i-Exit

Bought my 7 years old son and boyfriend during March 2016 and did the Pirate Theme room. We loved it. My son was able to help us put clues together in each room we were in. The staffs provided excellent customer service to my son and made him feel part of the team. They even gave us an extra 5 min to solve the puzzle so we won. I diffinitely would recommend this place.

I really enjoyed this experience. I came with a large group of people, so large in fact that we had to be divided into three teams and set into different rooms. One of the parties with me kept insisting we ask for a hint, which was incredibly annoying because the rest of us actually wanted a challenge.
In the end, I was blown away by the intricacy of some of the puzzles and challenges. I thoroughly enjoyed working through the problems in the «Music Studio».
And yes, we beat it. Wasn’t really an escape — more of a treasure hunt with the reward of awesome music at the end. I’ll be visiting again to partake in a different challenge!

My boyfriend and I tried the Vegas-​themed escape room and we had SO MUCH FUN! This was my boyfriend’s second time trying an escape room and my first time. The room was challenging enough, but not impossible. It would totally appeal to people with different experience levels because there was enough variety (I won’t say any more!) I also appreciated that we were able to ask our host Rory up to 5 clues, but he made sure he didn’t give away too much each time. If we weren’t just in Vancouver for 2 days, I would come back to try all of the rooms! Thanks, Rory for showing us a great time!

The ‘Oscars’ was my first escape room experience. And today we just finished ‘The Matrix’, their newest room as of this writing. The owner was super nice, and easy going, he clearly was there to make sure everyone was to have a good time. I can only compare ‘The Matrix’ to the ‘Oscars’. So as for the rooms, I think they were both pretty difficult for two brains, and the matrix is more complex. With only one other room to compare, I can understand how some people might feel the rooms might be light on theme or decorated, but the puzzles worked well, and we really didn’t have time to appreciate the décor. One thing i liked about this place is that all the rooms are for 60 minutes, while other venues are almost always 45 minutes. I know longer is not necessarily better, but it just felt like we were getting a bit more time (which we needed for these rooms!). We completed Oscars in about 62 minutes, and the Matrix about 4 minutes to go. The owner said most people liked the pirate or casino room (easiest), and the ‘musical’ room was the least picked, i suspect due to the theme. I would highly recommend the Matrix, and you don’t need any musical training for the music room (perfect pitch or able to read notes won’t help you a bit).

For my first exit room experience I had a great time. It was nice to be helped along the way when needed, but I still felt accomplished.

I have a group of friends and I who have been through probably 9 – 10 escape rooms around the city together. We’ve seen a fair share of escape rooms, and we had gone to this one twice.
The first time, we went into the music themed room. Rated as the highest in difficulty, we had trouble with this room for sure. Clues weren’t intuitive and it became more frustrating than engaging. The storyline was only OK and we weren’t impressed. No cool gadgets or clues or tactics needed. Straightforward patterns and locks were all we found. We didn’t think we’d be back.
Enter Groupon #2, and we were again convinced to try a different room. This time, it was a pirate theme. I found the room a bit more engaging but quite easy. We finished with 30 minutes to spare! Décor in the room was so minimal and was quite weak.
Unfortunately the staff members didn’t seem very interested in getting us engaged into the storyline. I had even heard a couple of deep sighs of frustration from the staff member watching the other groups and giving the teams clues right before we went in as well. I don’t think we’ll be back again — Groupon or not.

Fairly experienced escap-​er checking in. We tried two rooms at i-​exit with two different groups, Oscar and the pirates room.
Oscar room was rated hard and pirates more for beginners.
Without giving too much away, the rooms were fairly scarce with a few props here and there. Seen better in different escape rooms.
There wasn’t much of a storyline to follow in either room, we would have liked to be more engaged by the staff and brought in the mood of the theme.
Based on our experience (have been to 10+ rooms, different ones around the city), we did not get our «escape fix» through I-​exit. If you are trying it, would recommend going on a Groupon type deal.

Have been to three rooms with my girlfriend. Great fun. Would strongly recommend the pirate or las Vegas room. The music room was a little more abstract than I would have liked.

5 of us tried the Vegas-​themed room and had a blast! I’ve been to quite a few of these escape rooms across the Lower Mainland (plus a couple in Edmonton & Toronto) and this one impressed with the range of puzzles and set design. It’s common at other places to fumble around in the dark with 1 lantern/​flashlight for every 2 people, but this one was refreshingly well-​lit and non-​horror themed. The staff mentioned the room has a 60% success rate (vs. 1−3% at other places), so it wasn’t overly difficult, but challenging enough that we ultimately used two of our five hints. You start off with a generous 4 hints and we got 1 extra for checking in on Facebook. Also, the 60 time limit is more than other places and even with a bonus 5 minutes for using a Groupon, we escaped with about 3 minutes remaining. Mind you, my friends brought their baby with us and the baby carrier inadvertently covered up a vital clue that cost us about 15 minutes of floundering around.
There was some really clever (and logical) puzzle design that wasn’t just an endless series of combination locks. The Vegas-​theme was well incorporated and the end puzzle for breaking out was glorious. The regular cost at $ 30 a pop is a little steep for my tastes, but if you can find a Groupon or similar deal for the place, it’s worth checking out. I’d definitely go back and I’m curious about the newly opened Matrix-​themed room.

We love it! We played about 30 different rooms at various places and this is one of our favourites! The puzzles make sense and were fun to solve, and all of their locks are eletrical or mechanical and their build is very well thought out. My favourite room was the Vegas room, it kinda felt like you really went to Vegas :)

I have never experienced an escape room before, but my boyfriend and I had a great time at this particular one! I like how the clues and puzzles were difficult but not so difficult that we weren’t able to finish the game. Granted, the gentleman at the front desk was extremely patient and helpful with his clues. If our stay wasn’t so short, I would definitely be begging my bf to do one of the other rooms!

The Party at the Studio room at i-​Exit is the 6^th location and 8^th room that I’ve done.
Kind of hard to review for me. I found this similar to Smartypantz in that I can’t actually fault the room or staff, but for whatever reason, I didn’t find the room very enjoyable. I bumped up to a 3 star because the staff was really friendly and tried very hard to make it a good experience for us.
Theme– finding a hidden Oscar (explained as an Oscar for score writing, which clears up the ‘why isn’t it a Grammy?’ question) in a music studio. Most puzzles and props stuck to the theme/​storyline well.
Production Quality– pretty decent. Everything felt pretty realistic. As noted in other reviews, no timer inside the room, though they gave you a heads up every 15 minutes via walkie talkie.
Puzzles– here’s the tough category to review, since it’s so subjective. The puzzles were logical and stuck to the theme well enough, but everything seemed to have just one extra catch that required us to use a hint. Frustrating. Hard to explain without giving spoilers, but I will say that for at least three of the puzzles, when the hint was explained, our first reaction was «But we did that already!!» and then it would turn out we didn’t quite go far enough. So we were often on the right track but abandoned that line of thinking because there was an extra layer and no feedback to tell us we had at least partially solved something. Technically we solved the room, with the 4 hints and 5 extra minutes included in the Groupon, but we had to be nudged for just about every puzzle, and that was extremely unsatisfying.
Staff– really good. Very friendly and helpful. Seemed concerned that we have a good time.
Pricing– we used a Groupon, but regular price is $ 30 per person for 1 hour. And if you have less than 6 people you have to pay a surcharge to book the room as private, otherwise they can put another group with you. They’re the only establishment I’ve been to so far that does this for a group of 4. Even with the Groupon we ended up paying just over $ 100 for the 4 of us to play on our own.
I feel like this is coming off like I hated the room because we were too dumb to solve it, but I’ve also been in rooms where we were unsuccessful but still had a great time (Locked– Asylum and Lockdown– Prison Detective come to mind). Bottom line though, is that we didn’t have fun. Between that and the pricing structure for booking out the room privately, I probably won’t return.
Overall experience/​fun:
1. Guess HQ
2. Lockdown Richmond
3. Locked Canada Kingsway
4. Smartypantz Gastown
5. i-​Exit
6. Exit Canada Broadway
Theme/​Production Quality
1. Guess HQ (by a landslide)
2. Lockdown Richmond
3. Smartypantz Gastown
4. i-​Exit
5. Exit Canada Broadway
6. Locked Canada Kingsway
Puzzle Quality:
1. Locked Canada Kingsway
2. Guess HQ
3. Lockdown Richmond
4. i-​Exit
5. Smartypantz Gastown
6. Exit Canada Broadway

[Oscar-​Nominated]
I’m a sucker for room escape games. I can’t get enough. It’s been over a month without being locked in a room and I was itching. Fortunately, i-​Exit (not to be confused with E-​Exit) had a 6-​player Groupon available so off I went with friends in tow. I-​Exit occupies the second floor of a 2-​storey building on the edge of the entertainment district. At the time of booking, there were three themes available to us — we opted for the music studio where we had to find the missing Oscar (shouldn’t it be a Grammy?). We were given a total of 6, (yes, 6!) hints since we had the Groupon plus we all checked in on Unilocal.We ended up using three and the 6 of us managed to escape this room with plenty of time to spare. So why only 3 stars?
Let’s start with the good:
Puzzles — These were well done and logical. There wasn’t anything fiendishly difficult that forced you use a hint. Many of our hints were a result of the 6 of us not communicating.
Time and Hints — You’re given 60 minutes unlike the usual 45 in the many other urban dungeons. They’re generous with hints so if you’re new at this (or haven’t had your coffee), you’ll be fine. Communications for hints is done through a 2-​way radio (although there are microphones in the room).
Now for the bad:
Lack of a room timer — The one thing I value is being able to keep track of progress and to time our hint-​usage. It’s fortunate I had a watch or we may have used up the majority of the time stuck on a single puzzle.
Prop quality — While the décor and props were appropriate for the theme, it felt a little tacky. Like stuff from the early 90’s that were obtained through Craigslist type of tacky.
Cost — At a regular price of $ 30 per person (we paid $ 19/​person with our Groupon) i-​Exit may very well be the most expensive room escape in the city.
At the moment, i-​Exit doesn’t make it into my Top 5 as a room escape game. Despite this, it’s still great fun in a convenient location and it’s worth a try — but only with a Groupon.

A-​okay
First of all, I really liked how all the themes at this place are non-​scary. However I do feel like we would’ve enjoyed the game more if we had a timer. We didn’t know how much time was left, therefore whenever we get stuck, we asked for a hint. In the end, we had 22 minutes left. The glues and locks are really well designed, which was awesome. The staffs are very friendly and professional. This place would be 4 stars if there was a timer…

My friend and I are escape room regulars and we have tried many different companies in the Vancouver area. However i-​Exit downtown is by far our favourite. The staff are friendly, and the rooms offer a type of problem solving different from any other company around. The detail and creativity in the rooms had us so excited after our first visit that we came back the next day. The first theme we tried was the Pirate theme. It worked well for two people but could definitely be attempted with more. The next day we came back for the Oscars room and we were blown away by the technology built into the room. Amazing! We are coming back for Vegas and we can’t wait for the Matrix theme to be released! They have a happy hour deal Mon-​Thurs from 3pm-​5pm where each player pays only $ 15.75. If you are looking for rooms that are more interactive and less mathematical-​based than average, i-​Exit is the place to go.