Escape Reviewer

Quick Facts:

City/Area: Downtown Toronto

Escape Length: 60 minutes

Players: Around 100

Cost: $25/Person

Escape the Bank

Design: ✭✭✬✩✩ 2.7

     Idea: 4.5

     Details: 2.5

     Features: 1.0

Puzzles: ✭✭✭✭✬ 4.3

     Challenge: 5.0

     Logic: 4.0

     Abstract: 4.0

Upon entry to The Great Hall, details and decorations were unimpressive. One corner of the room was decorated as a bank vault, but not much effort was put towards immersing players into the environment. Most of the theme integration came from actors and actresses who circulated the room during the event. These costumed performers were responsible for divulging hints as needed. The escape completely took place inside of The Great Hall’s main area, meaning there were no room transitions. Everything needed to solve the puzzles inside of your folder was hanging on the surrounding walls. There was a very well put together video that would play at key times throughout the escape providing players with bits of storyline and clues. The puzzles were all fun but very pencil and paper based, simply using clues that were found around the room. Overall, the staging of this escape was a bit of a letdown. Nothing ever made us feel like we were truly involved in a bank heist. In addition, we felt as though the space was wasted a little bit; transitions to new areas would have been nice! Saying all this, we still had a fun time! Overall, we feel that the idea of a large-scale escape could be improved! Right now, this event feels much like the large scale event Puzzled Pint, which is a free event that takes place once a month in different locations. A company like Real Escape Game that rents a large location such as this, should try to differentiate themselves from Puzzled Pint by making the scenery, props and details more interactive, rather than just a holding facility for puzzles! We will definitely check out the next one and hope for improvements!

Reviewed by Evan on June 6, 2015

Stated Difficulty Level: N/A

Theme: Heist/Thriller

Family Friendly? Yes

Company Atmosphere: 2.3/5

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