Ruins: Forbidden TreasureThe Escape Game - Seattle Westfield SouthcenterEscape roomIRLSolid room with well produced thematic elements and a fun story. The narrative wasn't the most engaging and there were a few room issues, but the staff, the parallelism between puzzles, and the immersive nature of the room were all great aspects. I cannot see this room being fun with more than 5 people as most of the puzzles can only be solved by at most two people. While the theme isn't scary there are dark portions and one minor jumpscare which may cause some younger or more easily frightened folks to react.
Neon Shadows: The Polybius FilesThe Escape Artist - West SeattleEscape roomIRLThis was a solid room - don't let the capacity warn you off though. 10 people doesn't mean everyone will be doing everything at once but some of the puzzles definitely required unique perspectives and ideas. 8 would probably be ideal. Any retro gamers in your group? They would love this room, and their knowledge might even help y'all solve a little faster. Note the longer time though; my group of 10 did this room days after it opened and they gave us a solid 1.5hrs to finish the room. We are a competitive bunch and finished 30mins early but with a smaller group, or less experienced group, I can easily see this taking the full time. Only downside here was the mild lack of narrative. The other rooms made me feel more part of the narrative. Not sure if the GM was still testing the intro storyline or if they were rushed, but I didn't feel like I understood why I was there. Regardless, the puzzles were very fun and the entire room from top to bottom oozed retro vibes. Though I'm probably not old enough to get most of em. All in all, highly recommend for larger groups, or smaller groups with more experience. Less so for groups that love narrative.
The Z Lab4 Dreams Escape - BellevueEscape roomIRLThis escape room was fine. It felt like a set of iPad mini games, the background noise for some of the puzzles was too loud, and some puzzles seemed to not even work for us. Notably, 2 of the puzzles were completely solved for us before we entered the room - this meant we missed out on the rewarding feeling of solving the puzzle and on the story behind those puzzles. The GM gave us little story to go on but the automated narration gave us a bit. Overall, this room had many issues and was poorly run - the GM did mention this was either their first time, or the company's, running this room. That would be a valid excuse but they did playtest and seemed to just leave puzzles solved. If the iPad games are removed and the room is fixed/reset properly, I might recommend it to new escape room gamers. Otherwise, I wouldn't. I definitely wouldn't recommend this room to experienced escape rooms visitors.
