Station M

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World War II may be over, but something is going on in the dark tunnels of Casa Loma as the upper-class of Toronto celebrates above. Get ready to discover Station M and embark on a journey with many twists and turns.

The lobby of this experience is not typical of escape games. It’s hosted within the halls of Casa Loma, a historical landmark that is used for tours and events by day and only set up for escape rooms by night. While this location is very easy to find (check any tourist map!), the waiting area is not set up to entertain. You can take some time to look at posters of movies that were filmed in the castle, or take a sip from the water fountain, but this is an escape room experience that won’t begin with refreshments and board games in the lobby. What was exciting about the pre-room experience, however, was the pre-room videos. Not only were the videos entertaining and well-made, but (spoiler alert) you get to watch them INSIDE the old pool. Storytelling is definitely one of the strengths of this company.

The room itself was incredibly designed and dressed. Of course, it has the benefit of being in an atmospheric castle, but that’s not the only thing that makes this room grandiose. Everything from the props to the furniture looked as if they were meant to be in a post-war setting, including the clues! Without ruining too much about the pieces involved, I will just say that this room was expertly curated. An additional bonus is that the room was spacious enough for our large group of 12, and there was plenty of space to work and solve. The only improvement, in our opinion, would be to dress the fans and humidifiers to fit in thematically.

The creators of this room are evidently experts at immersion. The in-room actor was a true professional, staying in character the entire time and adding story points and hints when required. All of the clues and puzzles fit thematically into the story. As I said before, the props and furniture helped bring to post-war theme together. In-game media is utilized to move the story along and every instance of this technique adds more and more to the mission. The only issue our team felt with immersion was that the group size (there were 12 of us) sometimes led to having little to work on, or commotion (or people taking puzzle pieces right out of our hands), which took us out of the experience.  

The puzzles in this room were varied and interesting, and the creators did not put a heavy emphasis on locks and keys, which is always refreshing. Everything was challenging but solvable, and every puzzle and clue had something to do with the theme. There was a fair amount of technology used in the room, which added to the quality of the puzzles and everyone’s enjoyment. However, as I said before the group is quite large, and it sometimes felt as if there were too many people for the amount of puzzles in the room which created a few bottleneck situations.

The overall feeling from our group is that the room was fun, but could’ve been more enjoyable with a smaller group. We are confident that our ERA group of 5 could have reached at least the same point in the experience that our group of 12 did.

I personally had a blast; this room was not only well-crafted and interesting, but incorporated history and theatre, two things that are near and dear to my heart. This is a room that I will be keeping on my “Top 10” list.