Metropolis at Metrotown has partnered with Tourism Burnaby to bring the Burnaby Halloween Festival back to BC’s largest shopping centre. The goal is to have Burnaby become the Halloween capital of the Lower Mainland, and this year they have added a new addition to the spooky festival. An exciting haunted house-style escape room produced by local business Bamboozled Escape Games.
I am constantly impressed by how much Metropolis at Metrotown caters to the seasons. Done up with large scale decorations that serve as pausing points all throughout the mall; as well as whimsical photo ops, for those looking to commemorate their visit.
This October, in theme with spooky season Metrotown is hosting its very first escape room. This is a pop-up presented by Bamboozled, a live action game company, combining escape room puzzles with arcade style laser shooting. They have their own store front with themed room that involve dragons, aliens, and pirates. And new for Halloween, they have created a ghost hunt experience.
Located in the rotating event space at the second tower atrium. The giant stacked pumpkins and display of intricately carved jack-o’-lanterns mark the way. For those interested, you can either make a reservation to secure your desired time slot, or pop in to see if there is any rooms available when you are.
Available throughout the month of October for groups of two to eight players. This 25-minute experience is designed for adults; while there is no gore, the startling and spooky atmosphere requires that children 7 to 12 must be accompanied by an adult (ages 19+); youth ages 13 and older can participate on their own. The cost is $20 for adults and $15 for kids aged 7-12.
Show runners have done a great job in transforming the space, setting up elaborate displays and props to fully match the haunted house theme. We have a field of creepy smiling sunflowers, piraña plants ready to reach out and bite, and haunted parlour seating in place of a waiting area.
The experience has you travelling between four different rooms, where you are equipped with a canister and a ray gun, and tasked with hunting ghosts. The canister is only used to start the game as you place it on a platform to begin the timer. There is the family room, a study/den, a child’s room, and an attic; where ghosts are known to roam.
The music, the lighting, and the thematic decor certainly draws you in. However, we could have used a better introduction. Not only to the whole experience, but as we travelled from room to room. It would have been nice to know what characters we were playing and why we were ghost hunting in the first place. This would have gotten a larger but in and therefore resulted in more fun.
There is a staff member dedicated to your team, of up to eight people. They tally up your scores and lead you to each challenge, directing you on where to place your canister to start.
We were told to explore the room and look for clues. We would do horribly, not knowing what clues we were looking for and what the clues were to lead us to. Here, a little back story on each room and the ghosts you were hunting would have helped. Although I am not sure solving the puzzle would result in anything.
And unlike regular escape rooms, there are no hints to be given. Just 3.5 minutes out 5 minute per room to figure things out. Then the last 90 seconds are dedicated to the shooting portion of game. Where items or pictures would light up and you were tasked with shooting them. The more you shot the more points you earned. You don’t get to see these numbers and just have to trust your game attendant’s math.
In the end our score totalled over 10,500 points and we were told that, that is a great score.
We both enjoyed the shooting portion of the game more, as it was clear as to what your objective was. We just wished that the guns were heavier, to give it more weight for a more sturdier grip. And that if you hit the target, there would be a noise to indicate such. A deep bang or a snap, just something to tell you you’ve been doing a good job. Plus for it to show as a tallying score board with high score you are trying to beat and to leave your name on the leader board.
Overall, this was good deal of fun and some thing to try at a pretty reasonable price. If interested it is on now until October 31, 2024.
