is wild.
This is crazy. I'm calling Chris."
And he had to call me
'cause obviously, you know, he wanted to find out
how to open that lock.
So how cool was that? You guys wanna check that out?
This is not set up.
I did not know he was gonna call me at this point.
I'm a bit all over the place now.
Yeah, like I was saying,
there was a card in the freezer, that's cool.
There's all sorts of really cool items
that you're not previously made aware of
when opening the box, and all of a sudden,
they start uncovering themselves,
which is crazy because there's nowhere to hide in this box,
but somehow they've still done it.
There is also a digital component to this.
There is a digital component.
I'm gonna say that.
That's probably one of the cooler parts of this puzzle.
I'm not gonna tell you what that digital component is.
You will find out during the solve, absolutely,
it is not that hard to get to there.
It is much more difficult to figure it out
once you're in that scenario, I'll leave it at that.
So guys, this is just a quick look.
I wanted to unbox it and show you guys what you get
on the inside of the box
and sort of give you a little bit of a taste
of maybe the difficulty level,
it's not super difficult to where you would never solve it,
it is definitely something
that you're gonna rack your brain over at some parts,
but it is extremely solvable for anyone of any level.
It might be a little quicker for some,
might take you longer for others,
but definitely a fun challenge.
At no point are you left feeling helpless or bored
or like too dumb to figure it out,
like it's very well done to where you are intrigued,
enthralled, and it really does take you along for a journey,
which is why I don't wanna give it away
'cause that journey is a lot of fun
to experience for yourself.
So quick little video on Box One.
If you guys want to check it out,
again, I left the link below
if it's available in your country, if not,
you might want to wait until it starts shipping
before you go and watch any spoiler videos
on anybody else's channel or anything like that.
If you did enjoy this video, guys,
I know this is not your average Wednesday video.
We wanted to do something a little special for this
and for Neil, because he did agree
to getting on that interview call with me.
So that was really nice to him.
So thank you to the people over at Theory11,
thank you to Neil, thank you to you guys,
like, subscribe, do all that stuff,
and we'll see you on the next video, peace.
(mellow music)