Room Escape Artist

This sequel stands alone.

Location: Boisbriand, Québec, Canada

Date Played: May 31, 2025

Team Size: 3-6; we recommend 3-5

Duration: 75 minutes

Price: from $149.97 CAD per team for teams of 3 players to $299.94 CAD per team for teams of 6 players

Ticketing: Private

Accessibility Consideration: All players need to walk up a flight of stairs.

Emergency Exit Rating: [A+] No Lock

Physical Restraints: [A+] No Physical Restraints

REA Reaction

Sequel escape rooms always make me a bit nervous because it’s not always worth playing the original (if it’s even available). And if players can’t or don’t want to play the original, why not just make a completely new game?

With The St-Onge Case, Immersia managed to thread the needle and make a game that was:

• A strong sequel
• To an early game that isn’t mind-blowing in 2025, but is still worth playing (we replayed it to refresh)
• And this sequel comfortably stands on its own from the original.

There are a number of impressive things happening within The St-Onge Case. Immersia pulled off some sophisticated storytelling through strong voice acting and their always phenomenal video production skills.

However, for me the most inspiring element was how effectively Immersia used the puzzles within the first act of the game to impart all of the most relevant information both from the original game, as well as what we would need to comprehend in the second and third acts of The St-Onge Case.

Immersia consistently impresses me with their command of the subtleties of storytelling within an escape room environment. They don’t get enough credit for this… probably because what they are doing is subtle. The St-Onge Case is a must-play in one of the world’s premiere escape room markets. And while you’re there, really pay attention to what Immersia is doing. If the devil is in the details, this place is bedeviling.

Who is this for?

• Adventure seekers
• Story seekers
• Puzzle lovers
• Scenery snobs
• Thriller fans
• Best for players with at least some experience

Why play?

• An innovative approach to world-building and storytelling through puzzles
• A complex, yet followable thriller story
• High production value

Story

Years ago while staying in a rental cabin, we’d survived an attack by a murderer named Philippe St-Onge. Our friend and fellow survivor Alex had recently found where St-Onge has been incarcerated and convinced us to join his plan to break into the secure facility and impose our own justice on the man who killed our friends and nearly took our lives.

Setting

We set out to break into a government investigative facility built around an old cabin that had been the site of many murders.

The government facility had a strong aesthetic, and the cabin built heavily on the original game, expanding that game world and the narrative around it. It really did look like the original, but so much better.

Gameplay

Immersia’s The St. Onge Case was a standard escape room with a moderate level of difficulty.

Core gameplay revolved around observing, making connections, and puzzling.

Analysis

➕ In the opening act, the gameplay showed us all the history we needed to know about the story in different ways, through different mediums. We especially enjoyed the hefty construction puzzle. Another puzzle included a cheeky nod to older escape room gameplay of the era when the original Weekend of the Shack was built; we chuckled at this Easter egg. The storytelling through puzzling in this first act – both overly and subtly – set us up for success in the rest of the experience.

➕ Gameplay wise, in the second act, The St-Onge Case was an old-school escape room in fancy new clothing. That is to say, it used a lot of familiar game design in new ways, often with better cluing and finer attention to detail than in the games of yore. The gameplay and puzzles flowed well.

➕ /➖ The middle segment of The St. Onge Case was more escape room-y. The puzzles were fun to solve and flowed well. They made use of interesting objects. They required attention to detail that helped us really take in and appreciate the set. That said, not all the puzzles felt as deeply connected to the characters and their story as they could have been, and veered a little bit toward escape room logic. Your mileage may vary.

➕ The set for the second half of the game was phenomenal, and we’d never seen anything like it. Immersia built a larger, more realized version of the set of Weekend of the Shack. They included all the memorable puzzle elements of the original, but as decor and world-building rather than puzzle content. They completely avoided red herrings.

➕ We loved the callbacks to the original Weekend at the Shack, not just through the set, with its nods to past puzzles, but even with some of the puzzle mechanics we encountered. You don’t need to have played the original to fully enjoy The St. Onge Case, but its satisfying on another layer if you have.

➖ We wanted to build a deeper emotional connection to the characters referenced in the game… the ones that the main character cared about. As we neared the conclusion of the experience we unlocked beautiful, weighty props that were clearly intended to be meaningful. And yet, we didn’t hold them with the reverence that we believe Immersia wanted us to feel. With a stronger connection, the final moments of the game would have been more powerful.

➕/➖The final moments have consequences. We loved how The St. Onge Case gave us, as players, this agency. We just wished we’d had a few more moments to let all the story points gel before the decisions point.

➕ Immersia used early scenes masterfully to set up later ones. What felt like a less interesting, throwaway scene ended up being pivotal to the later plot.

➕ The video-production and acting in The St. Onge Case was top tier.

Tips For Visiting

• The St. Onge Case is located at Immersia’s Boisbriand location.
• There is a parking lot.
• This game is entirely bilingual (French and English).

Book your hour with Immersia’s The St. Onge Case, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.

Disclosure: Immersia comped our tickets for this game.