X Space Escape

I am very upset with this business.
I bought a Groupon as a birthday present for my mom and a group of us (6 in total). I have been trying to contact XSpace at the phone number they provided and have left several voicemail messages but no answer and no call back. The Groupon expires in 10 days and my mom’s birthday has long passed. Their voicemail inbox is now full.

This place looks extremely «ghetto» and cheap from the outside. They just used some posters to cover up certain windows of a room to avoid the light from getting in. When you walk in, there’s a guy that is very laid back that just sits behind the counter on his computer.
We brought a Groupon for 6 people and it was already around $ 15 per person, which I find reasonable, but then upon redeeming it, we had to pay taxes for it which I felt quite surprised because other Groupon which I purchased previously and redeemed at other locations did not charge us taxes. So, ending up paying taxes, we each had to pay around $ 17-​$ 18 per person. Which wasn’t much cheaper because I believe the original price was $ 25 and Facebook discount was $ 5 or something like that.
You are given 2 free clues and anything after that you are automatically place on the wall of shame. You are given a walkie-​talkie to communicate and ask for clues.
There wasn’t much story to the room we were entering which was a little disappointing. The one we went into had 4 rooms, but only 8 puzzles in total which I thought was a little to simple. I was expecting moderate level difficulty for puzzles but more of them. We were given an hour to solve which we had 20mins leftover after having to with for him to come over to give us a clue and the technically difficulty of the puzzle itself.
There was one puzzle where we felt it was broke or we couldn’t solve and we spent 10 mins trying to get it to work and when we tried to ask for help, he told us it was solved and unlocked which we felt like it was quite a confusion and wasted much of our time. Other puzzles are straight forward and fun except for the last one where it was basically impossible to figure out because the hint that was given was not clearly enough to lead us in what way we must think to solve.
The design of the rooms were pretty nice but he props of the actually puzzles were cheap and easily found in the dollar store.
I would like to try out other rooms they offer but maybe not for the price that they normally charge because I don’t really feel it’s so worth it with so little puzzles.

I may be biased because we actually escaped!
Got the Groupon here. Thought it was worth the price we paid.
Yes, it’s a little «ghetto» compared to other Escape place I went downtown. There is yellow tape covering up some sections, items are kind of cheap, there is only 1 employee who supervises 2 rooms and he is pretty laid back, etc. But I’m okay with all that. I’m here for the puzzles… not for a date.
I preferred these clues to the other place that I went. They are more logic type clues, as opposed to some of the clues from the other place that were kind of random.
I do have a complaint, but can’t get into specifics, as that would reveal how to solve the clue. But basically one of my crucial pieces of evidence wasn’t «working», which cost us some time (they gave us an extra 5min, but we probably lost 10). That being said, we did escape.
I also liked that you can request clues. You can get 2 clues «free». If you get more than that, you automatically get your photo posted to the Wall of Shame.
I will probably return to try the other room.
Tip: don’t dress too warm if you are doing the Prison game. They turn up the heat really high

Without even having gone to any other room escape places I can likely tell this is «the ghetto option». everything seemed super cheap low rent styles. As an experience its fun to do room escape but I can almost bet there is many other places to try that are of a higher standard then this… Meh.

Some clues were questionable on how anyone would figure it out. Kinda low budget for the price we paid.
Under construction right now to build rooms, maybe not established yet?

I’m stunned at how bad and expensive this place was, even on a discount.
Zero ambiance.
Zero story.
Zero need for cooperation.
Heavy on the math problems.
The rooms were bare office space with little to no attention to anything close to theatre. There was varied levels of damage that were marked with yellow warning tape. Everything in the room was clearly bought during Halloween at the dollar store. I can’t imagine more than $ 20 worth of props were in the entire castle scene.
I would never go again, even if they paid me $ 100.
DO NOT GO!!!

There was 6 of us in the game and we thought that no one could ever figure out the last room without both the clues.
Need to try more escape games to really get a better idea of what to expect.
Oh ya fix the front door

I’ve done three room escapes in Toronto so far, and this was, by far, the worst yet.
The puzzles were bad: we faced either puzzles so simplistically easy, a colour-​blind toddler would solve them, or puzzles which, even when we were given the answer, made absolutely no sense what-​so-​ever. Most of the puzzles were just written on the walls in marker. Some of the locks were jammed, so that even when we figured out the combination they didn’t open.
The décor was awful, the rooms were basically empty with cheap dollar store decorations. We were told straight away not to mess with the decorations because they were only for show.
The staff left holes in the walls from wiring lights and didn’t bother patching them. This place has virtually no ambiance at all.
The lone staff member present seemed listless, and the hints he provided were either straight up the answer to the puzzle, or a meaningless step we had already discovered. We solved more puzzles through sheer luck (guessing the right answer for the wrong reason), than by following the mess of «clues» on the walls.
Room Escapes are amazing. If you have never done one, do one. Just not this one.

We came here for a friends birthday as a bunch of us wanted to try out one of these games and there was a pretty good Groupon deal, so why not?
It is an odd location, in the midst of an industrial area and almost at the back of the address given.
When I called to book a room, there was only one room available and it happened to be one of their hardest rooms: Plan x. Now, when you visit their website it looks like these rooms are going to be beyond awesome and totally detailed, not the case at all. When we entered the facility it was just white on white on white, white walls, no decorations and a real let down. Even when the staff member took us into the room there was just nothing really, two cabinets and some clues. I was a little put off by this and the game had barely begun.
The clues and the room? Bring those thinking caps, this was a douzy and we barely figured anything out without the help of staff. I could tell that the mojo of the event was slipping, we were just not getting into the game and when the staff revealed certain clues to us we were just blank gazes, seriously? They had a really cool laser maze that you had to climb through and that was awesome but it was our first game and I expected a sort-​of Sherlock Holmes detective experience but sadly that was not what we were given.
Even though the experience was pretty meh, I am not eliminating escape games from my future, they are a great idea and my group has some good laughs now that the frustration of failing has worn off, but hey you win some and you lose some. I don’t think I will be returning to this particular location, however I would love to try again, there are more of these games popping up all of the time! I would love something a little more detailed and some more effort into the decorations of the rooms, it would be cool if the rooms looked a little like what the website depicts.
Just a helpful hint: If you have not done one before ask for an easier room then what we had, it was just overwhelming for first timers, who had no idea what lurked behind that bland, white door.

Not really sure how to review this, but I’ll give it a shot:
My boyfriend and I bought a Groupon for a 1 hour room escape at XSpace. I should note that neither of us had been to something like this before, so we really have nothing to compare it to.
When we pulled in, we immediately noticed (and discussed) the lack of effort into the ambiance and décor of the place. It was very bland, with white walls, and nothing really exciting going on.
There are 4 rooms to escape from. We did the Forest one which is rated as their easiest room at ³⁄₅ difficulty level. The employee brought us to the Forest room, and explains the rules. We were locked in a room with flashlights, pens & paper, and the whole escape was comprised of three rooms. We needed to find clues to unlock the various doors to enter further into the «forest» and our eventual escape. I won’t give away too much about the clues/​puzzles but will still try to be as comprehensive as possible.
The first part of the escape was pretty easy. Not because my boyfriend and I are extremely smart, but because people who’ve completed the escape have left evidence of their escape/​how they did it. This kind of took away from the experience because we didn’t really have to put in much work. The answers were kind of just there.
The second part of the escape was much more challenging. We ended up having to call an employee for a clue (which you can do via a walkie-​talkie they provide). We started to make some connections, but unfortunately ran out of time.
Going into the escape, it was my understanding that if you fail, the employee takes you through it and shows you where you went wrong, and how to successfully complete the escape. When we were there, the employee quickly rushed us out, and told us that another group was coming so he had to clean the room. I was disappointed, since I would have liked to know the solution.
The décor of the place was also sub-​par. It looked as though it was decorated with dollar store Halloween decorations, held up by push pins and tape. It would have been much more effective if they had spooky music or cool, lit-​up décor. Also, while you’re in the escape room, you can hear the people in the lobby and people in other escape rooms talking. It’s actually quite loud. Again, this made the experience lose some effect, and seemed half-​assed.
Again, I haven’t been to another room escape place, so I don’t have much to compare to. But Groupon does currently have a sale on for another room escape place in Scarborough that I’d like to try. I think the concept of room escape is pretty neat, and I haven’t given up! I just doubt I’ll be returning to XSpace, but instead try a place that puts more effort into the ambiance and authenticity of the experience.