A popular gaming trend hailing from Asia has led to a growing number of escape rooms cropping up around the city. With a typical game lasting under an hour, the idea is to solve a series of puzzles and clues in order to find your way out of a locked room within a set timeframe. The key is logic and communication. Teams can be made up of seasoned pals or complete strangers.
As games continue to emerge around Toronto, serious gamers and the curious of mind are starting to have more options when it comes to the altering their reality.
These games are addictive so why not tackle them all? Here are five places to start:
Real Escape Game T.O.
This game was first to the scene in Toronto and offers the choice of two scenarios in different locations. Players can choose to be trapped in a mysterious room or a time travel lab. The website suggests this game has been played by over 10,000,000 participants in Japan, Taiwan, China, Singapore and the U.S. with only a 3% success rate. Tickets are about $30 and corporate team-building session are offered. From April 23-May 3, Real Escape Game T.O. will be hosting Canada’s first large scale escape event, Escape from the Bank, at The Great Hall. Tickets are available here!
Trapped!
Boasting an experience created by Toronto’s best architects, interior designers, programmers and engineers, Trapped! offers three intense scenarios tucked behind a yellow door in Old Chinatown. Find a vaccine to foil a zombie apocalypse, elude a serial-killer’s trap or pull off the most ambitious diamond heist in history. Tickets range from $20-30 and you can play for free on your birthday!
Mystery Room
With locations on Dundas West or Sheppard, Mystery Room hosts four unique rooms that cater to varying skill levels ranging from beginner to advanced. Beginners can wet their feet while breaking out of prison, intermediates can unlock the treasures of an ancient alien tomb, and advanced gamers can solve mind-bending puzzles in a haunted hospital.
Escape Games
With an intended goal of altering the gamers’ reality, Escape Games touts the largest facility in North America and is only a short walk from Downsview Station. You can choose from ‘missions’ that will have you hunting down a kidnapped friend or giving rest to spirits in a haunted home in Osaka. There are eight to choose from, one of which is an unknown mission and warns that it’s not recommended for those with heart conditions. The cost per person is $20, but you can enjoy a “premium mission” for $28.
AT Escape
AT Escape bills itself as Toronto’s most realistic escape game. Located at Yonge and Sheppard, players can choose from five different scenarios to solve with a sixth on the way. Try breaking out of a prison, a library, a toy room, a bunker, or a biolab in under 45 minutes. Tickets are most affordable at $18.