Escaparium: The Forgotten Cathedral (Montreal)

This won’t be forgotten!

In the heart of Escaparium Laval’s massive complex nestles a mysterious monument classified as a World Heritage Site, forgotten for several centuries: an ancient cathedral. Escaparium was built around this characterful building that once served as a sanctuary for a now extinct cult. Archaeological excavations and restoration of the monument have been underway for several years now. This allowed us to make major discoveries on the history of the cathedral and on a certain cult that we name, “The Order”. Artifacts of rituals dating back centuries have been found and are currently being investigated. Come take the guided tour through the myths and legends of a forgotten past. A trip which you will never forget. (this is an escape game)!

Having just played, and been blown away by The Lost Island of the Voodoo Queen, and Wardrobe for Sale, we were suitably hyped for our third (not final as we had Magnifico’s Circus later) game at Escaparium, The Forgotten Cathedral which in 2023 was ranked number 4 in the TERPECAs.

We were staying in downtown Montreal so it took us a 50 min Uber to get to the venue (thanks Montreal traffic!), so it was for that reason we did three games mostly back-to-back. Forgotten Cathedral was the meat in the Wardrobe and Circus sandwich – the trifecta of awesomeness!

Building in a buffer between games meant that we had time between games to pop and play some miniature golf nearby, which was a good way to recharge our brains! When we returned to the lobby (which was being revamped due to a flood, and promises to be amazing) we were greeted by our host, Phil and escorted around to the archaeological dig.

IMMERSION/ROOM DESIGN

Escaparium are all about immersion and simply calling their games escape rooms feels like it’s doing them an injustice. There we’re no safety briefings and the mission briefing was woven so perfectly into the narrative that it felt like we were part of the story.

As I mentioned, Phil didn’t just take us into the room and tell us to escape, no, we were welcomed by another member of staff who showed us some of the items that had been found on the ‘dig’ and the backstory behind it all – beautiful.

The game moved seamlessly from an archaeological tour to ‘oh sh*t! Things have now hit the fan” and the transition was wonderful. The sense of awe once we first gazed our eyes upon the cathedral is something that I won’t forget in a long time, and that grand scale and beautiful attention to detail remained throughout our whole experience.

A lovely thing that Escaparium like to do is to run end credits to show everyone that was involved in bringing the experience to life. It was a lovely touch and brought a bittersweet end to our experience, but wrapped it up perfectly (and worked perfectly with the room reset).

It’s worth noting that The Forgotten Cathedral is not the most accessible of games. You will need to be comfortable going up steep ladders, and be able to do a little climbing/crawling. If this is an issue, it could be worth checking with the venue to see if there’s anything they can do to help.

PUZZLES

I could be mistaken, but when a game is so heavily driven by story it seems like they generally need to have the puzzles follow a very liner pattern. This is to stop you going off on something else and messing up the narrative. The Forgotten Cathedral felt very linear, which was a good thing as it helped focus us and properly take in the story (which is unusual for me).

In a game that is arguably a spectacle due to the set, puzzles can often take a backseat, but that wasn’t the case here. Each puzzle we solved felt like it belonged and was there to drive the narrative forward, and each one was a joy to solve.

The puzzles were varied, logical and fun, generally fitting into the broad groups of; communication, teamwork, observation, logic and pattern recognition. Communication and teamwork are certainly the key to success here, but thanks to great signposting and games mastering, everything comes together nicely.

Between the puzzles were what could best be described as cut scenes like in a video game. These served to help us know we had completed a puzzle correctly and also push the narrative forward and us onto the next task.

GM/CLUE SYSTEM

Phil, our games-master did an exceptional job and I’d hazard a guess that he was probably a trained actor too – it showed. The introduction was spot on, and help we needed throughout the game was delivered on cue and was enough to give our brains a slap to try something differently.

I don’t want to say too much about how clues were delivered by Phil, but suffice to say it was once again all about immersion and worked perfectly.

ANYTHING ELSE

I was going through my notes for this game and the words that seem to be repeated are ‘immersion’, ‘theatrics’ and ‘wow’, and to be honest that would sum up this review perfectly. Just play it, and be amazed.

I have a feeling this game will drop in the 2024 rankings but only because of the new game Escaparium, Magnifico’s Circus. This game was great, but Magnifico’s somehow blows it out of the water.

Success / Failure

Final Rating:

Team: 4 players

Address: 5545 Boulevard des Rossignols, Laval, Québec, Canada H7L 5S7

Website: https://www.escaparium.ca