Next Level Escapes: The Thompsons (Hamilton, ON)

One for fans of The Simpsons Thompsons

Nothing is okily dokily about the house next door. After receiving numerous threats, your neighbours decide to go into witness protection as, The Thompsons. The FBI has been watching their home closely, but they are still unable to uncover the culprit.

They fear the “Midnight Bandit” is aware the FBI is involved. The FBI approached you and your family with their plan, where you kindly asked, what can I ding-dong-diddily-do for you? So they asked you to go in, as their favourite neighbourino’s, to investigate, but you only have a one-hour window before causing suspicion.

You will need to look for any evidence that may lead you to the perpetrator that could help the FBI close this case.

Whenever we go away we always have a look to see what escape rooms are around. So, staying with a friend in Hamilton we decided to check out Next Level Escapes. We’d already played their Graveyard game and had a good time, so we popped back to try out The Thompsons (it was the only one that worked with timings).

Next Level Escapes is a bit of an odd place. For a start when you arrive you enter through a pharmacy – yes, a legitimate pharmacy. Even if the pharmacy is closed you can still enter the property as you walk through a pathway specifically created through it. Then it’s up a couple of flights of stairs and you arrive into the escape room’s lobby.

The lobby was pleasant enough, with toilets, lockers, and also some board games to help you pass your time. In reception we were greeted by our GM who I think was called Rachel, but I’m not 100% sure. After a quick chat, she led us down the corridor and into the room where the health and safety and mission briefings took place.

IMMERSION/ROOM DESIGN

If you’re a fan of The Simpsons, then this is the room for you. Obviously due to copyright laws, this can’t be called The Simpsons, but it is heavily inspired by the family favourite cartoon family and nothing in the room would feel out of place in a Simpsons’ episode (except us, maybe).

Not only was the set design full of whimsy and colour, but ambient noises and Simpsons inspired music was being played at all times. I’m sure if we were bigger fans of the show we would have picked up on a lot more nuances in the design, but as it was we still appreciated the fine details. The set itself was a mixture of physical items, and painted murals/decor on the wall.

The room was very open from the start and enabled us to explore a good chunk of 742 Evergreen Terrace. That wasn’t all though, there was more to this room than we expected and there were plenty of surprises along our road to freedom.

When you think of The Simpsons, you probably don’t think of darkness. Fortunately that’s the same in The Thompson. Lighting was never an issue and we could easily see everything we needed. Oh how we love a well lit room!

PUZZLES

The Thompsons had a good variety of puzzles and generally they resulted in some form of tech being triggered or a code for a padlock – the best of both worlds. We were also provided with a device for taking down notes, this came in very useful.

Unusually for us, we played as a team of three and despite the gaming being mostly linear there were a few chances for us to split up, but not that many so I probably wouldn’t want to play in a much larger team.

Puzzles revolved around all things ‘Simpsons’ but you certainly didn’t need any prior knowledge of the show to be able to play it. Searching (light), observation, logic, maths (simple), audio, and generally just following instructions.

One thing that is very much worth mentioning is that this game has a number of puzzles that rely heavily on the use of colour. So if anyone on your team is colour blind, then they may struggle at times.

I don’t know why, but this game didn’t click for us. It felt like we never really got into our flow, and signposting felt weak at times. With the help of the GM, we got through it, but at times it felt like we were wading through mud.

GM/CLUE SYSTEM

Like I said before, we struggled in this game so it felt like the GM became the fourth member of our team. When we needed help, we simply had to request it and the GM would chime in over a walkie-talkie. I don’t recall ever having to wait too long, so that was nice.

Just so we knew how long we had left to get the evidence, there was a timer in the room that showed how much time we had remaining.

ANYTHING ELSE

If you’re a fan of The Simpsons, then The Thompsons could be a winner. We didn’t gel with the puzzles, but that could just be us.

Success / Failure

Final Rating:

Team: 3 players – escaped in 43mins

Address: 1039 Upper James St Level #2, Hamilton, ON L9C 3A6, Canada

Website: https://nextlevelescaperooms.ca/