LOCATION: North York, Ontario, Canada
Photo above is property of Escape Games Canada
📝 ETR DECODER
🔑 GAME: Pathogen
📅 DATE PLAYED: March 18, 2023
🎬 GENRE: Sci-Fi, Spy, Dystopian
🧠 DIFFICULTY (Based on 4 Players): 7/10
👥 TOTAL # OF PLAYERS: 4-8 PPL
🕒 LENGTH OF TIME: 60 Mins.
💰 PRICE: CAD $33.63/PP
☎️ BOOKING TYPE: Private
🔓 ESCAPED/ COMPLETED?: YES
📖 THE STORY
In a futuristic dystopian war, the world consists of large corporations out to make a profit. You have been hired to break into one such corporation, Talon, that hides up at the 300th floor of their headquarters a deadly pathogen that threatens the world. You must enter the lab undetected…paying attention to the state of the art security system that is VERY sensitive. Can you navigate this lab and find a way to prevent this deadly virus from consuming the world? Your every decision will affect the lives of many…
Video above is property of Escape Games Canada
🎯 HIT THE BULLSEYE
The futuristic set design was unique and visually pleasing. The open room helped really set the scene and the use of screens added to the theme and story; you felt truly immersed in this dystopian world. I also appreciate the use of space to create dynamics in the room with climbing and crawling. As the game progressed the room continued to evolve and our group had fun with these physical tasks.
The multiple different endings creates a fun challenge and lends themselves to very satisfying endings. I appreciated how much nuance there was to the decision making as it helped build the tension.
The different styles of puzzles ensure all players have a variety of tasks to dive into from logic, pattern recognition, decision making, and more. At the same time there were puzzles I hadn’t seen before that heightened the experience with tension and pacing. Our group found dividing into two groups in order to focus on puzzles that best suit our styles.
The collaboration in this game was top notch - our group had plenty of fun working together to move through the game.
🧩 MISSED THE MARK
One puzzle is terminated by a timer if you don’t finish by a specific time to push your forward. Our team wished we could have had more time to focus on it.
When groups divide up they can easily miss stories/videos with little time to tell fellow group members what’s going on.
Quite a few puzzles relied on working with a screen. We would have liked a few more hands on puzzles.
🏹 TAKE A SHOT?
"Pathogen" offers players a futuristic collaborative adventure that offers players all different skills set to truly dive into a heist. There are a lot of fun additions that help build a sense of place and time. There was tension, a sense of importance, and some challenging puzzles to keep you going. Escape Games, as a whole, consistently created vivid and colourful rooms that draw in players and Pathogen in no exception. I am eager to explore more of their games in the future!
ℹ️ ADDITIONAL INFO
Additional Info: Parking is available in front of the store. Photo booth is available to take victory photos. No seating is provided in the main lobby.
Photos above are property of Escape Games Canada
(If you do decide to try this game, give us a shoutout or tag us on social media so we know you heard it from "ESCAPETHEROOMers"!)
Disclosure: We thank Escape Games Canada for offering us a media discount for our tickets to this game. Although a media discount was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever.
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