"Locked room" facilities in Calgary - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

tvp2003 · 06-11-2017, 11:06 PM

There seems to be a number of these places nowadays -- if you've never heard of them, you get "locked" in a room and have to solve various riddles/puzzles etc in order to escape within an hour. They have different themes/storylines and apparently differing levels of difficulty as well.

Anyone gone recently and have reviews to share? Hoping to get some more info -- they seem quite pricey but a few have some deals available on Groupon as well...

Jiri Hrdina · 06-11-2017, 11:09 PM

I've been to The Locked Room on Fairmont and smartypants on 14th. I would recommend the former easily. More intricate rooms and challenges and just way better overall. Lots of fun

Otto-matic · 06-12-2017, 08:12 AM

We have a group that has done probably majority in Calgary and some in Edmonton.

Level 1 makes some fantastic rooms, I wasn't a huge fan of their newest rooms but the core 3: Haunting of Apt 103; The Vault (Fallout 4 themed); Test Subjects are all fun.

http://www.level1escape.com/escape-rooms/

E-Exit on 17th Ave are all fun rooms too. I would recommend the Ninja room if you're new into the escape room world.

http://e-exit.ca/calgary/

Confined is probably my favorite in Calgary, they have a 3D room which really messes with your senses. I still need to try the Donald Trump Themed room.

http://confined.ca/

Eureka in Banff is also good, if you're ever up in the mountains. Really good build quality in the rooms.

Weitz · 06-12-2017, 08:49 AM

I did one at Escape Master around Christmas and it was fantastic I thought.

DoubleF · 06-12-2017, 09:38 AM

Dreamweaver at Esxoss Manway by Chinook was the biggest one I've ever done. It connected something like 4 or 5 rooms into a single puzzle. It's one of the few where I felt you could truly splinter the groups to seek clues, but as a result, it could also quickly cause "noise" to occur. The last puzzle was quite confusing and even with the guidance of the admin explaining how the last puzzle worked, it took us about 3-4 tries to complete it. This by far felt the most polished of all the rooms I have played. It had multiple rooms and a story that evolved. Esxoss is probably the most difficult I've played and I would have loved to play it with more escape room experience, but it was still very fun. Few have beaten it and it's probably one you'd want to have escape room veterans playing. Not one you'd have the most fun with a group of newbies. Easily a room I'd suggest leaving till later when you have more experience with locked rooms. Much more immersive than other rooms IMO.

I also went to The locked room on 32nd avenue. Their website seems to show 15% off bookings until July 1. I played mutiny on the high seas and wine cellar with friends. We accidentally found a cheat on Mutiny on the high seas, but I assume they fixed it. Mutiny plays 8 people. Wine cellar plays 4. My friends played game over at that location which plays 4 people and said it was good. Good entry level stuff for locked room.

Mutiny plays in a dark room. You run around with flashlights. We accidentally found a hidden light switch (broke the room) which we think was not supposed to be accessible. It made the room vastly easier with the light on. The rooms here were more "flat", but still fun. It on occasion felt like those mystery clicking games on your phone.

Wine cellar was another dark room. We didn't find any light switches and also found the darkness a huge part of the difficulty of the room. Long story short, we beat the room, but due to some miscommunication, we ran around for another 5 minutes or so until we "died" because we didn't actually leave the room. The admin didn't even come for another 5 minutes or so because according to his info, we beat the room, but were trapped inside because we were idiots.

A few friends played game over. They beat it, but said it was a room with a lot of lights which was a huge advantage due to us seeing who would beat it first. (It was their group in game over vs our group in wine cellar as a competition).

Escape room is a bit pricey. But no worse than going all out at a movie IMO and much more engaging. Locked rooms also have relatively no replay value unless you have a memory like a gold fish. I'd definitely suggest playing starter rooms to see if you like it before jumping into the more complex and expensive ones.

Mass_nerder · 06-12-2017, 12:28 PM

I did the Haunting of Apt 103 at Level 1.
It was a lot of fun, and they did a great job on the room and the puzzles. Unfortunately, when they reset the room, they forgot to put one of the last vital clues back so the puzzle was literally impossible to solve. We had them come in and "show" us where the clue was, but they couldn't find it either. The employee that was helping us left the room with us (since this was right at the end of the time limit), went into their back room for a minute, then went back into the puzzle room and magically came out with the missing clue and was all "oh, it was in there after all! You guys just missed it!"
I thought that was kind of lame. If the room wasn't reset properly, I can accept that, but don't try to sneak the clue back in and tell us after that we just missed it (when you couldn't find it either).

I did Cabin Fever at Confined, and thought it was really amazing. All the props were incredibly well done. Very high attention to detail. I've been meaning to go back and do the Trump Tower room.

Resolute 14 · 06-12-2017, 12:58 PM

Like Otto-matic, I've done a pile of rooms in the city. The Locked Room is by far the biggest with three locations. I think they do everything well, but nothing truly outstanding. Most importantly, they have a wide variety of difficulty levels. Good for anyone.

My favourite company is Escape Capers. The location is terrible (Ogden industrial), but the rooms are fantastic, and they put a host in the room, in character. The host is mostly passive, but it certainly helps the immersion.

I also like Trapped (in Kensington) and E-Exit (off 17th Avenue). Friend of a friend is opening a new place called A/Maze just off MacLeod and 12th. I was part of one of his beta test groups, and I liked the concepts of some of his puzzles - he really tried to de-emphasize the use of padlocks in favour of more cerebral puzzles.

albertGQ · 06-12-2017, 02:47 PM

I did the 8 bit one on 32nd ave. Loved that one.

Also did the one in Banff. Called Eureka. I highly recommend that one too.

Handsome B. Wonderful · 06-12-2017, 02:55 PM

I did E-Exit recently. It was fun, I would gladly go again.

Teh_Bandwagoner · 06-12-2017, 03:40 PM

Most recent one we did was the space theme one at Escape Hour. It was advertised as the hardest room in Calgary. They said 10% completion with hints. But meh we got out of it okay. We needed one hint I believe.

The room was really well done though. Well decorated. Some cool uses of video and sound. Puzzles were tough, but logical. In other rooms I've done, the puzzles can just get insanely obscure, but in this case most of the puzzles were fun and reasonable.

tvp2003 · 06-12-2017, 04:19 PM

Thanks for the feedback. It sounds like most people had a good time -- no real "duds" out there at least.

Fuzz · 06-12-2017, 04:27 PM

I dunno, some "friends" took me to the one at 4303 14 St NW. It sucked. My only hint was one phone call that wasn't much help, and they just laughed at me when I couldn't figure out how to escape. 24 hours I'll never get back. Would not recommend.

topfiverecords · 06-12-2017, 10:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fuzz

I dunno, some "friends" took me to the one at 4303 14 St NW. It sucked. My only hint was one phone call that wasn't much help, and they just laughed at me when I couldn't figure out how to escape. 24 hours I'll never get back. Would not recommend.

Are you sure it wasn't the basement of 1443 14th St Nw?

Locke · 06-12-2017, 10:52 PM

Wow, everyone I've locked up in my room complained incessantly, and you guys are willing to pay?

I've been locking up the wrong people all this time...

Resolute 14 · 06-13-2017, 07:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tvp2003

Thanks for the feedback. It sounds like most people had a good time -- no real "duds" out there at least.

Escape2gether is the only dud I've encountered.

red sky · 06-13-2017, 07:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

Escape2gether is the only dud I've encountered.

Agreed. I've done four across the city and a few others in different cities and that was by far the worst.

Regulator75 · 06-13-2017, 07:19 AM

We did a work function at the one on 32nd Ave NE, it was fun, there was 2 groups of 5 and we actually got the 5th fastest time on the difficult setting.

Sainters7 · 06-13-2017, 08:34 AM

We did it once, no idea the name anymore as it was 2 years ago and through my gf's work so I never set it up, but it was a Halloween zombie theme, and was in the SE in an industrial business area (above Deerfoot Meadows I think?). I think it was a decent one but we got kinda hosed. We were doing decent but then couldn't get past a combo lock. We eventually gave up and wound out the clock. When the girl came in after, she told us the combo which is exactly what we had figured out...except it wasn't working for her either. Basically a faulty lock prevented us from finishing which was a little frustrating.

It seemed like a good place, I think we just had some bad timing on that one. The experience was ok overall, but I don't really have an interest to do it again. Think it's a little overrated frankly. But maybe it's due to that flawed experience.

mrkajz44 · 06-13-2017, 09:04 AM

I do find it a bit odd of all the stories here where the room wasn't set up properly or locks didn't work. I've probably done 10+ now (The Locked Room and Level 1) and never had an experience like that. Maybe I've just been lucky, but I guess I'm trying to say that I think those experiences are rare and it shouldn't turn you off from trying a room.

DoubleF · 06-13-2017, 12:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sainters7

We did it once, no idea the name anymore as it was 2 years ago and through my gf's work so I never set it up, but it was a Halloween zombie theme, and was in the SE in an industrial business area (above Deerfoot Meadows I think?). I think it was a decent one but we got kinda hosed. We were doing decent but then couldn't get past a combo lock. We eventually gave up and wound out the clock. When the girl came in after, she told us the combo which is exactly what we had figured out...except it wasn't working for her either. Basically a faulty lock prevented us from finishing which was a little frustrating.

It seemed like a good place, I think we just had some bad timing on that one. The experience was ok overall, but I don't really have an interest to do it again. Think it's a little overrated frankly. But maybe it's due to that flawed experience.

I don't get how people get stuck like this. Why don't you call the admin in to use a hint to solve the issue? If the issue is legit, you can get it resolved right away and you can keep playing. I think some admins even include this in their schpiel at the beginning. It makes way more sense to use hints than let time run out incessantly and allow the group to get upset as a result. I really doubt you'd even end up using up the hint if the issue is legitimate such as a wrong lock being used, faulty set ups etc.

Was the hint option even available back then when you played?