Falderon Forest

Sauve Qui Peut (Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Canada)

Time limit: 60 minutes

Age limit: Recommended 8+

Player limit: 4 only (max. and min.)

Difficulty: Variable (adaptive)

Awards: TERPECA Finalist (2022-2025)

Date visited: July 2026

Our second game at Sauve Qui Peut was the highly anticipated Falderon Forest, their most high-profile game before The Castle of Eternal Suffering came along. We were quite fortunate to be able to play it as the game shut down for a while earlier in the year so they could make upgrades to their AI-controlled adaptive difficulty. So how was this new and improved version?

• Falderon Forest is a bit of a polarising game. Most reviews we saw beforehand praised the set and theming, but not everyone loved the gameplay. That kind of mirrored our experience as well.

• One of the first things to note about this game is that it must be played by 4 players (no more and no less), as each player is given a specific role to play. Each role comes with a special magical item that will come in handy at some point during the game.

• The set of Falderon Forest was indeed beautiful. It wasn't a particularly big room or one that had many sections, but the theming was floor-to-ceiling and they employed clever use of mirrors to create the optical illusion of an expansive, enchanted forest. The strong set was complemented by excellent tech-fuelled lighting, effects, recorded voice acting.

• The overall build was excellent, especially as we moved into the second section, which had decor that reminded me of when we visited Hobbiton in New Zealand. The quality was definitely movie quality, perhaps just a shade below what you might see in The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings.

• So the set is objectively good, but subjective experiences of the gameplay may vary from team to team based on their interactions with the adaptive difficulty. Falderon Forest was designed to be played without a GM, with the AI feeding you more clues if you are struggling or deliberately stalling you if you are progressing too fast. The aim is to make sure that every team finishes between 55 and 65 minutes. In other words, if you're too fast, you will likely be playing a lot of bonus puzzles at the end; if you're too slow, you'll probably end up skipping some puzzles (not that you would know).

• All of this sounds great in theory, and it can work seamlessly if a team's play-through happens to mesh with the AI. However, even with this new and improved version, the AI simply cannot foresee all contingencies. So if something that falls out of the AI's preset ambit happens, teams could end up with frustrating interactions or require manual intervention (through a backup walkie talkie). This happened with us a few times — we found some of the tech or object usage a bit finicky, and we were sometimes afraid to use props a certain way out of fear of damaging them.

• The assigned role-playing was an interesting wrinkle to the game. That said, we felt like some magical items were used more than others, so that could also affect how each player perceives their individual experience. My magical item was probably used the least, and I honestly thought I would have used it more.

• As a result, we found the puzzles and flow not as strong as we would have liked. We didn't take long to solve most of the puzzles outside of the very first one, but we did get stuck a few times throughout, not knowing what to do next or not triggering certain mechanisms properly. The recorded voices triggered by AI are simply no substitute for a real GM who can see what you are doing and act immediately to resolve problems.

• The "bonus" puzzles at the end were cool, but they did start getting repetitive after the second or third rounds. From what we understand, there are several more variations after that, and they get exponentially more difficult, though I don't think that would necessarily make them more fun.

• Even though our play-through was not the smoothest, Falderon Forest was still a really good game that's worth playing for the set alone. I applaud the ambition and audacity to make an adaptive difficulty room using AI, and I am confident that it will continue to improve as the technology evolves.

Escape time: 55 out of 60 minutes

Theming	Atmosphere	Puzzles	Creativity	Fun
A+	A	B	B+	B+

Verdict: A gorgeous-looking, hi-tech game with a clever adaptive difficult system in lieu of a dedicated GM — which can lead to polarising experiences based on how you interact with the artificial intelligence.

OVERALL RANK:

H	E	Z	J
A-	B+	A-	A-