The Steampunk Express

Rating: 2/5 - Lots of tech with an interesting set, but too many things I disliked. Pros: ➕Good looking set with an interesting steampunk theme, decorated floor to ceiling. ➕Everything is tech, no padlocks. Tech is integrated well with some tactile and physical manipulation. ➕Multiple rooms to explore. ➕Ambient audio helped add to the immersion. ➕Non-linear puzzles, the entire team can stay busy. ➕GM was helpful when needed. Cons: ➖One puzzle involved a cool mechanism, but it malfunctioned and required the GM to enter the room to help. ➖Multiple memory puzzles and they don't provide anything to write with. I have a terrible memory when it comes to patterns and numbers and need to take notes. ➖It had two of my least favorite puzzle types, jigsaw and sliding blocks. I dislike these because you have no "aha" moment, you just need to do them so they feel like time wasters. ➖There was a computer that functioned as a runbook. I personally dislike this style of play since you have to keep going back to the computer to reference info, especially with nothing to write with. The fake software/GUI on the computer was also simulating a modern Chrome browser which clashed with the steampunk aesthetic (though the computer itself was decorated like steampunk). ➖Visible wear and tear, especially on the wooden props. This is especially noticeable after playing at Crypto who refreshes the props regularly so all their rooms look brand new. ➖One part of the room was completely undecorated and plain with a large, store-bought prop, this took away from the immersion. ➖The room and lobby were uncomfortably warm when we played, I was starting to sweat just standing around. GM confirmed their A/C was working but it was still too warm, they even had fans running in the room and in the lobby but they were blowing hot air around. For some reason their Wilshire room was much cooler. We completed the room successfully as a team of 3 enthusiasts. I recommend 3-5 due to the non-linearity. One person may need to crawl. My ranking of the rooms I played here starting with my favorite: 1. Grand Wilshire Hotel 2. Steampunk Express

This room was DIFFICULT. But man was the set design pretty and genuinely one of the best rooms I've ever been to. There were a few puzzles that were a tad longer than necessary I felt like (a few too many memory games) - and I feel like it's definitely not doable with 2-3 people as it's very involved and there are a lot of puzzles but still one of the most memorable escape rooms I have ever done. The ending was very heat racing. I think our group of 6 used no hints and finished with 13 seconds left 😂

Said to be the hardest room in Toronto and it didn't disappoint! Excellent set, lots of great puzzles, and solid flow with some elements of linearity and multi-linearity. Unfortunately for us, we chose to play it when the air conditioning was down (we were given the chance to cancel but went ahead with it anyway), and it was just absolutely brutal. The four of us still finished with 10 minutes to spare but did need a clue and a manual bypass (the puzzle had a slight technical fault but it was mainly because we were drenched in sweat and too hot and frustrated to bother figuring it out ourselves). Even with these conditions we still enjoyed the room and would recommend it to any team that enjoys a challenge!

That room was amazing!! Excellent immersion/atmosphere. Challenging with tons of puzzles, lots of technology which all seemed to be working well. Different variety of puzzle types with varying degrees of multi-steps. Loved it!

We took two extra minutes but we got out! The room is high production value and has a variety of puzzles. We enjoyed it overall with our group of 8. The narrative was cohesive and generally the puzzles made sense with the story.

Just wanted to say this room is HARD like you’re gonna need more than four people. As soon as you open up the second room it’s like all hands on deck, 4 didn’t feel like enough. We had to ask for a bunch of hints even though we are extremely experienced but WOW was it satisfying to solve one without a hint cause yall holy moly was this room difficult. I generally don’t like mechanical rooms but at least appreciated the milieu as well as a fun thing you get to do at the end

Very fun mechanics and many interesting and different puzzles to solve. Uses the theme well.

Even if you have played over 80 escape rooms, I guarantee you this will still have something new for you to discover. Our group is very experienced and we still would’ve needed an extra 5 mins to complete the game. The game master allowed us to keep playing to experience the entire narrative and puzzles which was a huge plus! We were the last group of the night and he knew how close we were to the end. I would not recommend this room to first time players because the puzzles will be too challenging and it will set the standard too high for future rooms when it comes to production value. Not all rooms are created equal. Save this room for escape enthusiasts who think they’ve seen and played it all.

Really fun experience with some cinematic set design. It worked so well as a game for enthusiasts. Our group had enough to do and it was challenging enough that we were stumped at some points. The game took us down to the wire but we had a great time!