“Our Family Room Escape Experience – Part One”
Introduction
With stations in Macau, Taiwan, India, Italy, China, and Italy, Freeing! has now made its way to Canada, with a convenient location in Richmond, British Columbia. Freeing! Canada Station provides the public with the popular entertainment concept known as a room escape. It is a ‘live’ alternative to the computer game and app that you can download and play on your PC or phone.
Imagine being tied up in a straight jacket in a spooky asylum, unmasking a killer or being handcuffed as you attempt to start your detective mission. The themes are creative and range from a war zone and ballet studio, to murder mysteries and a space mission! Currently, the theme names are Black Swan, Spacetime Mission, Unmasked, War of Tomorrow and Secret of the Asylum. Each theme has an individual story and mystery to unlock, and they all have different levels of difficulty, ranging from difficult to extremely difficult.
It is a fantastic interactive activity for family members, colleagues and friends, as well as new acquaintances. Some people even choose to have their first or second date at this venue. It offers groups the chance to work together as a team and towards one ultimate goal – to escape in 45 minutes!
The only way you can escape the room is by using logic and by using the clues and tools that you find along the way. This isn’t the time to become a control freak and try to figure it all out on your own. You have to work together to succeed at this mind-bending game. Players must stay calm, use the clues, talk about what they found and figure out how it might lead to the next clue. This is all done within a limited time of 45 minutes, so use the time wisely!
It is a real-life interactive adventure that is short, but full of action as you unlock codes, locks and riddles, one after the other. It is a physical game as well, but nothing that you need to be in tip top shape for. In this virtual world, you will mainly be exercising your mind as you analyze clues and try to solve riddles.
The Freeing! room escape challenge has already been accepted by over 300,000 participants across the globe, but only some have actually been victorious. Wildly popular in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore, and now a leading reality experience in Canada, this trendy game idea is truly fun and very challenging.
Be aware that only a small percentage succeed, so make sure you gear up for the ultimate challenge of escaping the room and solving a murder or mystery. Are you ready to take on the challenge?
Pricing
The admission price is $22 per person per theme and they offer a discounted “Happy Hour” rate of $20 per person per theme, Monday to Thursday before 6pm. All bookings are made online with themes closing 1 hour before the scheduled game time. Have more questions? Check out their FAQ page.
Fantastic for Corporate Events
The Freeing! Canada experience is a great activity choice for corporations that want their staff to work more efficiently together. Many companies experience increased office production when their staff work as a team on challenges outside of the work environment. The Freeing! Canada reality room escape challenge is an ideal activity for encouraging team effort among colleagues and minimizing the communication gap across various levels of management. By enhancing communication skills and working together, staff members may feel more satisfied with their work atmosphere and feel a sense of appreciation by fellow staff members.
If corporations and companies want to visit Freeing! Canada, the company offers hours outside of operating hours. You can also find out more details by contacting the team at Freeing! Canada or checking out their Corporate Events page.
Up and Coming: Rainbow World
The newest theme that will be launched soon is called Rainbow World. It will be one of the most difficult games at Freeing! Canada. With a minimum of 6 players and a max of 10, the group will be split into 3 teams. Each team will start in a separate room and they will need to communicate and solve various puzzles so they can all eventually reach the ball pit room which holds the final puzzles to escape. The story? A crazy scientist, Dr. Alpha wants to take over the world and is raising an army of children to carry on his plan. Freeing! Agents will travel the world, through China, Africa and UK-themed rooms, to stop him and his master plan.
Three Highlights that Make Freeing Canada Unique:
- An easily accessible location in Richmond, British Columbia.
- Multiple themes covering everything from space missions to murder mysteries.
- A professional and friendly staff that allows you to discover your own solutions by offering subtle hints.
Our Black Swan Experience:
Our family experience at Freeing! Canada was definitely a fun one, but the Black Swan room was quite difficult for us. I can’t expose any of the answers as it wouldn’t be much of a mystery for the next group. (Even though they change up each theme room every so often)
The Black Swan experience is a murder mystery and the story line begins with the King Family. Mr. Kings daughter Cassie, who is a ballerina, was found murdered in her private dance studio with the words “take revenge for me” scribbled across the mirror in blood. Our job as trainee agents was to find out the killer and also figure out how she was murdered.
We went with our kids, ages 13 to 15, and it was definitely a unique experience for all of us – one that required excellent problem solving skills. When we entered the first door and were locked in, we immediately got to work. We had to solve clues above three different doors to enter the ballet studio. Only one door was the correct door that would lead us inside, so it was possible to waste precious minutes on a door that goes nowhere!
You are also offered a few clues along the way, so when you find a Freeing! Canada clue, you press the call box and one of the staff members will come to assist you. What I enjoyed about the clues is that the staff doesn’t just blurt out the answer. They staff guides you so that you eventually discover the answer on your own.
I won’t lie to you, it was frustrating at times. (the good ‘kind’ of frustration we all experience when facing a difficult challenge) We all went in with a positive attitude and worked efficiently as a team. It is a fantastic way to get the family to work together to achieve a common goal. I loved watching our kids scramble around trying to find clues, unlock various locks, read old letters and come up with ideas on who killed the ballerina, Cassie King.
For any family that wants to learn how to work together more effectively and if you want to bond with your kids on more of an intellectual level, Freeing! Canada is a great choice for an outing or rainy day activity. I will definitely recommend the Freeing! room escape experience to families, friends and companies looking for team building events.
Where?
Unit #173 – 11860 Hammersmith Way
Richmond, BC
(Behind Ironwood Plaza
on Steveston Hwy and No. 5 Road)
Tel: 604.285.5521
*A special thank you to Andrew Lau, Executive Director of Freeing Canada for arranging our visit.*
