‘Ruins: Forbidden Treasure’ escape room review | The Escape Game Nashville
The Escape Game in Nashville has an escape room called Ruins: Forbidden Treasure featuring thrills with pulp adventure style.
Indiana Jones meets Jungle Cruise in The Escape Game’s Ruins: Forbidden Treasure. Attractions Magazine was brought up to Nashville, Tenn., by The Escape Game for a behind the scenes look at their fabrication and design facilities. While there, we got to try out one of The Escape Game’s most unique rooms, Ruins: Forbidden Treasure at The Escape Game Nashville: Berry Hill. Fun Fact: The Escape Game currently has 50+ locations nationwide, and this was their original venue.
From the very start, Ruins immerses in a way I’ve not seen before. There is a fully decorated scenic lobby carefully designed to look like the office of Captain Mac’s Skyward Tours, a low-budget jungle tourism agency. Ratan furniture, wood slat walls, a tin roof and a life size standee of Captain Mac himself set the silly and adventurous mood of the room before the experience even starts.
I was particularly impressed with the level of detail in this lobby down to the fully written and illustrated advertising pamphlets most people would probably never pick up and read. From the lobby, we began the experience and entered the fuselage of the cargo plane we would be flying in. Without spoiling the game too much, play proceeds from the cargo plane into the jungle and finally into the ruins themselves with plenty of surprises and reveals along the way.
Attention to detail and immersion is truly the name of the game in Ruins. Scenically, it was obvious that real care was taken to make every element look good and feel “correct” in at least as far as you’d want your jungle adventure to look. The temple interior and exterior of the ruins evoke just the right level of pulp adventure feel while even the mundane elements like the plane itself look and feel great. I think it can be easy to cheap out a bit on sets and props, but knowing that little details being off can ruin the immersion, I think The Escape Game nailed the aesthetic with Ruins.
Also, beyond just the scenic elements, in nearly every part of the escape room a collection of audio, visual, and even haptic elements really bring the game to life. In the plane, seats rumble and images fly past the windows as we find ourselves, ahem, “landing” in the jungle while in the ruins, creaking stones, moving walls, and even fire effects keep the vibes consistent and immersive.
As for the gameplay itself, I was very impressed by the style of puzzles found throughout the room. I especially enjoy gameplay elements that tie directly into the theme and world of the game such that they couldn’t just be repainted and put into a different type of room. Elements like little pad locks or word based combination locks are present, but are few and far between compared to pushing stones in walls, moving statues, and pressing tiles that could only work in a jungle temple theme. While more difficult I’m sure to conceptualize and create, the unique puzzles always set a room apart, and in this way the Ruins stands above many similarly themed rooms.
For accessibility, Ruins gets a mostly passing score. It is a darker experience and flashlights are provided. At least one section requires one or more people to crawl through, though allowances can be made for those unable or unwilling to crawl.
Altogether, Ruins: Forbidden Treasure at The Escape Game is an exceptional experience that provides the uniqueness of a mom and pop room with the polish of a national chain. Our team consisting of mostly inexperienced escapers (and me, bringing the curve up a bit) escaped with a little over five minutes remaining. We needed only a hint or two to nudge us in the right directions, but once we were moving, the puzzles flowed logically and the reveals and surprises just kept coming (including one big surprise element that I won’t spoil here but definitely increased the tension while being perfectly thematically appropriate).
To read a detailed description, see more photos and a partial tour of the room, or to book tickets visit The Escape Game’s website.
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