Inblack Detective

tldr--AI slop (assets and likely the entire thing), owners shadow banned my review on Google lmao. Sooooo lazy. This was a genuinely infuriating and bad escape room, inexcusably sparse, basically a scam. This is rated on the Inblack website as 5 stars for puzzle density and "heavy logic deduction and teamwork". How?? Genuinely my hatred for this room made me join this app (silver linings). Our experience had legitimately 5 moments I would consider puzzles, most of which were very low effort both to create and solve. I would also consider these a generous definition of "puzzle"--once we found them, we solved all but one in 30 seconds or less. Two of the five puzzles revolved around adding 1 digit numbers together; two of the puzzles required following instructions with basic props; the remaining puzzle used a very basic (yet needlessly confusing?) cipher. The furniture and clues were damaged, and the drawer containing the final clue was unlocked the entire time and had a note asking us to wait until we found the key rather than a functional locking mechanism. The narrative was driven by AI voice lines (one section flatly said "You'll do that? Sarcastically" rather than having the voice speak sarcastically) that were following a poorly written script and designed to take up as much of our time as possible to extend the experience, as there was no actual substance to experience. As a non-puzzle narrative experience, let's also be so honest here--this is all fluff with no depth. The tagline on the brochure summarizing this room is "in the labyrinth of seeking truth, what we ultimately illuminate is the unwavering light of justice within our own hearts." None of this happened. This collection of scenes has nothing to do with justice, heart, or self-discovery. This is not a story about interrogating dark injustice, and didn't need to be, though it did pretend. This incoherent tagline was also on a brochure given out in the lobby at the end, because the game itself wasn't trusted to convey the mystery well. The story element is interesting as a concept, but unfortunately is a shallow and incoherent experience that's desperately trying to convey more complexity, and apparently needed three successive AI-generated post summaries of the adventure (but wrongfully summarized the good ending for us, when we got the bad ending). The mystery is not that complicated and yet felt incredibly convoluted simply due to how poorly it was presented--a postgame summary slide deck and brochure are not a substite for telling a coherent story in experience that claims to be narrative-driven. I am seeing the immersive element of these rooms hailed and simply cannot understand, as our room was so poorly conveyed that there had to be a powerpoint presentation at the end telling us what we had supposedly been immersed in. The lights and room cues are kind of janky but cute, though entirely basic and very cramped. All in all, we had four people and got roadblocked by some genuinely confusing design, and still finished in half the time, because there is just nothing in the room--we basically got one simple puzzle with some flashing lights per person, per $38 entry fee. The front staff were friendly and helpful at least. Unfortuntately, we did come for the escape room portion, and would not return or recommend.

I would not recommend this room or InBlack in general. They forgot to lock a drawer which caused us to find something too soon that ruined the story. They had a walkie-talkie to communicate with us but they ignored us for more than 5 minutes when we asked for a hint. We were honestly getting nervous something was wrong. We were given the wrong ending (multiple were possible) and much of the room relied on long pre-recorded audio that wasted a lot of time. There were really only 3-4 puzzles we needed to solve in order to complete the room. Overall not worth your time or money.

Very small room, puzzles were okay nothing novel

Really fun detective-themed escape room! The storyline was engaging, the puzzles were logical, and the atmosphere made the experience immersive. A great option for both beginners and experienced players. Definitely recommend!!!!

A thumbs down even though I think this is one of their more successful rooms at this location (tells you where the bar is for inblack…). I enjoyed some of the surprising moments and the story was definitely detective-ish without being convoluted (a common problem with inblack) As with most Inblack I’ve done the set and props are a bit rough around the edges (ie there was an exposed nail in the roof panel you were supposed to put your hand in) so be aware it’ll look shabby compared to the average experience. There’s also objectively not a lot to do. There are multiple endings which I liked, but I completely missed the cluing that there could even be an alternative ending. This could just be me but I seem to always miss the alternative choices at Inblack rooms haha. There are better experiences around, even downtown Toronto.

I recently visit Inblack eaton for the elevator game called detective, the room itself was not that big but the concept and the use of the space i think was kinda cool, with the real theme of trapped into an elevator and different story ending makes the game more fun. I personally like the game a lot and also the staffs were so nice I would say definitely recommend to try the detective game here.