The Ruins

I swear I don't give bad reviews to games where we don't make it out! The set design was good, but the puzzles weren't that intuitive and worse, we didn't have the best experience getting clues. Delays, clues on things already solved. (Granted, this was 7 years ago, where the mindset for a lot of rooms was 3 clues & not a lot of oomph to help the players make it out.) But yeah, that really soured the room for us. 🤷🏾‍♂️ If Morty adopts their "meh" rating, I'll upgrade my thumbs down to that.

The aesthetics of this room were great. My biggest complaint is a lot of room the locks were already open or certain things weren’t put back together. The game master was nice but they didn’t do a good job of giving useful clues, even when prompted. This room has potential however, it just doesn’t flow as well as some of its competitors.

I played this room years ago with a couple of friends. We ran out of time on the last puzzle. I remember the decor and atmosphere being alright, but not the best I’ve seen. We still had a good time.

A temple heist. It was a bit dark, and background sounds were loud meaning it was hard to hear clues, etc. over the walkie talkies. Great immersion, including sand on the floor. Puzzles were pretty good. They required a moment to think about, or a failure or two to figure out what to do.

We greatly enjoyed the immersion, but we did not like several of the puzzles. We still talk about 1 of the puzzles we did not like quite often. The game master was great!

I have no idea why this is a TERPECA nominee. There aren't a lot of puzzles requiring brain power, just a lot of replacement puzzles. We asked for a couple of hints for illogical steps that were required to advance. Also, the GMs at this location are underwhelming. We were quite disappointed.

The rooms decor and theme tie well together. Puzzles were ok.

Visually beautiful room, but we waited on the GM for hints and then the hints weren’t helpful and indicated they weren’t actually watching us. One puzzle required outside knowledge to complete and they could not clue us through it. We ended up leaving this room feeling very frustrated and confused why enthusiasts love it so much.

Great atmosphere. There is one or two puzzle that could have been better (one of which I felt could have been removed) but all in all a fun time.

Ruins was a great immersive experience. They have a few things that rely on the GM paying attention, which was missed when I played so it added a little frustration, so your GM will play an integral part in how well you do. I would definitely recommend this game to show your friends what a good escape room looks like.