The Office Job

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With giant signage, generous parking spots, and arrows that point right to the door, Oshawa Escapes was easy to find. The vibrant purple lobby contains an arcade machine that holds enough games to bring 80s nostalgia back to anyone who wants to play. The staff is incredibly friendly, but the area could be improved with more seats to enjoy the Netflix movies playing on the TV, or the beverages from the vending machine.

The furniture of The Office Job felt very much like it was lifted from a real CEO’s office. The wood desk and cabinets felt rich, solid, and well-constructed. The decorations felt very much like that of a CEO: serious, sparse, and practical. All the puzzles were neatly tucked away and would unfold beautifully from one area to another as the room unpacked. Every last square inch in the room was free for the players to explore, touch, and investigate. No wires, panels, or do-not-touch signs.

Through the solid decoration of the room, the players really do feel like they are rifling through a CEO’s belongings. Although there are bits and pieces of the story throughout, a majority of the story is only discovered towards the end of the room. The story of Oshawa Escapes really shines when multiple rooms are played, but The Office Job could be improved if the puzzles linked in more with the theme of the experience.

One of my favourite things about Oshawa Escapes has to be this: the puzzles are hand crafted with as much thought and creativity as the room itself. Not often have I come across rooms that use puzzle designs that I’ve never seen before; ones that required us to deduce to rules as we go along. The puzzles are original. They are not pulled from the internet and applied to fit the game. There is a wide variety of puzzles in The Office Job, enough that I recommend going with a larger group, and the puzzles vary in length and difficulty.

I loved Oshawa Escapes. To me, story-telling is the most enjoyable aspect of a room. It’s the aspect that stays with me long after I walk out the last door. Oshawa Escapes created more of an experience than just solving-puzzles-in-60-minutes. By having an overarching story that connects all of the rooms, they have added a new depth to interactivity and how stories can be told. What’s more is that it is done so well. Knowing that paying attention to detail will pay off makes all the written tidbits that much juicer. As a stand-alone game, The Office Job is a very straight-forward room with minimal surprises. The puzzles were original, which I loved, but some players may not. The game structure was linear but the puzzles were so plentiful that we were at no point bottlenecked.

At Oshawa Escapes, you get to live, breathe, and discover a mystery; one that doesn’t end even after you exit the room, and one that makes you want to go back for more. It’s a shame that other companies haven’t yet attempted such innovative storytelling. These rooms are made for the comic book readers, mystery binge-watchers, and sci-fi theorists. I’d recommend The Office Job to puzzle solvers, logic lovers, big groups, or small groups looking for a challenge.  Oshawa Escapes is the first company that has me eagerly waiting to return.