The Flaming Pearl

This game has no flow, there is a giant wheel telling you which puzzle to work on. then the wheel changes when you finish it to show you another puzzle even though all the puzzles are visible and in the room with you from the start, and some can be solved even though not meant to be, no storyline and broken puzzles made the room boring. no satisfaction from solving puzzles either as the wheel just changes colours to show you’ve solved it. Would recommend playing different room at this venue over this one

Felt disappointed coming out of this experience. Multiple puzzles were broken, causing game master intervention. They did say beforehand a puzzle had broken but when in the game it was clear that it was more than one puzzle. The game play itself was erratic with no clear flow other than a light up wheel which tells you which puzzle to complete next. However multiple puzzles are solvable before their time. It felt like playing a room where the designer had a bunch of unused puzzles from previous rooms and tried to throw them all together to make a room. There wasn’t much sense of achievement when completing a puzzle, as you just look at the wheel to be directed to your next task. Props and set design felt a little cheap. The game master after completion told us that most teams don’t make it out as the room is too hard. I don’t think the puzzles are hard, but the lack of flow and signposting makes them confusing. Along with a huge amount of props that are not part of any puzzles and just for looks, I can understand why teams may fail through no fault of their own.

It’s not often that we don’t get out of a room but we happily accepted defeat as there were so many funny puzzles! Our brains were apparently really off as we missed some really obvious clues and should have asked for more support. Great room and the operator Laila took great care of us.