The Steampunk Express

man this room really was difficult holy crap everything about it was fair though and i think thats whats hard, there were many puzzles that i just went “oh that was on me for not getting” the reviews about this room didnt disappoint but if im being honest? i prefer the other rooms at this location over this one. Steampunk was great but the other rooms just had a better atmosphere and puzzles that werent so over the top challenging its still great but i wouldnt call it one of the best rooms in toronto. if you’re a serial escaper though, this one is a GREAT challenge and youll probably love it (it definitely checked my ego for sure lmao) 7/10 - would recommend to EXPERTS or experienced players, this is not a beginner room

A good room for 3+ people. Good scenery, story, and sets. Props serviceable and functional, if sometimes a little worn. A good variety of puzzle types, and many of them to solve. Definitely a puzzle-heavy room. There were a few puzzles that felt like a slog, particularly a long sequence memory/"Simon" puzzle that fully reset and randomized after any error. It didn't add much to the story and was frustrating to get through. All the other puzzles were unique and all were doable. In response to some other review comments, I will confirm the a/c and fans were working on a warm August day and the room was comfortable throughout.

We’re giving a thumbs-up in the photo but I’m giving this room a thumbs-down in real life. At its core, it’s a cool idea and great layout: you’re inside a steampunk train, trying to get to the locomotive. Many of the puzzles are quite challenging too, I especially enjoyed one involving pistols. I have a list of grievances, however: -The AC was not working in this room, and it was 80-something degrees inside. I’m not here for that level of immersion, and when we told one of the GMs at the front desk, he reacted with disbelief. We were like, “yeah dude, it’s hot as hell in there!” We played Wilshire Hotel room immediately after and the temperature was perfect. -One of the puzzles was a sliding tile puzzle that took us forever to solve. Who actually enjoys these things? At that point I was having an existential crisis: “Why am I sweating it out in an 83-degree escape room over this nightmare task? This is not fun whatsoever.” -There’s an elaborate dexterity puzzle involving a small metal ball. My buddy lost patience with it, so I jumped in…I love dexterity puzzles. I was making good progress and then the ball disappeared down a hole. It didn’t trigger anything, and it didn’t reappear anywhere else. The GM had to come into the room to pick up the table and shake it, it got stuck somewhere. If you’re gonna make such an elaborate contraption, it should be a little more reliable. -Toward the end of the experience, there’s a crawlspace you need to enter. The rest of the room had a high level of set design, but this space was like, unpainted drywall with an off-the-shelf mechanic’s creeper inside. And the puzzle inside really didn’t fit thematically with that space, it could have just as easily been installed on a countertop elsewhere. It was like an odd, half-baked afterthought. Overall this is a challenging room, and great for puzzle-focused players. But also for a room that’s been around this long, these rough edges should have been smoothed out by now.

Rating: 2/5 - Lots of tech with an interesting set, but too many things I disliked. Pros: ➕Good looking set with an interesting steampunk theme, decorated floor to ceiling. ➕Everything is tech, no padlocks. Tech is integrated well with some tactile and physical manipulation. ➕Multiple rooms to explore. ➕Ambient audio helped add to the immersion. ➕Non-linear puzzles, the entire team can stay busy. ➕GM was helpful when needed. Cons: ➖One puzzle involved a cool mechanism, but it malfunctioned and required the GM to enter the room to help. ➖Multiple memory puzzles and they don't provide anything to write with. I have a terrible memory when it comes to patterns and numbers and need to take notes. ➖It had two of my least favorite puzzle types, jigsaw and sliding blocks. I dislike these because you have no "aha" moment, you just need to do them so they feel like time wasters. ➖There was a computer that functioned as a runbook. I personally dislike this style of play since you have to keep going back to the computer to reference info, especially with nothing to write with. The fake software/GUI on the computer was also simulating a modern Chrome browser which clashed with the steampunk aesthetic (though the computer itself was decorated like steampunk). ➖Visible wear and tear, especially on the wooden props. This is especially noticeable after playing at Crypto who refreshes the props regularly so all their rooms look brand new. ➖One part of the room was completely undecorated and plain with a large, store-bought prop, this took away from the immersion. ➖The room and lobby were uncomfortably warm when we played, I was starting to sweat just standing around. GM confirmed their A/C was working but it was still too warm, they even had fans running in the room and in the lobby but they were blowing hot air around. For some reason their Wilshire room was much cooler. We completed the room successfully as a team of 3 enthusiasts. I recommend 3-5 due to the non-linearity. One person may need to crawl. My ranking of the rooms I played here starting with my favorite: 1. Grand Wilshire Hotel 2. Steampunk Express

Said to be the hardest room in Toronto and it didn't disappoint! Excellent set, lots of great puzzles, and solid flow with some elements of linearity and multi-linearity. Unfortunately for us, we chose to play it when the air conditioning was down (we were given the chance to cancel but went ahead with it anyway), and it was just absolutely brutal. The four of us still finished with 10 minutes to spare but did need a clue and a manual bypass (the puzzle had a slight technical fault but it was mainly because we were drenched in sweat and too hot and frustrated to bother figuring it out ourselves). Even with these conditions we still enjoyed the room and would recommend it to any team that enjoys a challenge!

That room was amazing!! Excellent immersion/atmosphere. Challenging with tons of puzzles, lots of technology which all seemed to be working well. Different variety of puzzle types with varying degrees of multi-steps. Loved it!

We took two extra minutes but we got out! The room is high production value and has a variety of puzzles. We enjoyed it overall with our group of 8. The narrative was cohesive and generally the puzzles made sense with the story.

Just wanted to say this room is HARD like you’re gonna need more than four people. As soon as you open up the second room it’s like all hands on deck, 4 didn’t feel like enough. We had to ask for a bunch of hints even though we are extremely experienced but WOW was it satisfying to solve one without a hint cause yall holy moly was this room difficult. I generally don’t like mechanical rooms but at least appreciated the milieu as well as a fun thing you get to do at the end

Even if you have played over 80 escape rooms, I guarantee you this will still have something new for you to discover. Our group is very experienced and we still would’ve needed an extra 5 mins to complete the game. The game master allowed us to keep playing to experience the entire narrative and puzzles which was a huge plus! We were the last group of the night and he knew how close we were to the end. I would not recommend this room to first time players because the puzzles will be too challenging and it will set the standard too high for future rooms when it comes to production value. Not all rooms are created equal. Save this room for escape enthusiasts who think they’ve seen and played it all.