These Ravensburger escape room puzzles have been a good source of entertainment during the lockdowns. I’ve done enough of them now to put together a ranking based on a few key elements.
Forbidden Basement
Manufacturer: Ravensburger
Pieces: 759
Forbidden Basement was enjoyable, with a neat design and a good number of puzzles. So where does it rank of the four I’ve tried? I enjoyed all of them, but there are a few key details that impacted my enjoyment just a little.
4. Curse of the Wolves
Curse of the Wolves has a neat image and solid puzzles and it looks great assembled. On the downside, the final puzzle’s answer is glaringly obvious from the get-go and we accidentally put it together when assembling the border. The borders are also dark which makes it almost impossible to assemble the border without filling in the rest of the puzzle, since all the border pieces fit together in any combination.
3. Observatory
This puzzle was one of the brighter images in the series which is helpful when the border pieces fit together universally. The final answer once again is apparent from the image on the box, and while there’s some suspense in solving puzzles to find which similar-looking pieces are part of it, there’s no real mystery of what the final image will reveal.
2. Forbidden Basement
The most recent puzzle I’ve played ranks toward the top. A pattern with a few sortable sections and a border that can be assembled without hassle, a final answer that’s not overly obvious, and lots of puzzles. I’m also partial to the way the box doesn’t align with the final image on this one- the designer did a good job hiding away a good number of the game’s secrets until the puzzle is assembled.
1. Vampire’s Castle
The first puzzle in the series I tried, this one strikes a good balance across the board. The puzzles are good, there’s a little mystery in what the final puzzle will look like (vampires have a few different famous weaknesses), and there are a few distinct sections of the puzzle which makes it pleasant to sort and solve. The solution used is one that indicates quick thinking on the solver’s part and could legitimately be used in the circumstance.
Piece total since 3/20/2020: 9286
Leave a Reply