Colour heavy, plus one very frustrating moment
A secret intelligence agency has taken over your elevator and tasked your group of regular, plainclothes civilians with a mission. You’re being sent deep underground to investigate the labs of an evil weapons corporation who have been making dangerous and unexplainable advancements that threaten the safety of humanity.
Your mission: get in, grab the intel and get out without detection. Be careful and keep your wits about you – not everything is as it seems…
Our final game at Crypto Escape, after playing The Cursed Temple and Below Zero was The Extraction. Again we had heard a lot about it thanks to the TERPECA awards, but I must admit that other than its reputation we didn’t really know much about it.
Crypto Escape is a lovely venue with friendly staff, a comfortable waiting area, and little arcade machines to play while you’re waiting. We had stopped off before a day at Canada’s Wonderland as it wasn’t very far between the venues but unfortunately we only had time for three games so we had to be selective.
We had done ok in our team of three for the previous two games, so after a short hydration break, we were ready to go with The Extraction. Like the previous games, we were escorted down the corridor and then when we stepped into the room, the briefing videos began and we were on our own.
IMMERSION/ROOM DESIGN
If you’ve read our other reviews for Crypto Escape (The Cursed Temple and Below Zero) then it will come as no surprise to read that The Extraction had the same high level of set design. Right from the start we were immersed in this odd new world, and the effects used in the first area were particularly impressive.
The Extraction was a very narrative driven game as there was plenty of interaction along the way which was designed to move the story along with our progress. At times it meant a little waiting around while things happened, but the story did very much feel crucial to this game.
At times the noises in the game got very loud and became a bit of an assault on the senses, but for the most part there was just enough noise to help us block out the outside world and immerse ourselves in this one.
I would guess that this game could possibly be one of the less accessible games at the venue, but as long as one of your team is ok with a little crouching then I think you’d probably be ok. There were a lot of spaces to explore and plenty of back-and-forth between rooms.
PUZZLES
When we started our day at Crypto Escape, we started strong and really clicked with the puzzles in The Cursed Temple. Below Zero then felt more frustrating than fun at times, and The Extraction unfortunately for us continued our downward trend. I can see what people love this game, and a number of the puzzles were clever, but they really didn’t click with us, especially one of the latter puzzles which had us lose our will to live.
The puzzles were the usual escape room mix; observation, logic, colours, maths, pattern recognition, you know the drill. They all felt like the belonged in the theme but it’s worth noting that some of the puzzles were very colour heavy so colour blind players could struggle with some tasks.
I don’t know if we imagined it, or if it actually happened but it seemed like when we completed a task/puzzle, the lights in the room seemed to shut off and an auditory noise was played to signal that it was complete.
The puzzle that we didn’t like very much nearly caused our entire team to rage quit. After what felt like an eternity of trying to do something, the GM actually had to come into the room and point out something that we were missing. Knowing there was this extra item certainly made the puzzle make more sense, but we still hated it and it unfortunately tainted the game for us.
GM/CLUE SYSTEM
The clue system at Crypto Escape is slightly different to most places in that you can press a button in the room to request a clue at any point and it will then play a video to try and help you get back on track. If that doesn’t work, you can flip a switch to get help from the GM (more tailored help perhaps). We went to the extreme and I don’t recall why but the GM had to come into the room to give us a clue – never great when that happens.
The cool thing about Crypto Escape though is that the team victory/defeat photo is taken using a cool set up in the waiting area. I imagine a lot of groups would get quite a kick out of this and I’d love to see more venues introducing something like it.
ANYTHING ELSE
From what I remember The Extraction got the second most votes in the TERPECAs for a game at Crypto Escape and that’s probably fair. We didn’t get on with the puzzles, but the set design and story was pretty impressive. It’s hard to make a game that is perfect for everyone and I’d guess that many people will play this one and love the puzzles – each to their own.
Success / Failure
Final Rating:
Operation | |
Puzzles | |
Room Design | |
GM/Clues | |
Excitement |
Team: 3 players – escaped in 46mins
Address: 1220 Stellar Dr, Newmarket, ON L3Y 7B9, Canada
Website: https://cryptoescape.com/
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