If you like to think outside the box this isn't the place for you. The enigmas are linear so you have to solve them in order so you end up with everyone working on 1 thing at a time. In my opinion, that's a waste of time. There are a lot of rules and each player has to take a role with a superpower like one person can keep their phone in the room to use the flashlight, another is given clues but all at the same time and they have to memorize them before starting the game. Most of the enigmas don't actually require solving, for example, some require dexterity so if you don't have a lot of dexterity well you're stuck and you can't progress. Oh and you can't find a way to cheat to bypass the dexterity thing cuz they'll deduce 5 min to your alloted time. In my book, the enigmas and decor should be made in a way to prevent people from being able to cheat so if you find a way to still cheat, well good for you, you were smart enough to find a new way to get to the answer. Not there, you're penalized for cheating. The storyline is pretty basic, the decors are also minimal so it's not that immersive compared to other places I've been. (I only did one room there and that's enough for a lifetime in my case so maybe the other rooms are better but i'm not really interested to pay a lot of money to find that out.) In the room my group did, there were like 7 enigmas total and 4 of those were actual problems that you had to solve and they weren't that hard. The other 3 were more physical/dexterity stuff that requires you to try and try until you get it and that took most of the time. The difficulty rating on the website is 3.5/5. If you remove the dexterity stuff that hinders you if you're more of an intellectual, I'd say the room was more of a 2/5. Also, they say nothing will scare you or jump at you but that's a lie. The information I'll disclose changes nothing to the room and it's not a hint or anything but do not read further if you like being startled and you want to keep that a surprise.
So in the room we did, when we were watching the intro video, something fell from the ceiling behind us and as someone who suffers from PTSD and is easily startled I really didn't like being told that nothing would "jump" at me. And then jump out of my skin cuz something fell from the celling behind me and made me go into flight or fight mode and want to cry. The fact that it was behind me at head level made it scarier and harder for me to assess the threat than if it would've been in front of me hence the feeling like crying. It didn't ruin the experience cuz luckily I was able to calm myself down quickly but it certainly made me feel like the staff didn't really understand that some people might have trauma so being startled is more than just haha not cool, it can trigger some people. So it's really important that when you say nothing will jump at you or scare you, that it's true. I would've appreciated being told before going in that something could startle you so brace yourself or if you want to avoid being scared, they could tell you what will happen. I've also done a lot of escape rooms, in the greater montreal area as well as in Sherbrooke. I've always asked if something was going to startle people and the staff usually told me no and that was accurate. In the rare cases that something did, they would tell me what would happen so I've never been startled and felt like crying in an escape room before. Pretty in depth review so you get a good idea of what it's like. We did enjoy ourselves a little cuz we like puzzles but we definitely wouldn't come back. Hope my...
Read morei would have given 5 stars if it wasn't for the puppet room.. since it was built i wanted to go in that room, but never managed to have enough people (they recommend 8). did the hocus room and hocus two and if I had stopped there, it was the most amazing and creepy experience ever! jumpscares and spooky stuff!!! then came the oswald chamber... the most dissapointing chamber that i've ever done, and i've done plenty of escape rooms across montreal... it was soooo borring.... no space to be 8... 2 people do the job srxly.... the puzzles are just way too complicated for nothing.. was told at the entrance that it was reaaallllyyy super creepy and scary, but in the end, it was just dissapointing... they market it as scary but the puppet in the picture isn't even there... there's only boring and ugly looking papier-mâché puppets... also the pictures shown in the oracles book didn't really match reality. Over all... i wanted to be scared and was totally dissapointed in the room... but sincerely, I absolutely recomend Hocus rooms!!! THEY ARE THE BEST I'VE EVER DONE!!!
EDIT!!! I did cerebral and rembrandt today and for real, It was really nice and caroline really made it fun. She was really funny and made the experience so much better!!! I recommend this place and they took down the oswald chamber for cerebral and tesla which I recommend. Thank you so much caroline, it really was fun and your energy and sweetness makes me wanna come back and redo the two hocus rooms!!! See...
Read moreThis was my 1st escape room and it left me frustrated and disappointed. We arrived 15 minutes earlier as instructed and were quickly moved into a room off to the side to watch a video and choose characters. The video was basic rules, but i never understood the point of the characters. We were then brought to our escape room choice. We watched another video, and while it explained the story, there was very little instruction on what to do. Our time started at 54 minutes, not even the full hour. We spent a very long time on the 1st clue. We asked for a hint and it didn't provide us any insight. Eventually our game master gave us the answer, and none of us could figure out how they got that answer. We moved into the next section, and once again, there was no logic to the riddle so we once again couldn't solve it. We got another hint, which involved sacrificing one of our players, which made no sense, because that player still moved along with us. We also had to keep returning to the main room, which was akward, in order to read the screen or get any additional hints. We made it to the last part, and well, we failed that too. There was very little logic to the puzzle or direction. It felt very randomly put together. For 200$, it was very overpriced. I will say our game master was very nice. The fact that it was challenging is not an issue, but it was more challenging than necessary due to the...
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