Real-life escape room games are trending around the world and there are about four places in the GTA that do this. So five friends and I signed up for De Code Adventures in Mississauga to try it out. Basically, you and your team is stuck in a room and you have to solve puzzles in order to escape in 45 minutes and win.

We arrived during our appointed time and filled some paperwork… (just in case you have a panic attack in the room). The staff was very friendly and helpful. They briefed us on the mission and gave us a starting clue. The theme we did was “De Scientific Code” which is about an evil professor about the destroy the world and we need to escape this room in order to stop him. I’m not going to give away details about the room… but we were stuck right at the beginning… It was looking hopeless… 20 minutes had past… so we asked the staff to give us a clue. Turns out we were on the right track… We figured it out and BAM! We moved through the next puzzle really quickly… and then the last one, we just figured it out with a minute to spare. It was actually REALLY exciting and intense! With only a 1-2 minutes left, Sabrina and I continued with Tania’s thinking and then worked together to figured it out. We yelled to Aarthy what we think the code to escape is… With some luck, we unlocked the escape door on our first try!

It was the most amazing team work I have ever experienced. We ALL played a critical part in the game and honestly, even if we didn’t have one of the members, we might have not solved it. I’m so proud of us!!! I was so excited at the end of the game… It brought us closer together… TOO MUCH FUN.

Some first-timer tips;

• Bring a good diverse team! Different thinking abilities are best… 
• Spread out and tackle different areas at once but then group together and recap
• Communicate what you’re thinking… others can and will run with that direction and spark new ideas
• Have fun!
• Look for a groupon or group deal to save money. They also usually have some facebook check in discounts too.

This place also had a board game area in the back so we stuck around and played some games before we ending up at Symposium for dessert and then calling it a night.