I really enjoyed some of the puzzles - not to give too much away, but the room used a jigsaw puzzle in a novel way and a puzzle in the end sequence made me go “oh my god how did I not notice that?” - however, there were some really lacking puzzles, especially one at the very beginning which felt nigh impossible without guessing. One or two places where a code could go in multiple places. Also, one puzzle technically requires outside knowledge of a board game, but it’s also not super hard to interpret and it’s a game 95% of Americans could name. Note: there is one point where you activate something with water. You don’t need to pour it into anything. This is apparently a very very common thing that they have to say “you don’t have to do that!” over the mic.

TEG knows how to make a room visually SMASH. Everything was really well-done and felt natural within the room.

Our GM Kiera was amazing. Really sweet and was fast to respond to needed clues.

Nothing super unique or crazy in terms of puzzles. Standard game overall.

The story itself was fine - museum owner isn’t so benevolent and stole a painting, and you’re going in to steal it back. Small twist on the ending, but nothing out of the ordinary - everything you’d expect to see is represented.

There is a lot to do in not a lot of time. Game is semi-linear where there are clear sections, meaning everything in a section is semi-contained. Puzzle types are varied and a lot of “aha!” moments of synergy - however, there were 1-2 puzzles that had some communication issues that took us far too long. One puzzle we did just have to guess because we couldn’t find something.

TEG in general is pretty second-gen with mixing lock/key with mag locks and interactable elements. This wouldn’t have made much sense story-wise if it was high-tech - some good use of tech though.

It felt like there was a LOT to do for 2 people, especially since the middle of the game had puzzles that groups could be doing side by side. 2-3 is definitely doable (source: us) - 5-8 feels like you could split off a lot more easily and get out faster.

Light prolonged stress situation near the end, but that’s about it.

Room itself is child friendly - however, kids that are too short may not be able to contribute so easily.

We’re actually not sure about this. We believe that we submitted a code correctly and a door did not open - this cost us a good 5-7 minutes of hypothesizing and a clue called to see the same thing, doing it again and… it worked. We’re not actually sure if it was bugged, didn’t read correctly, or we inputted wrong - it did work however.

Light walking between all spaces. Someone will need to get low at a specific point, but that is the only thing in the room that has anything that you could consider slightly active.

Dyslexia / poor eyesight be warned - this is a reading heavy game with some small text. End sequence contains mild strobe light - however, I believe it is slow enough (switch on-off every 0.5 seconds) that it will be manageable.

In American Dream Mall. Park in Lot A - from there, literal bright red text pointing you to the right area.

Mall parking.

good but there were points where we were very very stumped

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2-4