Escape Game Entertainment — Local services in Hamilton

We've done about 50 escape rooms and have seen a lot of good, and some bad. The 2 rooms we did were 'decent' but the overall escape experience was incredibly lacking in comparison. They are in core of downtown Hamilton, and when I entered, I thought I was in the wrong place, or that they had gone out of business. The lobby was empty, and the counters and shelves behind the desk were completely bare (see picture). After a few minutes a young employee (the only one working) came to greet me. After disappearing back down the hallway, there was an incident where a (it would seem) mentally unstable or drug addled man outside started screaming and rattling the doors. Thankfully he didn't come in. Perhaps this is why the lobby looks totally abandoned, in case people wander in while the employee is down in a room? Between the empty lobby vibe and the potential dangers of working alone, I'm not sure a single, young, employee working here is the best idea.

For the 80s room, we were walked to the room by the host, and given an iPad for hints. There were no lockers, so we had to bring our stuff into the very small room with us. They told us not to sit on the bed or mess with the clothes, and went to leave. We asked about the goal and plot and they said the iPad would explain the story. When we initialized the game, something went wrong -a video started and then was skipped, and we were on the hint screen. The host said if the story was skipped you can't go back. We had no idea really what we were supposed do. They said they can't reset the room once it's started. Most of the puzzles are solved by keying in numbers into keypads. We weren't told how to use them, and they seemed non-responsive. We were told 'it should work'. Eventually it did and we finished the room. Some interesting puzzles, and great nostalgic music, but the overall experience was definitely lacking. There was no indication of winning other than the iPad showing a Completed screen, and the host was there. We asked "what actually happened?" since we didn't know the story, and they told us the story. Feels like the room could be made more robust to not need instructions like "don't move the clothes" and "don't sit on the bed, or it will break".

Next we did Kidnapped. It started with a video in the room, which was great, to not risk missing the iPad intro. This room has been built in the back garage/loading-dock of the storefront. We were warned that it was a bit cold. It was a cold rainy night, and the room was indeed chilly. Likely not fun in the dead of winter or summer. The garage door was was leaking rain water into a puddle in the room. The vibe in the room was pretty good, and most of the puzzles were creative, if simple. The previous players' notes hadn't been wiped off the map, so that was a bit disappointing. At the end of this room the host never showed up. We discussed the room for awhile and they still didn't arrive. Never seen that before. Perhaps they didn't know we were done, as there didn't seem to be any cameras to watch our progress in the rooms. We eventually made our way back to the lobby ourselves.

Overall some interesting puzzles and themes, but the presentation was very lacking. An employee who seemed a bit lost, the lobby and lack of storage for our things , and the rooms themselves were 100% linear, single path. Means the rooms could be done pretty easily by groups of 1 or 2, but also means in larger groups, people will be standing around. The door to the other room, Witches Coven, was left open so we looked around in there for a bit on the way out (as the host didn't come get us), and there was another room being built whose door was wide open as well. Just a lot of "oddness" to the whole experience. I don't completely blame the employee, it's obvious ownership didn't set them up for success.

And yes, there's a sign about 50% off your next room if you give a 5 star review (which obviously I'm not), but our host didn't tell us...

A new escape room in the area is super exciting and since they are a "new" business I did not want to leave a bad review until I gave them a fair shot. I have now played all 4 experiences and I regret funding their practice.

The rooms are basically just walls. You are able to hear every person in the building which can be quite distracting and completely breaks the immersive (which there is not much of to begin with). Except when you are in Kidnapped which is the loading dock of the building. The room is built on a 45 degree angle due to the concrete ramp floor and one of the walls is quite literally the back garage door. The puzzles are extremely underdeveloped with convoluted or lengthly input solutions that are annoying and impractical. There are a couple puzzles where the input is 20+ numbers/buttons, if done incorrectly or correctly you aren't even sure since there is no indicator. A red/green light or sound effect would be so helpful. Multiple times we solved a puzzle and had no idea!! Most items in the room are 3D printed and all the art work is AI generated :( There is little to no music or ambiance, everything is quite bare with hardly any decor. The rooms themselves feel extremely cheap and considering the staff members brag about "multi-millionaire" owners it seems like the budget was put elsewhere. The rooms claim to be high-tech yet the only tech are keypad inputs with the wires exposed :/ Plus the iPad hint system is frustrating with confusing wording and limited options. Be careful because you can accidentally bypass entire puzzles with the "I give up" button!! You are given a walkie-talkie as well but since they only have 1 employee working you do not always get an answer.

For each room once we completed it we had NO IDEA we were successful, we waited around confused as the iPad says "congratulations you've solved all the puzzles" but there is no definitive ending. For Witches Coven we did not even solve the last puzzle but it timed out or glitched (what we were told by the employee), the experience ended and we couldn't go back to actually finish. In Haunted Heirloom we opened an EMPTY safe and there was not even an heirloom to obtain :( In Jay's 80s the last puzzle was referencing a photograph which was nowhere to be found and after several minutes we just inputted the solution from the iPad to "escape". Kidnapped did have a video that played to signify the end but we waited over 10 minutes for the employee to get us after that.

There is no place to put jackets or personal belongings - I know not every place has lockers but at least coat hooks in the room would be nice. Also, they do not have a payment system set up so if you need to pay more admissions in person the only option is by e-transfer.

Overall my experiences at EGE have been extremely disappointing. I hope they can take the time to edit and improve their current rooms before opening more rushed experiences.

*Please keep in mind they offer 50% off to those who write...

Disappointing first experience here. Having done a lot of previous escape rooms this one did not impress. Price was comparable to every other one I've done but it felt low budget. When we walked in, all of the doors to all escape rooms were open so we could see all of the rooms with lights bright on and any additional doors within the rooms were also open. It made it lose some of the allure or appeal of escape rooms. We did kidnapped and it was okay. Puzzles were logical and not overly challenging for 2 of us, but we mostly enjoyed what we solved. I feel that anymore than 3 people in this room would be too much. The way you start the room wasn't really obvious and we weren't sure if we were allowed to move around the room from the get go, so have to use walkie talkie to confirm we were allowed to move around. Biggest issue was that part of the room malfunctioned but we didn't know that, so we couldn't figure out the last puzzle as we had none of the relevant information. So we got the clues on the iPad to just give us the answer to the puzzle we didn't know we had to solve and "escaped". Once the employee came to get us and we asked how we were supposed to get the final code, he noted that he didn't realize part of the room wasn't working and we couldn't solve it without the missing information. Super disappointing and employee was mostly like ' oh that sucks' . Did not offer anything for a malfunctioning room. Would not...