Escape Hour Point Ruston — Attraction in Tacoma

My husband and I love escape rooms (we've done about 75), and I am also a puzzle/game designer, so we come from this from a very specific perspective so take from it what you will.

TLDR: We've done both rooms at the Point Ruston Location. Had some similar issues in both (lighting too dim for example) and appreciated the workmanship of the physical spaces in both. If you are just going to do one, do Siren's. We feel like these are very overpriced for the actual 'escape room' experience. Although, a lot of what you are paying for is probably the expensive location, and the physical buildout of the room.

I'll start with the negatives so I can end on a high note. We most recently played Temetra's Hex, so this review will focus on this since I don't remember the details well enough of Siren's to speak to it very specifically.

Way to dark. Just so so dark. Sometimes it was kinda cool for cinematic effect, but most of the time it was frustrating. I'm only 34, I feel like my eyes are still doing ok, but man, it was just so dark.

Puzzles. This may not be an issue for most people, but as a puzzle designer and huge puzzle enthusiast, puzzles are the number one draw for me to escape rooms. Honestly, my husband and I would be happy in a room with a super simple set, so long as the puzzles were amazing. The puzzles here a bit disappointing in their structure, intricacy, creativity, and execution (and on one occasion their functionality and immersive-ness). There were LOTS though, and they weren't all bad, but overall this is probably my number 1 complaint for this room. Also, pretty sure a LOT of puzzles were triggered by the GM which, is not necessarily a negative, just a bit odd and incongruent with my other experiences.

The price.

The delicacy of the set. If you don't want me to touch/pick up something, it should be out of reach, glued down, or just not present. This was my first escape room experience where the GM kept telling us to not pick things up (one example was there was a long string of beads hanging from a hand on the wall so I put them around my neck, I thought that may be the intention, some escape rooms have things like this to help you get 'in character' but the voice quickly told me to put them back, which I did, but it just felt so weird to keep breaking immersion every time we'd pick up things that looked interactable.)

Our host, though they had to keep telling us to put things down, was friendly and nice, and even though I thought I didn't want nudges she did a great job knowing how to keep us on track timewise. She did overstep a few times giving clues to something after we already 'got' what to do, but that was very minimal and overall I'm glad for the nudges since we barely made it out!

The use of the space is fantastic. They did an amazing job making the most of the room they had and the layout is extremely creative and innovative. It seems like a lot of their effort and focus go into set design/fabrication which for some players is very important as it gives you that 'real' feel. I appreciate all the time and work to make this space function as well as it does, so hats off for that.

The fact that it's here at all! I love escape rooms, so it's always nice to see more of them. I think this business has potential to be an all star among escape rooms (and, in may circles and ways they already are).

If you visit, I hope you have fun! It is a good time with the right people. The owners seem really nice and invested in the success of their business. I hope they continue to work on making rooms that are player-friendly and the craft of...

We came here for two visits.

1st Visit - There were four of us in our party and it was our first time doing an escape room. The only one available at the time was Temetra's Hex. We all filled out the waiver forms online and were ready to go as soon as we got there. We, unfortunately, forgot our gamemaster's name but they were well-versed and enthusiastic in the script. I don't think any of us were expecting a backstory but enjoyed it nonetheless. We were a little afraid to touch stuff when we entered. Again, it was our first time and we weren't really sure what was acceptable. For the first 10-15 minutes we touched things gently to see if they did anything. We didn't even move the lanterns. Instead, we walked items over to any light we could. Finally, the gamemaster reminded us that we could move things and use the lanterns. That's when our game really started. The four of us felt easier at moving around and touching things. The comments, nudges, and hints were appreciated when we asked. And I was reminded that the....thing...I don't remember what animal the animatronic was, was named Jinx and not Alexa :P

There were a couple of tight spaces, crawling, and short climbing to do. Although that wasn't expected, it was pretty neat to have to be so active in a puzzle-solving situation "game". Our children didn't mention doing any of this kind of thing in their escape rooms (Another location in Tacoma and one in Seattle). *At least two of us are overweight and we were still able to participate in each of the areas.

Anyhow, we only got about 85% done before time ran out. I don't think we did too bad considering it was our first time and that we spent our first 10-15 minutes trying not to break anything.

2nd Visit - Our children (24 & 31), and son-in-law, all agreed to forego Christmas this year and do an Escape Room together instead. We suggested Point Ruston since it was close and none of them had been to this one. As mentioned, we (the parents) already did Temetra's Hex, so we booked Siren's Cove. We were all set with waiver forms online, we put our items in the provided locker and got started. We had a different gamemaster this time but still, they were well-versed and enthusiastic. We volunteered our son-in-law as tribute to walk down the hallway first :P Once we got in, we went to work. All on different things. I kind of stayed out of the way since the room was small with five of us, and just looked around taking ownership of the writing tablet, writing things as they called them out. No one was worried about touching things this time. I don't want to give away anything, so I'll just say that there was a short "climb" for one person, and a crawl space in another area. Other than that, I don't think there was very much physical activity. Once all areas were opened there was a lot of room to move around.

We completed this challenge with 11 minutes to spare. *I have to mention, that my family are gamers (DND, boardgames, online, PVP, RPG, etc). Not so much us anymore (the parents - former WoW raiders), but the three of them still are. They made quick work of puzzles with little hints. I think they declined all but two hints from the gamemasters. Our finish time wasn't because the room was easy.

When we finished we received a "We Escaped" button :) We had a lot of fun and our children said this was way better than the other Escape rooms that they've done. One of them bought a passport for more. We plan on booking Gig Harbor's location for a coming birthday.

10/10 - We would...

My wife and I really enjoyed the Siren’s Cove escape room at Escape Hour Point Ruston. We have done about half-a-dozen other escape rooms, including three at Escape Hour Gig Harbor. As we’ve come to expect from Escape Hour, the set-design, puzzles, and atmosphere of Siren’s Cove were top-notch!

Our game master for the evening was Mckenzie, who did an excellent job. Siren’s Cove is pretty large and has tons of puzzles to solve, so with only two players, we were really strapped for time. Mckenzie was definitely paying close attention to our progress, though, because she would chime in with hints when she saw we were clearly missing or misinterpreting something. Most importantly, Mckenzie did a great job of being enthusiastic and staying “in-character” when we needed to communicate with her while inside the escape room.

A nice touch was that, since we were visiting for my wife’s birthday, Mckenzie wrote a nice note wishing my wife a happy birthday and thanking us for the visit. I’m really impressed by Escape Hour’s dedication to the customer experience, and they do a great job of hiring employees who follow-through with that.

I have a couple tips for visitors: -The number of puzzles and size of this escape room make it difficult for two people to get everything done. My wife and I are fairly experienced with these kinds of games, and we got out with only 4 seconds to spare. Either go with more than two people, or be prepared to ask for some hints along the way. -The unprompted hints were rare, and we appreciated them. But if you are a no-hint purist, you may want to mention that you would only like prompted hints (or no hints at all) before going into the room.

It was a great experience, and we’re really looking forward to the next escape room at Point Ruston once it...