Ruins: Forbidden Treasure

While most of the amazing things I hear about the set design of ruins are about the original Ruins in Nashville, I still assumed that this smaller mass-produced version would still be an above average production for The Escape Game since it’s still pretty rare across their locations. And… the set design is definitely polished, maybe slightly more than their other games, but not by much. And as far as uniqueness goes it has one of my least favorite themes from the company. And the gameplay is possibly my least favorite from the company. There’s a lot of trial and error puzzles here, which I really don’t like seeing in Escape Rooms as they’re intentional time wasters and get boring once you understand the concept. One of these trial and error puzzles was the finale puzzle, and it didn’t feel satisfying at all. I make it sound like I dislike this game, which isn’t true at all. The intro video is hilarious, the set design is beautiful, most of the gameplay is really fun and on theme, but all of these are true of nearly every game from The Escape Game. So if you’re near this location or any other location that has a Ruins (minus Nashville), I really wouldn’t recommend it over most anything else at that location unless you’re specifically looking for an Indiana Jones adventure game. Even then I think Depths and Gold Rush have better senses of discovery than this one does. Here’s my ranking of The Escape Game (across all locations, I played all other games in California locations) 1. Playground 2. Special Ops 3. The Depths 4. Prison Break 5. Gold Rush 6. Timeliner 7. Cosmic Crisis 8. Ruins 9. Heist

this was the first room i ever did, and it is still one of my favorites. i have heard it said that nashville is the best place to experience this room, but this location was fantastic. the set design, decor, video, immersion, and effects were all exceptional. this room, and the incredible game master who helped us changed my world. i am now obsessed with escape rooms and have done over 50 and counting in just two years. through it all, this is still one of my favorite rooms.

It did not flow well. Puzzles were broken. There were no written riddles, or clues that lead you to solving the puzzles. At one point the game master told us to just feel the boards and see if the ball hits them to decide if it’s right or not. No map or clue to see where the pieces go. I would not recommend this game. I’ve done others at this location and have had great experiences, just not this particular room.

Good sets and theming. We were hoping we wouldn’t get paired with anyone else, but ended up getting paired with another family of 4. They were nice and we worked well together, but I feel that 8 people were just too many for the escape room we did.

Immersive set with great puzzles. We had to use two clues with four people. Top notch company, luckily we were able to play just with our group. Nick was a great GM!

Fun theming, funny/cute intro video, neat puzzles that were all immersive. You will have a good time playing this one!

Fun time and best set up. Little physical though to move around in spots

This was a fun game. Harder than we expected.

This was a great room. We actually completed the original room in Nashville before we came here. There are some differences and similarities between both games. I would definitely recommend doing this game.

Thought the room was fun, but finding out that I did a “B Version” which is smaller/less rooms, but still paid the price of a full experience is highly disappointing. Such a disappointment when companies do this.