Vortex Future is one of the best escape rooms around Montreal, Canada. Here are our recommendations for great escape rooms in the Montreal area.
The future is really hard.
Location: Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Canada
Date Played: February 3, 2020
Team size: 3-8; we recommend 4-5
Duration: 60 minutes
Price: 30 CAD per player
Ticketing: Private
Emergency Exit Rating: [A+] No Lock
Physical Restraints: [A+] No Physical Restraints
REA Reaction
We lost in Vortex Future. It wasn’t even close. That doesn’t mean that it was a bad game.
Like Sauve Qui Peut’s Vortex Past, Vortex Future was a compact, puzzle-centric experience in a beautiful setting. However, stylistically the two games played completely differently from one another. Where Vortex Past felt like solving a puzzle box, Vortex Future felt like solving a puzzle hunt without the meta puzzles.
Vortex Future was a puzzler’s game in the purest sense. There wasn’t any searching; each puzzle was presented and labeled at its own station. They varied broadly in complexity. While there were 2 or 3 that we didn’t care for because of execution or style, they were generally high-quality challenges.
So, why did we lose? Well, knowing nothing about Vortex Future, we played too lackadaisically. We burned too much time on a puzzle in the main game before finally taking a much-needed hint. We probably needed 10 to 15 minutes for the final puzzle, which we didn’t have. The final puzzle was totally solvable, but it was also one of the most, if not the most, challenging puzzles that we’ve ever faced in an escape room. As soon as we recognized the challenge for what it was, we knew we were doomed.
If you’re a strong puzzler, there’s a lot to love in Vortex Future. We lost and still enjoyed ourselves quite a bit. I think that we could have won this game if we had realized what we were up against and had approached it with the respect that it deserved.
If you’re a newbie or you’re more into the scenery and adventure aspects of escape rooms and aren’t crazy about games that present heavy puzzling… then try out some of Sauve Qui Peut’s other offerings.
Who is this for?
- Puzzle lovers
- Puzzle hunters
- Scenery snobs
- Sci-fi fans
- Experienced players
- Players who don’t need to be a part of every puzzle
Why play?
- Innovative, challenging puzzle design
- Clean and beautiful presentation
- If you’re looking for a hard escape game, this was a very hard escape game
Story
It was the year 2089 and we had to board a disabled space station designed to detect threats to Earth. Humanity was counting on us to restore the station’s power and functionality.
Setting
Vortex Future was a beautiful, compact space station lined with cleanly presented puzzle modules. Each station had the same 1 through 8 number inputs and took up the same amount of wall space.
The artistry in Sauve Qui Peut’s design was how they used this same structure to present so many different challenges.
Gameplay
Sauve Qui Peut’s Vortex Future was a standard escape room with a high level of difficulty.
Core gameplay revolved around puzzling. Every puzzle was clearly presented without any searching. We simply had to figure out how to solve them.
Analysis
❓ Vortex Future was a puzzler’s escape room. This was one of the hardest escape rooms that we’ve ever played.
➕ The spaceship set of Vortex Future looked clean, sleek, and polished.
➕ In Vortex Future, Sauve Qui Peut demonstrated just how much a puzzle designer can accomplish with a simple input interface. While these stations looked similar, and resolved with a consistent interaction, the paths to solve them were incredibly varied.
➖ One puzzle felt light on cluing. We spent too long thinking we were making progress, only to find that we hadn’t learned anything about the puzzle at all. Coupled with the puzzle’s harsh sound quality, this was especially frustrating.
➖ One puzzle had a misleading visual interface, given the ultimate puzzle resolution. This puzzle really dashed our expectations.
➖ In one puzzle, the only viable solving method (that we found) was tedious and trial & error-y.
➕ Vortex Future required us to learn the logic of the game world, but think outside the box to solve the puzzles. This resulted in immensely satisfying puzzle solves.
➖ In a few instances the inputs were finicky, which caused us some confusion.
➕ While we got hung up on a few puzzles, overall they were fair, inventive, and unusual escape room puzzles that we enjoyed solving.
❓ The final puzzle was probably the most challenging puzzle that we’ve seen in an escape room to date. It was tangible, team-centric, and the type of thing many experienced puzzlers would know exactly how to approach… but it was a beast of a puzzle nonetheless. I think we would have been able to solve it if we got to it with at least 10 – maybe 15 – minutes on the clock.
Tips For Visiting
- There is metered street parking.
- This game is entirely bilingual (French and English).
- This game would be extremely difficult for colorblind players.
Book your hour with Sauve Qui Peut’s Vortex Future, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.
Disclosure: Sauve Qui Peut comped our tickets for this game.
