Jeu d'Evasion - Escaparium Laval - Escape Game — Local services in Laval (administrative region)

If you are an enthusiast, Escaparium is absolutely a must visit. In many ways they are operating on a whole other level than most other escape rooms. There are also a few caveats that come with this recommendation that I will elaborate on below.

We came specifically to play Voodoo Queen, Rain Corps, and Wardrobe For Sale. Known as their big three flagship games.

As someone who comes to escape rooms primarily for immersion, set design, and narrative more than puzzles they absolutely deliver on that level. These rooms are massive and filled with incredible detail. The set design is absolutely high quality and was such a joy to run around discovering what would come next. I would love to revisit just to spend an hour walking around each room taking it all in. I applaud the creators for their creativity and ambition. Having done ~130 rooms, it can be easy to get jaded but they found ways to make even well worn tropes feel fresh and new either by putting their own twist on it, or by executing them on a superlative level.

It's hard to choose, but my favorite of the three we played was Rain Corps. This room is MASSIVE and so much fun to explore. You truly feel immersed in this larger than life experience. I especially loved the way you are introduced to the story line.

Wardrobe For Sale is amazing. I LOVED the secrecy around this room and it was surreal to discover what was within. There are a million highlights I could cover, but I don't want to ruin the surprise. I will say there is one moment that turned our entire group (ranging from 39 to 75 years old) into giddy children. Experiences like this make me excited for the future of escape rooms.

That being said, there were a few elements that detracted from the experience. So here is what I wish I knew before going in, to appropriately set my expectations.

There are many areas with low light and flashlights are not provided. There were many puzzles that we would not have been able to solve had we not brought in our phones and used them as flashlights. The experience would instantly improve if each player was provided a flashlight.

Sound/audio was consistently a problem across all three rooms. Ambient soundtrack was often too loud to communicate with teammates or hear audio clues/narrative beats (even without ambient audio, they often sounded muffled and inarticulate) Which is a shame because it is clear that Escaparium puts a lot of work into the narrative.

Voodoo Queen had nearly no orientation/introduction to the room. We were given a few guidelines of things not to do, and it was hard to hear due to the incredibly loud set, and then set free. Even as an enthusiast it felt a bit jarring, but if this was someone's first time doing a room I'd imagine one would be completely lost.

In Rain Corps there was a key piece of tech that failed and our GM had to jump in the game (in character) and follow as around to replicate the hints this tech was intended to provide.

Even as someone who doesn't really care about the puzzles as much as other aspects of the experience, I often found the gameplay to be a bit frustrating. Especially because so much of our games felt like the GMs were simply holding our hands through the puzzle solves. This was especially true in Wardrobe For Sale in which it rarely felt like we had time to try and figure things out for ourselves. I am aware that Wardrobe is intended to be more of an immersive narrative than traditional escape game, but I wish this was more breathing room. I am not precious about taking hints, I'm here for the experience, but there was SO much content in this room it is hard to imagine they could get people through without holding their hand in this manner.

Despite any of these critiques, I absolutely recommended playing these rooms and Escaparium should be applauded for these incredible experiences. Can't wait to return to play more of their rooms!

I also want to give a HUGE should out to both Elliot and Phil who were excellent in their respective...

Played an embarassing amount of escape room-ish experiences and these ones are unique and very advanced. The rooms are extremely well designed, they consider every aspect from the visuals, pacing, audio, even smells.. Don't go there for a "puzzle challenge" (well, apparently some rooms are Hard) but for the experience of going through a little storytelling maze, inhabited by your friends and you only for the duration of the game. I really like that the crew puts an emphasis on crediting as many of the people who built the room and acted in the experience as possible, it's missing from other places and gives you a better appreciation of the amount of people involved, and the effort put into making this whole machine run smoothly. If you go there and you take part in one of their "immersive theater"-ish experiences, please remember that you have to meet the actors half-way, try to partake in the story, remember that these are real people you're interacting with, respect their time and don't be an asshole. It was disheartening to hear how many people will insult them or threaten them. The whole thing's a fantasy escape you pay for, but actors, hosts and GMs are at work and deserve your respect. My only nitpick with the rooms I've played is that I think they played into tropes/genres really hard, probably to remain accessible and attract a wide audience, but as a result it sometimes feels more generic and...

Wow. I love everything about this place. The game masters are great, the right mix of being nice, funny and honest.

The waiting area/lobby is very spacious and has more than enough room, a feature all too rare with most escape room establishments.

The rooms themselves are absolutely phenomenal. I was hesitant to start off blindfolded, but the feeling of complete immersion was so worth it. You feel like you’ve woken up in a new world. It’s truly mesmerizing.

Our Game master, Gab was definitely the highlight of our night. We started our room in the last available time slot (scheduled to play at 11:55). We arrived right on time, so started our room out a tad late. We ended the room at around the same time as the store closed. We were the only group left playing.

This man, who had opened the store up early that same day, decided to offer us another game, starting after closing time, just because he liked us. We would also receive a 20% off of that 2nd game. It took about 0.5 sec for us to agree to that.

After that game (it was around 2:45 in the morning at this point), he offered yet another game, a third in a row for 30% off. We took him up on his offer and ended up leaving the store at 4 am. It was all worth it.

May I also mention that he was scheduled to start working at 7 am the same day. He admitted he was probably gonna take a 3-hour power nap.

This place deserves its 5 * and more. Anyone would...