MagnificoEscaparium - LavalEscape roomIRLThere is not much I can say that other people haven’t. This is easily the best escape room I have ever done and the first room I have ever found myself wanting to do *again* despite knowing the answers now. We flew to Canada just for this room and it was well worth it. The set is SPECTACULAR. The puzzles are fun and designed extremely well. And the actors and story are phenomenal. Any criticism i’d have would literally only be nitpicking. This escape room is well thought out and crafted. I’d suggest it for literally everyone over the age of 8 or 9. Actually. I do have a criticism. I wanted better merchandise to spend more money on this room. They had like funko pops but they were a little large to take home in my carry on. I wanted like magnifico playing cards and pins.
La Cathédrale Oubliée [The Forgotten Cathedral]Escaparium - LavalEscape roomIRLI’m not going like or dislike this escape room since I didn’t finish it, and I’m sure it’s very well made like the other rooms we did at Escaparium. But this was way too scary for me. I had to leave after a room and a half. I’ll gladly put the blame on us for not looking into it more before we booked the experience. It says 3/4 scary on their website. But not much else. There was no list of potential triggers or anything. But I definitely could and should have asked before we started. I normally do, especially when I think something might be scary, but my Fiance dropped the ball on telling me about this one when he planned this trip. 🙄 I did ask about the other rooms we’re doing tomorrow and the guy at the front desk was more than happy to list off any triggers in them for me. But Escaparium did not seem to be well prepared for a situation like this. Most escape rooms I’ve done will have announcements like: you’re never locked in, you’re free to leave at any time. The door’s unlocked and you can just go back to the lobby. But Escaparium does staggered room starts for some rooms, and will turn lights off and such to discourage you from going back after certain points in the story. So you can’t very easily just go back to the previous rooms or leave without a team member. The Hallways of the warehouse are also extremely dark and narrow and don’t have much signage and pretty much require a team member to direct you. When my Fiancé asked if I could leave it took a few minutes for a team member to let me out. They then had me sit in the opening room of the experience for another few minutes since she had some parts of the room to trigger for my friends before she had a moment to walk me back. She was absolutely lovely and understanding and this was not on her. But Escaparium management needs easier, quicker and better protocols in the event that someone wants to leave. I saw many children doing rooms at Escaparium and I’d have a hard time believing this situation isn’t common enough that they should be able to deal with it more effectively by now. Especially in their one room that is labeled as their scariest. This wasn’t the only accessibility issue we had. My friend was struggling to hear and asked if there was any way to turn the background music down since it was quite loud and they just didn’t have the capability to do that. I’m sure that for most people, especially horror enjoyers, this would be a great room. My fiancé seemed to like it. But I’d seriously reconsider the room and potentially Escaparium if you have any special needs or medical conditions.
Storyteller's SecretBoxarooEscape roomIRLThis escape room was probably one of my top 3 escape rooms ever and I’ve literally done some of the top rated escape rooms on terpeca. The puzzles were literally at the perfect difficulty for me and fiancé and we LOVED the them. From the smoothness of the technological elements, to the reworking of previous puzzles, everything was a real breath of fresh air in comparison to the other rooms we’ve done before. We do tend to be a bit more advanced than just normal escape room goers so I can definitely see how some of the puzzles could be difficult if you’re just bringing your kids or if you don’t have much escape room experience.
L'Île perdue de la Reine Vaudou [The Lost Island of the Voodoo Queen]Escaparium - LavalEscape roomIRLPotentially some of my favorite puzzles we did at Escaparium. The set was super cool and even the puzzles were very on theme. The actor/gm definitely did their job in getting us hyped up for this room. But I do wish their speakers for the GM were louder. I struggled to hear them multiple times. Also, the motors for one of the doors was really slow and definitely killed the vibe a little. But aside from that I thoroughly enjoyed the puzzles I did. Extremely piratey. I’d definitely suggest this room for families with tweens.
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz13th Hour Escape Room - WhartonEscape roomIRLWe came back and did another 4 rooms. For a total of 8/9 rooms and this was by far my favorite. Puzzle difficulty felt aimed at families and had some really show stopping effects and animatronics. But there are definitely some parts and effects that felt unfinished.
Mogollon Monster: Scouting for Arizona's BigfootThe Nemesis ClubEscape roomIRLThe story is good and the puzzles are great after the fact. My biggest complaint is you fundamentally just cannot see half the things in this room without these big clunky lantern lights that you have to carry around. So you’re basically solving puzzles one handed because you can’t see anything without holding the lantern light. A lot of puzzle mechanics also include finding really well hidden objects which is just completely unfair to expect you to do in the dark. I would have killed for a smaller flashlight or just better ambient light in general. It would have been perfectly thematic to have a beginning puzzle to turn the camp lights on or start a campfire. But as is, it’s just a permanent extreme difficulty factor that is less immersive and more frustrating than anything. But I did appreciate the special effects and storyline. I just would have had a 9/10 experience rather than a 6 or 7/10 experience with this room if I could see more easily.
Ctrl Alt RebootEscaparium - LavalEscape roomIRLTechnically speaking, one of the coolest rooms I’ve ever done. The set and prop pieces are amazing. The mechanics of the game are also super. It had robots and technology that I’ve never seen executed this well in an escape room before. It definitely fit the sci fi theme very well. The puzzles are also really well themed. My only issue was the cursing. This room definitely could have been family friendly if they took out the music. There was no cursing at all by any actors or set pieces except for the music and when you hear it, it just feels really out of place and disconnected from the game. If the actors or robots were cursing too and it was more throughout the game it’d make a lot more sense and fit better to me. But on its own it just feels extremely out of place.
Castle FlüffendorEscape Artist Greenville - Hampton StationEscape roomIRLI loved this room. Definitely something I would use as an intro to escape rooms for younger kids. Very fantastical and sweet, and super funny. I thought the puzzles were super creative. I didn’t do dark lullaby because I’m not great with horror but the staff went above and beyond to explain what went into it and then explain the lore to me so I could continue onto Help Wanted with my group, even though I didn’t wish to participate in the scarier room. Really appreciated the staff here. You don’t get a lot of understanding elsewhere and they made me feel comfortable.
Sal's CyberneticsThe Immersive MachineEscape roomIRLMy favorite room of the ones we did on our Phoenix trip. We did this room with 2 people (50+ rooms under our belt each) and had a BLAST. I loved the immersive parts. They have bits to let you dress up to fit the universe better and will adjust the puzzle levels a little to best fit your group. I loved the high tech puzzles and a lot of my favoriteswere very work together/coop heavy. So make sure you bring friends you click with and work well together with XD. You definitely can’t do it alone.
Armoire à Vendre [Wardrobe for Sale]Escaparium - LavalEscape roomIRLThis room had one of the most compelling stories at Escaparium. Only Magnifico beat it for me. The set was INCREDIBLY detailed. They fit so much content into one room. It was non linear so my group was able to split up and tackle different puzzles. The actor we had I thought was PHENOMENAL. He was super funny and helpful at the same time. He really made us fall in love with the characters. The actor interactions here were just really great and they made it very clear what we needed to do. I also LOVED the transition between rooms. Such a showstopping set piece. But there was WAY too much fog. To the point it was causing sensory issues for several of us. This was not a scary room. The description of the theme is really non specific on their website and I do understand the need to keep the secrets of what’s in the wardrobe. But also, I do wish there was more clear reassurance on the website that this was suitable for younger kids instead of going in semi blind.
![La Cathédrale Oubliée [The Forgotten Cathedral]](https://res.cloudinary.com/mortyapp/image/upload/c_limit,w_260/f_auto/v1/store/s/2c2890dd-87b6-4712-8136-8403e436ec72.jpg)
![L'Île perdue de la Reine Vaudou [The Lost Island of the Voodoo Queen]](https://res.cloudinary.com/mortyapp/image/upload/c_limit,w_260/f_auto/v1/store/s/ea8040b8-d20c-48b1-a683-d874c1ae6eb1.jpg)
![Armoire à Vendre [Wardrobe for Sale]](https://res.cloudinary.com/mortyapp/image/upload/c_limit,w_260/f_auto/v1/store/s/02541450-7205-4371-935f-ae98c672dcbb.jpeg)
