EXIT Canada

I have mixed feelings about this place. I like the idea and was looking forward to a new challenge and experience… but it was definitely different than what I expected. First of all, we had signed up for one room, but when we arrived, we were told that it’d be better to do a different room instead since we only had two people. Trusting they knew what would be best, we went with their recommendation. However, it was hard to understand the goal of the rooms or instructions of what we could or could not do… especially since the staff, while friendly, were a little young, so explanations were ambiguous and vague, and it was also hard to hear since the rest of the staff were laughing and socializing so loudly nearby. My friend and I only got into the second room, mainly because we were following what we thought we heard the directions to be and again, we were distracted by hearing the staff socialize in the next room — I think we wasted about 35 minutes in the first room because of it — and it was a little frustrating to realize in hindsight… especially for an experience we paid $ 30 for…
In the future, I think it would be helpful to patrons if staff would be silent while people are in the same room receiving instructions or are in a room nearby since sound travels very easily there and can disrupt people’s experiences /​ability to concentrate.
Wouldn’t mind trying this another time if there’s a groupon or a special or had a slightly larger group. Personally, I think the price is a little high for what you get though.

There’s quite a lot of choice in escape rooms around Metro Vancouver these days. As a new experience in itself, Exit in Richmond is a lot of fun. It’s a great collaborative activity (you definitely want to bring 4 others) with a sense of achievement for each puzzle solved. But in comparison to newer escape rooms, Exit has fallen behind.
The rooms aren’t as immersive as those elsewhere. Mostly blank with just a few props which are either necessary or heavily labelled not to touch. And the puzzle chains are very linear. If you’re stuck on one, your whole team is stuck. Other companies have tackled this by offering several concurrent puzzles utilizing different skill sets. Difficulty is a relative concept; we got stuck several times in Lost Ship but managed to move on and appreciated the ingenuity of the puzzles. However eventually we got stuck on an element so complicated that it took several minutes to explain to us at the end of the game. It was a step over ‘difficult’ into ‘obtuse’
Given all these experiences around Richmond and Vancouver, are roughly the same price, Exit wouldn’t be my first recommendation in its current form.

A great place to exercise some teamwork and get to know each other better! I have been twice with two different groups of people and it was very interesting to see how this interactive game really highlights people’s thinking and work styles.
When I first heard of the real-​life escape room it already piqued my interest, and upon further research it seemed like a super cool and fun addition to the activities in the Vancouver scene. The themes for the different rooms themselves were really compelling, ranging from historical haunts like Ancient Egypt to modern thrills like Prison Escape.
I really love how each room really reflects the theme, and you really feel as if you are in fact trapped in whatever theme that you have chosen. It is also helpful to have an idea of the difficulties of each themed escape, because it helped my group decide how much of a challenge they were willing to face. The clues were thought-​provoking and required a lot of thinking outside-​the-​box.
Although I lost both times that I went, it was a lot of fun trying to solve the puzzles and attempting to «break free.» It was such a refreshing, distinct experience, and was a nice hour break from the real world. I would definitely go again, especially as a team ice breaker!

So me and a few friends decided to try Exit after several other attempts at other escape rooms. Now the service is quite poor and I feel they are only in it for the money. Now be sure to be early because they threaten you by saying they will start the timer to your game if you are late. The puzzles are either to complicated or malfunctioned because even if you get the right answer the lock sometimes is jammed.
As I stated before the service is poor; if something is jammed like a lock for example and you ask for help they count fixing the lock as a hint. The room i did was the prison escape. For most of the time half the team had to sit and do nothing cause all the clues were in one cell.
*tip* if you’re short don’t do the prison escape!!!
Pros:
— décor (alright, seen better)
Cons:
— service (attendants had an attitude problem)
— puzzles were to complicated
— pretty expensive compared to other escape rooms
Wouldn’t recommend this place for beginners. There are many other escape rooms in Richmond that are way better then this place.

This is a relatively fun activity in Vancouver if you are looking to look for clues in a dark room and solve difficult puzzles.
Your group go into a room that is decorated with different theme and you try to escape the room– Not very convicing especially when there’s NO storyline attached to it whatsoever. One clue leads to the next, and the clues are pretty cryptic and random so you definitely need some sharp people on your team. (I contribute by searching the room for clues) Even though the feeling of solving clues gives you a sense of accomplishment, I am never really convinced at the illusion of the rooms because of the tacky and cheap décor. To add insult to the injury, bold yellow signs that say «DO NOT TOUCH– $ 1000 FINE FOR DAMAGE» are plastered everywhere :(And why do they give you only two dim lamps, something I can’t comprehend. Also, as someone else said, this place focuses on numeric-​based puzzles, which I was not stoked about.
On the good note, the staff helps you in seconds after you ask for help, which I thought saved this place. If you want to escape, expect to have to re-​play the room (This I believe is part of the scheme) because the puzzles are so darn difficult.

I’ve been meaning to try one of these games for a couple of years now. And I’m so happy to start it off here with «The Lost Ship». The music was sort of eerie, but I soon forgot about it entirely as we rushed to solve the puzzles. 45 minutes went by in the blink of an eye. We made it rather far for a first attempt, but still ended with an «F». But honestly, I would not have gotten far alone… at all XD Oh well… It was totally worth the $ 25/​person.
Playing in person is so different from playing online escape games… I think the time constraint, lack of paper and pencil and limited light sources makes a huge difference.

Honestly, the biggest waste of money. The puzzles are virtually impossible and horrible directions.

As this was our first go at the escape experience, my sis, niece, cousin and I were stoked. We reserved for our group of 4 online and were told we wouldn’t be joined by stragglers.
However, when we arrived, 2 strangers were assigned to us *shrug*
It’s unfortunate that they were not a good match for us, as they weren’t so good with the sharing of items or idea generating. C’est la vie!
Unfortunately, one problem was solved early on but due to a technical malfunction we couldn’t move forward. We didn’t know this until the employee came in at the end and saw where we’d gotten stuck. 63% of the way through with broken clues isn’t so bad :)
I’d like to give this type of entertainment another shot at different location. I’m a creative type so all the numeric-​focused puzzles didn’t really do it for me. I’ve heard that other rooms and other businesses doing the escape game schtick focus more on vocabulary, visual, and pattern-​based problems.

Exit Canada was very interesting and we had fun, but unfortunately, our room had issues after 30 minutes and we literally just stood there wondering what to do. (We did not call the staff because at this point, we weren’t sure if the room had problems or not)
The staff here are very courteous and helpful, but we were confused why our room was not functioning properly and why the staff did not bother to fix it even though there were complaints about it before. I really don’t want to give away anything, but basically, there’s a box somewhere in one of the rooms and it’s obvious that you have to use a certain item to open the box. We tried several times but it wouldn’t open!
Eventually, we just gave up and waited for the game to end. We then told the staff member that we managed to obtain the item, but could not go any further. At this point, we were confused because she walked up to that particular box, and started trying to open it. Guess what? It didn’t work for her either. After trying 8 or 9 times, the box eventually opened for her, but since we weren’t sure ourselves, we had only tried 4 times! We felt completely ripped off because we wasted so much of our time and if they had made the box properly in the first place, we could have probably gone much further.
I’m not sure if I’ll ever come back to EXIT again since there are so many options out there now and it’s really unfortunate that they managed to make our experience so disappointing. (There are a few other Unilocalers who experienced this as well)

Puzzles were impossible, far too difficult to be really fun. Unfortunate. The clues were the only things that allowed us to progress at all. Wish they would allow us to stay for longer but I guess they need to pull in more people at $ 25/​person to keep up profits…

I’ll get the good out of the way first;
It’s a novel experience and we found the Egyptian room to cater nicely for two people. The challenges in said room tended to center around combination locks and the riddles were pretty clever if a little repetitive. Having never done something like this outside of web based flash games; it was neat trying it for the first time.
Now for the reason why I only gave it two stars. At one point, something in our room broke and didn’t work for us. It was one of the last challenges before escaping the room and when they came in to tell us we were out of time, we showed them how far we’d gotten and they asked us about the broken puzzle which we hadn’t solved. When we demonstrated that we did know the answer, but that the tool provided had failed to open, they tried it too and failed to make it work; at which point they apologized and ushered us out as they had to prep it for the next group.
Things go wrong; it’s to be expected and we still had fun. Frankly, there’s little way to stop situations like these without someone watching us like a hawk to say ‘oh, you did the right thing but clearly something broke. Let me just unlatch that for you’. That’s completely understandable, but the part that bothers me is the service when the staff themselves said ‘oh, I guess this is broken’.
I asked if they’d let us run through a different room for free then and they said an outright no; and they were hesitant to hand us a discount when we voiced how disgruntled we were at the room being broken (although they did eventually agree to give us one the next time around when some other customers came in behind us).
(In hindsight; a good middle solution may have been to ask them to unlatch the puzzle that was broken, and give us 5 more minutes; but by then we’d all been soured by their outright refusal to help make the situation right that we probably wouldn’t have taken them up on it)
So in short, I think its fun and on the provision that everything works for you. The staff either lack the authority or the willingness to help complete an experience, and at $ 25 a person; there are probably other things you can find to do with your time (I hear good things about Freeing Canada; which is another escape room in Richmond).

[Prison Riot]
It’s been a little while since my last escape escapade so I was excited when a group of coworkers wanted to unleash their inner Houdini. We decided on the prison escape theme which is a 4 out of 5 star difficulty. For the uninitiated, theme rooms at Exit are amongst the most difficult in the city. This one was tough and if you were wondering, we got 70% the way through.
As always, I won’t go into specifics of the room. There were quite a number of various lock types and unusual puzzles to solve — most of which required some out-​of-​the-​box thinking but extremely satisfying if achieved. I wouldn’t recommend this Alcatraz escape for first timers as it does require a bit more teamwork than other puzzle rooms. Exit’s puzzle rooms have arguably the most intricate props in the city and this prison room is no different. Highly recommend for the seasoned escape artist.
PS. See my previous reviews for other puzzle rooms.

So much fun!
I went with three friends and we did the ship room. We didn’t solve the mystery but it was still tons of fun.

This was a great team building experience.
Well run and organized.
You need to work as a team and don’t over think.
We had 4 teams and no one was able to escape.
Hopefully we can try this again.

I went to this with a few friends, thinking the concept sounded interesting. I had been in other immersive environment games before, and figured it would be fun.
We did the ‘ship’ room, so others’ mileage may vary.
For the 4 of us, it was $ 100, and in my mind, not remotely worth the money. The puzzles felt like they were stripped from some horrible Dan Brown fan fiction. They had no relevance to the plot of the room (what little there was), with the clues and solutions very tenuously connected. The décor was underwhelming and seemed pretty cheap too. Apparently we got quite a bit further than average for out first try, but we had the distinct impression that they give you inadequate time to increase the chance of failure and make you pay to try again.
At their best, these kinds of businesses can remind you of games like Myst or scenes from something like Saw. However our experience there gave me the impression that they are trying to make as much money with as little investment or creativity as possible.
Take the money you’ll pay for this, spend it on some bottles of booze, and go make riddles with friends in a forest or something. You’ll have a way better time.

I’m a big fan of solving riddles. I also love puzzles. I’ve always wondered if there was a way to take my love for these things and put them together in a live action, first person experience. Then Exit came along. Evidently they have been doing this for a while in Hong Kong, but the concept was new to me.
Exit is a an interactive escape game. It’s incredibly cool! They have a selection of four rooms for you to choose from: The Lost ship, The Egyptian Tomb, Prison Escape and The Laboratory. Once you’re locked in the room with up to 5 of your friends, you have 45 minutes to figure out how to escape. You get two hints from the staff during the 45 minutes and there are locks, keys, combinations, clues, puzzles and riddles. Solve them all and you just might get out!
I’ve been to Exit twice now and I had two very different experiences. The first time I went, I tried «Prison Escape». Boy, was I not ready for this. I didn’t get one lock opened. Not one! I failed to find one big clue that would have really helped. Also, I forgot about the staff hints… *cough* Did that stop me? No way. I tried again. The next time I tried «The Laboratory» (the hardest one). Though I didn’t escape this time either, I solved 6 of the 9 steps to getting out. It was a rush! When you figure out what one of the clues means and apply that to one of the locks… and it opens… What a great feeling.
I would recommend Exit to anyone who loves to be challenged mentally, and who works well in a group setting. Sometimes it’s just you and your friends, other times you’re grouped with people you don’t know. Go back again and again until to solve all of them. What’s that? Only $ 25?!? Worth it!

The place is in the middle of nowhere, Richmond.
For the amount of money I payed for admission, I was expecting a little more.
It’s a unique concept, don’t get me wrong — I had a fairly good time.
We did the Lab — The hardest level one on our first try.
The clues seemed to be created by some schizophrenic genius/​video game nerd, leading to myself thinking «Hey, wait a sec.» hours later…
(I’m pretty sure I’ll still have random epiphanies in the days to come.)
Over all, it seems like a cool concept though.
A lower admission price would be favorable.

My team did not successfully get out of the Lab theme (apparently it is the most difficult theme out of all the other themes).
What I loved:
The décor and props were AWESOME.
The sound effects were very effective and fit very well with the theme
All of us were very engaged and tried to decode the puzzles and clues as best as we could.
When 45 minutes were over, we all wanted to go back and do it again so that we could complete it successfully
The hints provided were helpful, and definitely needed in order to proceed
What needs to be improved:
The instructions weren’t very clear (it was our first time going in) When the host said not to worry about the ‘warning’ signs, we thought it meant we shouldn’t touch anything that had ‘warning’ signs. Which isn’t the case.
2 flashlights amongst a group of 6 made the activity extremely difficult.
There was a cd that we played; half of it was mumbled, and was difficult to understand, so I think we didn’t really get half of the clues offered on the cd

«Do you want to play a game???»
Just kidding. It’s not that terrifying at all. But it is like playing out a real-​life video game or being in a movie. I love the concept and set-​up, definitely a unique experience. You’re lead into a room that’s based on 4 themes that you can pick from — Lost Ship, Ancient Egypt, Prison and Laboratory.
You’re given 45 minutes to solve the puzzles and escape! Without a starting point, it’s quite difficult to know what to do. I suggest you use a hint early-​on to get a feel for the game.
It’s exhilarating when you make progress! And it’s fun to de-​brief the process afterwards.
You need to make a reservation in advance, either online or call them.
They suggest starting with their first theme on their website, Lost Ship — it’s the easiest difficulty level. We didn’t know this and booked Egypt instead, no real regrets.
I went with a group of 4 which I feel was perfect. 6 might be a bit cramped & chaotic.
I only wish they’d offer some kind of discount for repeat customers as the price point is quite high for 45 minutes of entertainment.
¹⁰⁄₁₀ would play again!

Calling all Sherlock Holmes, Indiana Jones, CSI detectives, or just anyone who fancies a challenge for their noggin… EXIT Canada will be a treat for your brain and friends!
Before you arrive, make sure to call and reserve a time slot and also pick the adventure you want to partake in. You can choose from several themes: Laboratory Escape, Prison Escape, Ancient Egypt, and The Lost Ship.
You are first greeted by staff who will explain the rules, you are given two lamps which are your light sources, then you enter a door where you’re locked in and you have 45 minutes to figure out clues in the room that will lead you to your escape/​survival! Beware claustrophobic ones! And no worries punctual ones, there’s a timer in the room so you know exactly how much time you have left. All the clues will lead you to being one step closer to escaping (so no violence or breaking things required)!
My friends and I tried the Ancient Egypt room. Equipped with real sand, walls with Egyptian symbols, skeletons and a tomb (if you can figure out the first room). Those 45 minutes went by QUICK! You’re instantly entombed (pun intended! hehe) in your task and you’re bouncing off ideas to your friends and searching the room like crazy.
I’ve never been a part of anything like this before, blood racing to the brain, heart pumping with excitement and eyes frantically trying to figure out the clues.
Sadly, we couldn’t escape. Apparently it’s quite the difficult feat for all the themes they offer and not many have been successful. We were left with «what if’s» and «if only we had more time». After a «Fail» sign photo, we left but lingered around as we all discussed and chatted about what had all transpired in those 45 minutes — our breakthroughs and defeats and how we wanted to go back for more.
This is highly addictive because you want to figure it out and receive that pride of escaping that room! You just want to keep testing yourself! It’s too bad it’s a little pricey, it was around $ 25/​person for my group of 6. But the adventure was worth it!
Looking forward to my next EXIT! Are you up for the challenge too?