Have you ever played escape the room games? If you haven’t here’s one of the first ones that I played way back then. Excuse the graphics because it is quite old, but if you wanted something better in terms of quality, feel free to just Google up something! There are loads of these games.

Basically, an escape the room games places the player in a room. There is usually a locked door, and using clues around the room, you have to work your way through the room to find a key or a passcode which leads you to your freedom.

I found out from a friend a while ago that in Richmond, they made one of these games…in real life. EXIT Canada.

What does this entail? I went a few days ago with my friends. You get to choose which adventure you would want to experience: a sunken ship, an egyptian one, a prison escape, or a laboratory escape. We chose the sunken ship.

I can’t go into details since that would be giving the game away, but you do have to go through more than one room. The room is not big (which is probably why they only allow parties of 6 people max), but I liked it. It is themed around a ship, and when you walk into the first room, you pick up a piece of paper telling you your backstory.

We had to open several locked boxes and such to get the code for the first room, and that included quite a bit of problem solving. You are allowed two hints and we used it all in the first room. We spent a good chunk of our allotted 45 minutes in that first room, so needless to say, we failed the overall challenge. Time really flies by. However, it was definitely an experience!

It’s not the easiest of places to get to, but once you get to Lansdowne station, it’s about a 15 minutes walk away. If you’re carrying stuff, they have storage cupboards for you to drop off your stuff (it locks, and you keep the key for the duration of your game). The staff is nice, and my overall experience was enjoyable. It costs around $23 a person, and the rate of the game goes up overall as you add more people to your group. I didn’t expect the most amazing theatrical experience, and thought that the rooms were well decorated. You reserve your time slot online, but don’t have to pay till you get there. If you’re looking for something new to do, you can go check out EXIT Canada!

-Karen