Crypto Escape: Below Zero (Newmarket, ON)

Choose wisely…

You are among the last survivors of humanity, frozen away by Ellipsis until the world outside is once again habitable. However, your group has been woken up years ahead of schedule by the system’s AI to repair some mysterious damage to the facility.

The last remnants of humanity are frozen along with you and it’s your responsibility to keep the power levels high enough to ensure their survival.

Your path to survival will contain difficult challenges and even more difficult choices.

The fate of humanity rests in your hands.

We were in the area for Canada’s Wonderland (it’s kinda the same area) so decided that we had to check out some of the games by Crypto Escape as we had read good things. A few of their games were also nominated for various awards like the TERPECAs and REA’s Golden Lock Awards, so even more incentive to give them a try.

Unfortunately we didn’t have much time and could only fit in three games so we had to be selective about which ones we played. We chose; The Cursed Temple, Below Zero, and Extraction.

When we arrived we were greeted by two very enthusiastic gamesmasters – a good first impression. We were also very impressed with their lobby. Ice creams, soft drinks, and snacks were on sale, there were also little arcade games, and plenty of space to wait in. Then there was their device for team photos – but more on that later…

Our GM (whose name I have forgotten) showed us down the corridor to the entrance to Below Zero and then once inside we watched a video that covered health and safety and also our mission briefing. Once that was over, we were ready to try and save humanity. Oh and unusually for us, we played this as a team of three.

IMMERSION/ROOM DESIGN

If there is one thing that really stands out at Crypto Escape, it would be their set design. It really is top notch and they put a lot of effort into how things look. Considering we were on a spaceship that was experiencing issues, you’d be forgiven for expecting the game to be dark. Although it was dark in places, it was never actually an issue and lighting was used in a way to keep our attention focussed in one location, whether that be to solve a puzzle or simple follow the story.

Story was integral to this game, and the puzzles were intertwined with our mission and each thing we completed help drive the narrative forward. Especially thanks to the input of BERT.

Sound was also integral to this experience as at all times there were ambient noises playing to help convince us that we were indeed on a spaceship. At times the game got loud, very loud and this certainly made it harder to communicate with teammates, but it also helped up the adrenaline and drove us forward with a sense of urgency.

This was a very tech heavy game with no padlocks at all. If you want to play a game where you don’t need to be twiddling dials on padlocks, and want the mystery of ‘what happens if I put this there’, then this is the game for you.

PUZZLES

As I’ve mentioned, puzzles were very much integrated into this game, so much so that it didn’t feel like we were solving puzzles for puzzles-sake, but that we had tasks to complete to ensure the success of our mission. I’ll say it again for those in the back, this game has no padlocks.

I don’t know what it was about this game but I wasn’t a huge fan of the puzzles/tasks. For me, personally it felt like there was a lot of repetition and at times I just got a bit bored of them. Especially as some also had time constraints that meant if you didn’t complete them in time then you had to keep on trying.

The puzzles generally involved following instructions, pattern recognition, teamwork, communication, logic, and at least one puzzle involving colour. Fortunately the puzzle that did involve colours used very distinct and separate colours so colour blind people would hopefully be ok with it.

I’m pretty sure that one puzzle normally requires four players to make it work, but we didn’t have to worry about that as we had a Griff. In case you’re wondering what a Griff is, it’s a person who is around 6ft 7in and has very long arms. A Griff is a useful person to have on your team, especially if you need a bird’s-eye view of things.

GM/CLUE SYSTEM

The clue system at Crypto seemed to be the same throughout their games. If you needed help, you could request it whenever you wanted by pressing a button in the room which would then play a video on the screen to help guide you back on track. If the videos didn’t help, then you could flip a switch and request more help from the games master.

There was no timer present in this room, so with the loud music pumping up your adrenaline it was really hard to know how much time you had left to complete everything.

This feels like the best place to talk about the team photos too, as it is normally the GM who does these. Crypto used one of the best systems I have ever seen for this. Instead of someone taking a photo of you, there is a device in their lobby that you use yourself. You simply select the border you want (normally the one for the game you just played), strike a pose, then you have the photo emailed directly to you – perfect.

ANYTHING ELSE

Set design was once again superb. Crypto Escape have really mastered the art of building escape rooms. We found the puzzles got a little repetitive at times, but we still enjoyed Below Zero and it’s worth playing just for the tech and the experience.

Success / Failure

Final Rating:

Team: 3 players – escaped in 41mins

Address: 1220 Stellar Dr, Newmarket, ON L3Y 7B9, Canada

Website: https://cryptoescape.com/