Escape City Saskatoon — Attraction in Saskatoon

I went here recently for the room Neurological. It was an interesting concept but many of the puzzles did not work very well. Here is my feedback for how certain elements could be changed or improved:

The Phone: This was the most frustrating part of the experience. The phone was very finicky and would cut out constantly unless you held the wire in a very specific way. The phone also made communication between the left and right brain rooms unnecessarily frustrating since only the two people on either phone can give information back and forth. I think this could be fixed by A: making sure that the phone doesn't disconnect when you move it and B: putting the phone audio on a speaker so that everyone in the left room can hear what the person on the phone the right room is saying and vice versa.

The Button Puzzle: In this puzzle, there were eight buttons between both rooms that needed to be activated in a specific order. Our team had figured out buttons 1-4 and 6-8 but we spent a long time trying trying to find the fifth button. Eventually we figured out that the fifth "button" was actually a magnetic thing, with no indication that it had anything to do with the button puzzle. This could be fixed by either A: labelling the magnet thing with the number 5, to indicate that it's the fifth thing that needs to be activated in the button puzzle or B: replacing it with another button, like the rest of the elements from this puzzle

The Piano Puzzle: This puzzle did not work as intended. My team pressed the keys corresponding to each colour in the right order, and even figured that primary colors needed to be pressed simultaneously for green and orange, the but the puzzle didn't activate. Turns out the puzzle was just finicky and the keys needed to be be held for a certain amount of time for it to work. Please make sure that the puzzle works when you put in the correct inputs.

The Cube Puzzle: This one mostly worked as intended, but our team didn't know to keep track how many times the bell had rung. This could be fixed instead having the bell ring three times in a row in regular intervals (every five minutes or so) and maybe a clue in the left room that says "hear the bells" or something similar so that the players know to pay attention to them.

The Word Searches: These were frustrating because there was only one light in the third room, and the words searches were all on the opposite wall, so when all the players are trying to solve the word searches, the shadows make it very hard to read them. This could be fixed by either having more than one light source in the room, or having the word searches in different points throughout the room.

The Jelly Beans: First of all, since eating the jelly beans is required to solve the room, there should probably be an ingredient list and nutritional information posted somewhere visible so that anyone with food allergies can know what's in them. When we did this room, there were two dispensers with jelly beans and a third empty one labelled cinnamon. We figured out the first one was cherry flavoured, but the second one vaguely fruit tasting and much harder to identify. We tried pomegranate and strawberry, but later found out that it was supposed to be apple (it did not taste anything like apple.) This could probably be fixed either having a different flavour in the second dispenser or just having the second one labelled apple, with the third dispenser actually having cinnamon jelly beans in it.

Sorry to leave such a negative review, but my group was pretty disappointed with the overall experience, and as someone who really likes escape rooms, I'd love to see this...

Update:

The owner has contacted me and let me know that they have talked to staff about this incident and it should not be an issue going forward.

I have been to this escape room twice before when visiting Saskatoon. Both were pleasant experiences. Unfortunately, this time it was a very unpleasant experience. We came with a large group and booked into three rooms. We were told in the phone that all rooms would be an hour but when we got there two 1 hour rooms and 45 minute room. The young woman working the front counter was extremely rude and condescending when we asked any questions about the rooms and what we had booked. She was very unhelpful. We just paid and had everyone go into their rooms and start as we didn't want to lose time off our booking. Our first group was able to successfully escape their room and when they returned the lobby and we looked into how much everything it cost re-realized we had been overcharged. We did all the math and figured everything out and talked. The girl at the counter again and she was once again very rude and condescending told us we had already been given a refund of $24 on. That was all we were getting even though it should have been double that. We asked if we could just issue a full refund and then start again and she told us no that would look suspicious to her head office. She couldn't do that and then told us she didn't know any other way to explain it to us. We then asked to speak to somebody else and she rudely picked up her phone and contacted a manager who came out and confirmed that things were exactly the way we said they were supposed to be. She was again compatitive and very rude to her manager. They were also a few issues with some things in the room not working but that was due to general wear and tear. While our groups all had fun in their escape rooms, I would not return back simply based on the experience we had with the girl at the front counter and how rude she was to everyone. I also noticed she was the same way to anyone else who came in while we were there. She needs to work on her customer service skills before she continues to work with the...

I went with a group of 5 people to "The Cabin" on Dec. 16/18. Having done a few escape rooms before, I was surprised that it was only 45 minutes instead of an hour, but I reasoned that it must have been an easier room.

While the ambiance was quite good, the generator cut out twice during the game leaving the room quite dark and most of the flash lights had dying batteries as they were quite dim. I don't know if this was part of the game or not, only that when staff came in to give us hints, they remarked that the generator wasn't working because the lights should be on.

I really wanted to like this room. The trailer online about it looked fascinating and the "cabin" definitely had a creep factor about it which was great. The trouble was we found the clues to be quite obscure and as a result had to ask for hints. Now, this in itself wasn't a problem, after all there are a lot of puzzles and they can be tricky. It's that when we asked for a clue, a staff member would just come in through the door and that really broke the mood and tension they were trying to create.

Instead of just giving a hint, they asked what we were having trouble with and then walked us through solving an entire clue. Were the clues that difficult that we needed a walkthrough like that? Towards the end of the game, we were also interrupted by a different staff member coming to get the one who was in the room helping us to help someone else. Sure they took over and helped, but it felt like they were just doing the puzzle for us. This just broke the immersion so much for me.

In past escape rooms I've participated in, when you asked for a hint, they'd give you one over an intercom, or slip a piece of paper under the door with a hint written on it. This helped keep the illusion that we were actually trapped and working against the clock to get out.

I know my friends enjoyed this escape room, so maybe I just had my hopes set too high. I hope that Escape City will work to find a better way to not break the illusion...