Artefact
Sometimes you play a room and afterwards wonder how it is possible that you have heard so little about it. Artefact is a good example of this. The room was recommended to me several times by local enthusiasts when I started planning my trip to Romania, but on an international level I have to say that Artefact has flown completely under my radar so far.
There was also only one Terpeca nomination for this room in 2022 and 2023 (which of course could also be because only two nominators from Romania are registered in Terpeca), and Artefact is not among the best rooms in Bucharest on the local escape room portal (https://escapecentral.ro).
I think that this fantastic temple adventure absolutely deserves more attention and am happy that Artefact landed comfortably in first place on our Ranked Playlist Bucharest. Over 50% of the participants who played the room placed it there.
What makes the game special?
First of all, Artefakt is (according to their own statements) the largest escape room in Romania. It took 3 years to build! Every prop is handmade, the walls are painted with authentic hieroglyphs, symbols and drawings. Everything has its right place, serves a purpose and makes sense. The flow is perfect and the adventurers always know where to go and what to do. If you do get stuck (luckily we made a careless mistake), you can get a hint yourself in an ingenious way. No, I’m not talking about those immersion-destroying help-yourself machines that mostly just tell you what you already know. Something like that would be completely out of place here. No walkie-talkie, no screen, no loudspeaker announcements. The Artefakt help system is brilliant!
The puzzles are very varied and first-class both in their execution and in their originality. Two of the mechanical tasks in particular made my escape room heart beat faster. The room is designed for 2-8 people (3-5 are recommended). There were two of us playing and we worked up quite a sweat during one of the tasks, which spanned many of the pyramid’s chambers. But it was a lot of fun! There is a comfortable 93 minutes of playing time available, and I can only recommend that you make the most of it to enjoy this great adventure to the fullest. For me, the 1.5 hours flew by and I had completely forgotten that we were actually just in some garage in a backyard in Bucharest. That’s immersion! This is next level escape!
Compliments for this great temple room!
