Exit Strategy North – The Ruins (Review)

Location: Charlotte, NC

Players: 2-6 (We recommend 4-6)

Price: $25 per person

Time to Escape: 60 Minutes

It belongs in a museum!

Theme:

Your team of explorers has lost their leader somewhere in the jungle! You were seeking a ruin fabled to be the ancient Temple of Arciris erected to appease the God of Wrath. Legend has it that anyone who steps in will be stricken down unless they can prove they wield the powers of a god! Try to find your mentor inside, and ensure you don’t meet a terrible end!

First Impressions:

This was our fourth trip to Exit Strategy North, and they were 2-1 so far with their rooms, with The Mansion being a favorite from our last trip, so we were excited to try out their most recent addition, The Ruins! By now, we knew the drill, and after showing off our new team shirts, we entered the briefing room to watch what we thought would be the same briefing video as always, but we were surprised to see that it’d been updated to be way more entertaining than usual! I normally don’t notice a stand out rules briefing after doing it over a hundred times, so it was cool to see an innovation in this way!

High Points:

To begin our game, the gamemaster popped in in character and gave us the story as she led us to the ruin. She gave a fun and engaging performance that started us off well. The set, as we have come to expect from Exit Strategy, was breathtakingly beautiful and immersed us into the adventurous theme even more than our last trip out! Puzzles were linear to start, but as we made our way through the Temple, we came across some bits that were non-linear, allowing us to divide and conquer. Puzzles here also were the most intuitive of any Exit Strategy room I’ve done thus far, and game flow was close to perfect. A immensely satisfying climax also comes with a fun surprise exit at the end. Also, 2-6 is a great range for the amount of players in the room. Exit Strategy North could easily stuff more players in, but it would damage the experience, so I commend them for capping it as they did.

Low Points:

Only a couple of points were small blemishes on an otherwise excellent experience. We found that the audio was a bit too low from time to time, which can be an issue in following the story properly or hearing clues. There was also one puzzle that was very original, but went on way to long for the activity that we had to perform.

Verdict:

This is definitely our favorite room at Exit Strategy North and I absolutely recommend that you try it out! Set design, story, puzzles, and theme all work together for an amazing adventure you won’t soon forget! Book your time in the Temple of Arcisis here!

9/10 (Excellent)