Secret City Adventures
Toronto, Canada
Red Room: Red walls. No doors. That is all.
Pros: This room was definitely quite creative with some real "out of the box" thinking required to successfully escape.
Cons: This room was typical of what we have come to expect from playing Real Escape Games (SCRAP) and their affiliates. They break many of the rules of conventional escape rooms. While presenting a good challenge, this is not always a good thing. Don't use excessive force. Don't climb on things. Don't touch things that say "don't touch." Don't mess with electrical outlets. All of those rules go out the window here. Puzzles are rarely logical and typically overly convoluted. Their goal seems to be to make it impossible for you to escape at all and then to make it appear like it was all your fault in the end (instead of poor puzzle design). A less than 1% escape rate means that you need to seriously reflect on what is wrong with your room. If this was our first time playing an escape game we might have attributed our failure to our inexperience. But after 150 escape games we can truly say: don't waste your time or money on Real Escape Games or their affiliates.
Lost and Found in Chinatown: As a scientist in a memory lab we find ourselves suddenly pulled into a complicated mystery where we have lost all of our memories. Retracing our steps is key.
Pros: We liked the idea, in theory, of combining a scavenger hunt with an escape room. This could work well if executed correctly.
Cons: See all of our comments above for the escape room portion of the experience. The scavenger hunt was way too simplistic and added little to the experience. We would stick with escape rooms if we were them. But then again their escape rooms are not good at all. So maybe just don't. Just don't.
Please note: We have heard that their Casa Loma escape games have rave reviews. These were all booked so we could not check them out. We recommend you judge for yourself. But no guarantees based on the above. Location isn't everything.
