Room Escape Artist

Lost and Found is one of the best escape room type experiences around Toronto, Canada. Here are our recommendations for great escape rooms in the Toronto area.

An Open-World Puzzle Adventure

Location: Toronto, Canada

Date Played: July 4, 2026

Team Size: 2-4 players per team

Duration: 4 hours

Price: $48 CAD per player for the main track, $36 CAD per returning player for the Enigmatologist track

Ticketing: Public, but you’ll play on a private team

Accessibility Consideration: Many but not all of the buildings at The Village at Black Creek are wheelchair accessible.

Emergency Exit Rating: [A+] No Lock

Physical Restraints: [A+] No Physical Restraints

REA Reaction

Secret City’s pioneering production Lost & Found was like a cozy open-world video game brought to life in the real world. If you combined London’s Phantom Peak and Southern California’s Ghost Town Alive, set it at a Canadian living history museum, and upped the puzzle content a notch or two, you’d get something akin to Lost & Found.

This open-world adventure spans up to four hours at The Village at Black Creek. But don’t think of Lost & Found as a marathon-length escape room. While there was no shortage of playful little puzzles to solve, the experience also offered a wide range of less cryptic interactions: chatting with characters, going on quests, earning money, playing lawn games, and exploring the charming town. The Village at Black Creek is still open to the public during shows, so you’ll also encounter various history actors populating the town, unconnected to the NPCs of Lost & Found.

The gameplay in Lost & Found was relaxed and flexible, yet still distinctly goal-oriented. It centered around earning “Stamps of Approval” for helping out the townsfolk of Black Creek. There were 16 total quests, plus some secret bonus stamp opportunities, but you only needed to obtain seven stamps in order to unlock a final puzzle trail that led to the treasure of Red Heart John. Completing this core objective was easily reachable within a single session, even with a designated lunch break in the middle. We never felt rushed by the experience. There was no need, and realistically no way, to complete 100% of the content in one visit.

Yet Secret City had crafted an even more compelling reason for a return visit: an entire second track of content that is unlocked only after your first visit, packed with even more puzzly goodness designed by Errol Elumir. If you wish to join the Society of Enigmatologists, you’ll need to prove your wits and wisdom through a series of cryptic trials. These puzzles each had a few more layers and twists than those in the main track, but they were still designed to be approachable by a general audience, and hints were available throughout.

There was something pure and nostalgic about Lost & Found. The townsfolk of Black Creek were not as overtly zany and whimsical as those in Phantom Peak and not as rough and boisterous as those in Ghost Town Alive, yet they already had their own particular charms. The show is still relatively new, and some characters – like Beatrice the journalist and Perry the clockmaker — had settled into their roles more than others. All actors demonstrated strong improv chops, and I’d love to see each and every inhabitant of Black Creek fully living their roles and never just reciting lines, even in pre-rehearsed cutscenes.

It’s wonderful to see Secret City expanding their offerings at The Village at Black Creek, building on their long-running nighttime production Where Dark Things Dwell (review coming soon). Lost & Found is a wholesome and inclusive show for truly everyone: families, dates, or friends, regardless of puzzle or escape room experience. And for escape room and puzzle hunt enthusiasts, or players just looking to dive a bit deeper into creative puzzles, the Enigmatologist track offers a strong reason to return.

Who is this for?

• Adventure seekers
• Story seekers
• Scenery snobs
• Puzzle lovers (for the Enigmatologist track)
• Players who enjoy interacting with characters
• Couples, families, and groups of friends
• Any experience level

Why play?

• To help the townsfolk of Black Creek
• To play an open-world cozy puzzle adventure
• To experience The Village at Black Creek in a new way

Story

The villagers of Black Creek needed our help! There were all sorts of problems around town, and they were competing with a neighboring town to be a stop on a new railroad, which promised to revitalize the area. If only there were some more money to secure the bid… If we could earn the trust of the villagers, become citizens of Black Creek, and locate a legendary treasure, maybe they’d have a chance at a brighter future.

Setting

Lost & Found took place at The Village at Black Creek, a living history town with dozens of buildings, gardens, and farm area. Apart from a smattering of small game pieces, the experience largely utilized the existing facilities without adding any new large set pieces.

Gameplay

Secret City’s Lost & Found was an open-world puzzle adventure with a variable level of difficulty (low-to-moderate) for the main track, and a moderate level of difficulty for the Enigmatologist track.

There were many ways to interact with this experience, but they all revolved around helping out the townsfolk of Black Creek. These characters were quirky, yet consistently friendly, approachable, and helpful. Completing quests earned you Stamps of Approval. Upon earning seven or more stamps, you’d become a citizen of the town and receive the trailhead for a final series of puzzles that lead to the treasure of Red Heart John.

On a return visit to Lost & Found, teams can apply to join the Society of Enigmatologists, a secondary track of content that features slightly harder puzzles and plenty of new secrets. These puzzles were closer to what you might find in a light puzzle hunt, while still involving a fair amount of character interactions and site-specific exploration. This option is not available for your first show, and information about how to book the Society of Enigmatologists is sent out after your first visit.

Analysis

➕ The story and aesthetic of Lost & Found perfectly fit the venue of The Village at Black Creek. It was quaint and cozy, rooted in history, yet still with a few winks to the present.

➕ Lost & Found was a fully offline experience. We could freely take pictures, but no interactions required looking at our phones. This offered a refreshing break from technology, and ensured that tech glitches were literally impossible… because there was no tech.

➕ There was a large amount of content available, yet there was no rush or stress. We assisted the townsfolk with meaningful but ultimately fairly low-stakes endeavors. There was always time to take a break if needed, included a designated lunch hour when the actors all went on break as well. While the overall experience lasted 3-4 hours, this was not an escape room with a singular win condition, and players are welcome to enjoy Lost & Found for as long or little as they like (though there is a closing skit at the end.)

➕ One could complete most of the main track of Lost & Found with almost exclusively non-puzzle tasks, apart from the final investigation for Red Heart John’s treasure. That said, a number of quests did include puzzle components, much more than you’d find at Phantom Peak or Ghost Town Alive. These puzzles were cute and approachable, ranging from easy to moderate difficulty. There was nothing stopping players from working on multiple quests at once, and if you ever hit a snag, you could ask for free hints or move onto something else.

➖ There were many activities to choose from at Lost & Found, and while the content was fairly well balanced in quality and interest, there was no indication of which trails had easier or harder puzzles, or more actor interactions, or something else entirely. You could start a task and then decide whether or not it was for you, but some icons or more action-oriented descriptions could better help players pick the best content for them.

➕ We encountered a playful cast of characters throughout Black Creek, portrayed by talented improv actors who fully committed to their roles. Each character had their own backstory and their own hopes and dreams. Even some of the more mundane roles were given interesting twists: the farmer was convinced that his sheep had been abducted by aliens, and the innkeeper was determined to draw in more tourists by proving her inn was haunted.

➕ While each character served as the trailhead for one or more quests, we often visited multiple other characters while completing any given quest. This established a connected and predictable logic around how the world of Lost & Found operated. The post office in particular served as an effective hub for a number of functions: sending and receiving mail, picking up various side quests (like writing poetry or correcting typos) that could earn us some extra money, and purchasing items that were necessary for specific quests. Despite this frenzy of activity, there was rarely much of a bottleneck around this location, and the actors there were knowledgeable and efficient.

➕/➖ I love stamps, and I loved earning Stamps of Approval for our various missions throughout Lost & Found. The stamps were all different images, themed to each specific quest. Yet there was room to further upgrade our stamp sheet as a saveable souvenir, with heavier weight paper and alignment markers on the stamps to ensure they’re stamped in the correct orientation. There were also some ink pads that could use refreshing.

➕ The Enigmatologist track offered an even more puzzle-centric way to explore Black Creek. It was a compelling reason to return for a second visit, and it built on the worldbuilding we’d established during our initial visit to justify not just being an option the first time around. While it wasn’t as focused on character interactions as the main track of content, we enjoyed deepening some of our existing relationships and seeing the characters in a new light.

➕/➖ The puzzles in the Enigmatologist track were well crafted overall. We enjoyed one puzzle that referenced existing details in the environment, and another whimsical challenge that even a rube could solve. However, I experienced some tension between the apparent cleverness of the original design and the difficulty level that would work for a general audience, and the puzzles weren’t particularly balanced in length, difficulty, or environmental integration. One puzzle was essentially bypassable with some fairly common outside knowledge. The metapuzzle was a decent capstone, yet there was an opportunity to also tie together previous puzzle answers. Going forward, perhaps there is an opportunity to branch into “standard” and “expert” versions of certain puzzles for the Enigmatologist puzzles to accommodate both puzzle enthusiasts and more casual players alike.

➕/❓ I purchased and earned some attractive keepsakes to add to my collection. Yet from a branding perspective, I was surprised that none of this merch included the show or company name on it.

Tips For Visiting

• Parking is available at The Village at Black Creek for $9.30 + HST. It’s also a 15-minute walk from the Pioneer Village metro station.
• Food options were available on site. There were a variety of well-priced options. If you plan to order food over the designated lunch time, we advise getting there a bit early to place your order.

Book your session with Secret City Adventures’ Lost & Found, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.

Disclosure: Secret City Adventures comped our tickets for this game.