Improbable Escapes - The Mysterious Miseries of Franklin N. Stein [Review]

The Mysterious Miseries of Franklin N. Stein is one of the best escape rooms in Ontario, Canada. Here are our recommendations for great escape rooms in the Montreal or Toronto areas.

“If you don’t know who the monster in your family is, it’s probably you.”

Location: Kingston, Ontario, Canada

Date Played: June 7, 2025

Team Size: 3-8; we recommend 3-5

Duration: 75 minutes

Price: $36.95 CAD per player

Ticketing: Private

Accessibility Consideration: We didn’t notice any specific accessibility concerns.

Emergency Exit Rating: [A+] No Lock

Physical Restraints: [A+] No Physical Restraints

2025 Golden Lock Award Winner

“In my years of playing escape rooms, I’ve never experienced a game that built up as much momentum as The Mysterious Miseries of Franklin N. Stein. Improbable Escapes set out to have players solve one puzzle per minute, and while I don’t know exactly how many I solved, the progression felt rapid and exciting throughout the game.”

REA Reaction

This was something new. I had never seen a game quite like The Mysterious Miseries of Franklin N. Stein. The designers behind Improbable Escapes told me that the core goal of the game was to have players solving one puzzle per minute. While I cannot claim to have counted, I believe that they more or less did what they set out to do.

A long room in an old, rundown mansion with a bookcase, a grandfather clock, a family portrait, and stained glass wndows.

Set within a rundown gothic mansion, we whipped through puzzles at an alarming rate, pausing only to get a bit of backstory from voiceover and animation. I found the cadence of the game mesmerizing. It was a constant stream of identifying what to do, and rapid accomplishment.

The irony of The Mysterious Miseries of Franklin N. Stein is that the puzzles that I have the most critique of were the ones that demanded that we slow down a bit. When speed is the point, anything felt like we were doing it at normal speed felt slightly off.

Overall, I loved The Mysterious Miseries of Franklin N. Stein. It had a magnificent set, loads of content, and some fantastic interaction design. I didn’t have a way of imagining what an escape room would feel like if it was all gas and no brakes… and now I do. And I enjoyed it so much. This is Improbable Escapes’ latest game and it really does feel like the pinnacle of what they have been building towards: beautiful games filled with fun things to do inside of them.

Who is this for?

Adventure seekers
Puzzle lovers
Scenery snobs
Best for players with at least some experience
Players who don’t need to be a part of every puzzle

Why play?

So many fun, puzzles (probably more puzzles per minute than we’ve ever seen)
A beautiful set
Strong interaction design

Story

Long thought abandoned, strange noises and lights have been coming from the decaying mansion of Franklin N Stein. While the villagers were sharpening their pitchforks and lighting their torches, we set off to see if we could unravel the truth hidden within the walls of that old home.

Setting

The Mysterious Miseries of Franklin N. Stein had a beautifully rundown set, evoking the abandoned mansion that we were exploring. The set was filled with stations that each had their own path of puzzles. Some of these stations were more straightforward, while others had more complex interactions.

Ornate yet rundown vaulted ceiling with a large chandelier in the foreground and 5 stained glass windows in the background.

Gameplay

Improbable Escapes’ The Mysterious Miseries of Franklin N. Stein was an energetic escape room with a high volume of easy and moderate difficulty puzzles.

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

Analysis

➕ It wasn’t immediately apparent how fast-paced the gameplay would be, but this escape room did a good job of immediately teaching us how it wanted to be played. For the volume of content, it was well-organized. It was abundantly clear what information went with which props.

➕ We were continuously moving through The Mysterious Miseries of Franklin N. Stein. It was a non-stop, high energy experience.

➕ In act one, each puzzle station centered on one character. The video interludes gave us a moment to pause and ground each character. A segment at the conclusion of act one (that we were initially dubious of, I’ll admit), further reinforced the characters and the purpose of our actions.

❓ In the first room, many of the puzzles could be solved alone, and it would be possible for one teammate to steamroll the rest of the team. The puzzles relied on different skill sets, however, so a complete takeover would probably be unlikely, but it’s still possible. That risk is somewhat mitigated by the interludes that helped keep everyone following the progress of the room, whether or not they’d solved any given puzzle.

➖ The transition sequence was rough around the edges. To start, minor light leakage undermined it, and a heavy door slowed momentum. Then the space felt underutilized. It was somewhere between a scene and a passthrough, and we were unsure which it wanted to be.

➖ There was opportunity for a more dynamic soundscape and enhanced audio quality.

➕ In the second act, the puzzles were more complex, but we were ready to dive into them. Each puzzle station was now an intriguing mechanism that we’d have to figure out how to use, and then how to master. Furthermore, teamwork was now essential. The difficulty curve worked well.

➕ The mechanisms were a lot of fun to interact with. The props were big and chonky. We enjoyed a visual reveal.

➖ There was a bit of unevenness to the puzzles. In the first act, one puzzle sounded harder than the others, and it wasn’t particularly fun to try multiple times. In the second act, a puzzle appeared to involve collecting a set when it was something else entirely.

➕ The Mysterious Miseries of Franklin N. Stein didn’t take itself seriously. Improbable Escapes made amusing choices for the solves leading into their final boss battle.