TRAPPED KW - Escape Rooms & Events — Attraction in Waterloo

I've done many escape rooms from severl different places and this one ranked fairly low. (Spoiler free review)

Escape Room: Hotel Dystopia Room advertised success rate: 7% Our team result: pass with 10min left. Room theming: 3/5 Set design 3.5/5 Puzzle immersion: 5/5 Over all immersion: 3/5 (lacks a good story line) Puzzle logic: 2/5 (do the answers make sense) Puzzle difficulty: 2/5 Hints used: 2 Number of players: 5 (too many for the number of puzzles that can be worked on at once)

Our group got through with 10 min left, we found the puzzles challenging mostly because they seemed poorly designed. When trying to solve several puzzles our team debated mutual solutions, each seemed reasonable with no clues as to what was the correct interpretation. So we would try each. On a few, it worked with no clear idea as to why the one that worked was the correct one. And on two puzzles we took a hint and while the hint got us to the solution we still feel that there was not enough in the room to rule out the answers we had come up with. At least one puzzle we still don't know how it was supposed to be solved but after a hint we tried it enough to get past it.

Most escape rooms I've done I feel good about solving a puzzle and I understand what I missed when I need a hint; neither was true for this place.

Also, there is no timer in the room, I understand they want to maintain immersion but frankly their immersion is not THAT good, better than most escape rooms but not so good that a clock will break it. Besides there are ways to incorporate that into your theme. There is only one escape room company I've gone to that had really good immersion and even they had a timer you could check. It adds more than it takes away.

The thing this room did well was that the locks and puzzles were all integrated into the theme, no padlocks or locker locks. It makes the experience much better. Unfortunately they need to work on their sensors. We had issues with the puzzles picking up properly when we put in the correct answer. On top of this they don't want you taking anything with a battery in it into the room for fear that it will mess with the stuff in the room, but we were made to feel like it was for the safety of our devices. Just be clear with us guys! If your tech is finicky I'll understand.

Overall I feel that the puzzles were not satisfying to solve but they were integrated into the room immersion quite well. The best escape rooms achieve both, but when it comes down to it I'm here for the puzzles and if I come away not enjoying those it's a...

A really great escape room experience! We have been to the Mississauga location and were excited there’s now one closer to us, and we were keen to try it out. The staff were great as expected and the lobby has a games table if you’re waiting on your group to arrive.

We tried Room 057 and I absolutely loved the theme, was something unique and had a good story behind it. I enjoyed being walked in with our eyes closed as it did help set the mood when we opened them after listening to the quick backstory. The puzzles were relatively straight forward with the expected chaotic “what are we doing” moments.

The room was perfectly decorated to match the theme, however, the extremely dim lighting made simple things a bit frustrating, for example, not being able to see something that otherwise would have been pretty obvious in adequate lighting. The small flashlights were not sufficient. Once we unlocked the second room this issue was exacerbated as it was even darker. As well, one particular puzzle requires watching a video and we simply couldn’t follow the clue in the video - we knew what to do - but it was too hard to follow on the video.

On that note - the majority of the puzzles were techy/digitally based (computer, keypads, etc.), which the mechanicals behind is impressive. I would have liked maybe one or two more traditional lockpad/keys however. There is no timer in the room and you rely on audio call outs (30 & 10 minutes remaining). It would be nice to see how much time you’ve spent on something, how much is remaining, but I get it’s likely part of the ambience.

We made it out of the room with the generous help provided, and the twist ending was pretty clever. I would recommend this and our group is keen to try the hotel room, and more rooms as they become...

Trapped KW was a great way to spend an afternoon with my family. It is hard to find activities that suit a group with an age range of 10 - 45 and this definitely did the trick! The whole experience was fantastic from start to finish. We were greeted warmly and the employees were friendly and engaging. There was a fun surprise at the end of the briefing that we all enjoyed. Everything was every professionally explained and Cole made everyone feel comfortable. He was able to accommodate some sensory sensitivities in one of our group members by allowing ear protection and going over what to expect in terms of noises and other situations that might happen in the room. He was able to explain this in a way that gave information without giving away any clues. He also got right down to my child's level and talked directly with her about what to expect. He was courteous and respectful of everyone in our group, but I found that he had a really lovely way of interacting with the kids. We chose the midnight arcade escape. The room itself was well set-up, with realistic looking props and a good mix of puzzles that were easier and puzzles that were more challenging. This allowed everyone to have a turn with taking the lead. I will admit that we were stumped a few times and Cole gave us really great hints. He helped to move us along without totally giving it away, so we didn't feel like total failures :) Cole was there to congratulate us when we walked out and we took some cute pictures with there signs. All in all, it was a really fun family experience and I would love to do it again. If you haven't tried an escape room before, this would be a great...