Escape Reviewer

Puzzles: ✭✭✭✬✩ 3.7

     Challenge: 3.0

     Logic: 4.0

     Abstract: 4.0

Lake Kwanita is a single-room 60 minute escape that centers around finding a secret formula in a scientist's cabin in order to save the planet. There are a lot of thematic props around the room in a mix between this escape's two central themes: fishing and chemistry. The decor was a bit bland and could use a little more detail over the walls, floor and ceiling to make it really feel that we were in a scientist's cabin.

All of the puzzles were interesting and quite unique. It is obvious that Intrigues Urbaines has put a lot of effort into coming up with their challenges. Some items were used in creative ways and I was pleasantly surprised at times while solving them. Saying this, it was disappointing that one of the locks was already open when we started our escape. Due to this issue we got confused, as some items were found too early and some had no use to us. Afterwards, we discussed with the staff ways to make sure that this doesn't happen in the future, such as keeping a checklist of items to go through when resetting the room. Being a brand new escape company, I'm sure that kinks like this will be fixed very soon!

Most puzzles were comprehensive and used items from around the room. Out of all the puzzles, there was only one that gave us quite a bit of trouble. We knew what had to be done, but we had a lot of trouble trying to do so. We feel that other people with certain physical limitations may have more difficulty on this puzzle than others. We discussed this concern with the staff and they seemed very determined to make some good changes in the near future! Background experience with chemistry would certainly give some people an advantage with this escape, but it can still be solved without any prior knowledge. Finally, near the end of the escape, we encountered a nice surprise, and I can only hope that the majority of players will get to this point to experience it. Overall, Lake Kwanita has some good puzzles and it's just a little rough around the edges, probably because it's brand new. I believe that with some minor tweaks, this escape will become a very fun one to play in Montreal!

Reviewed by Mitch on July 28, 2015