Vancouver City Sightseeing Adventure: spy game Secret Mission

Bait and Switch

We were expecting more than being handed a couple sheets of paper with puzzles and a bag of props. At the very least, given the two photos showing an actor in costume, alongside photos of customers playing the game, we were expecting to interact in some capacity with an actor wearing a suit, sunglasses, and a briefcase. At least make us do a pretend "dead drop" with someone sitting on a park bench reading a newspaper, or "chase" an actor carrying the macguffin. A guy explaining the rules of the game at the beginning saying "headquarters headquarters secret agents" doesn't count. You could stop in a Dollarama, pick up a kid's puzzle book, some random toys, and make a similar experience. This is lazy

Response from the operator: Hi Untitled U, Those 2 photos you describe were uploaded to this listing in 2018 and this is the first feedback we've received that they were misleading. I removed them, so thanks for that helpful insight. You should have signed a digital waiver before the game - I'm unable identify your booking so I can't confirm this. We include a lot of information about how our games work in that waiver so each guest knows what to expect and arrives prepared for the best experience (examples: footwear, duration, distance, weather). This paragraph is included under the heading Game Operators: "All games come with at least one Game Operator. Game Operators will guide you through contactless pick up and drop off of game kits, start your game and then end your game by calculating your score and awarding team certificates. By agreeing to the Terms & Conditions you agree to follow their instructions. The actual game is self-guided -you follow a map and complete challenges as you explore downtown Vancouver’s architecture, historical landmarks, parks and public art. You will not intentionally encounter any Vancouver Mysteries staff along the game route." After learning that there were no actors along the route, you had the opportunity to cancel your booking through TripAdvisor. Or, if you had shared your 2 star feelings directly to us after the game, we would have thanked you for your feedback, removed those photos/etc and offered you a refund. I hope you will consider doing that in future if you are disappointed by a small business rather than leaving a 2 star review on a powerful public site like this. To prevent any confusion for future guests, I have added a sentence to the exclusions section of this experience's listing: "Guides do not accompany you or meet you during the experience, only at the start/end." Hopefully that helps! We certainly do not want to be accused of 'bait and switch' tactics, that's a very serious allegation. As for our game materials, we have a professional designer on our team who primarily works on theatre productions but also creates our game materials. Each experience has a distinct style that was carefully thought out (logo, style guide) and each map has completely unique clues, artifacts, game books, and even a custom map of Vancouver we created just for our 4 different game routes. Examples of paper items: a letter from a suspect, an autopsy report etc. We also 3D print items for some of our games and hand-build tools like our code wheels. They are all 100% unique to us. Games take months of design and testing before they are launched and we continue to update them regularly. In fact, the game you chose, Secret Mission is celebrating its 10th year this year and is very different from the original version. We listen closely to feedback from our guests and work hard to consistently deliver a 5 star experience (as shown in our many 5 star reviews here and also on Google). My apologies that this response is so long, but I wanted to address all of anonymous person's comments. Sincerely, Tanya Bennett (owner)

via Tripadvisor

Fun experience!!

Such a fun experience. Everything was laid out really well and easy to understand. Definitely going back again. Friends, families and partners should do this!

Response from the operator: Thank you for the review and supporting small local business, Tasha! We would love to have you back for another mystery soon to earn your Detective badges!

via Tripadvisor

Fun Date Night Experience!

Very friendly game runner who really committed to the bit! Well thought out challenges that also show off interesting landmarks in downtown Vancouver. Puzzles were definitely intermediate - fun and just challenging enough without being frustrating! Would recommend for couples, friends, or larger groups.

Response from the operator: Thanks for leaving the 5-star review and we're glad to hear that you enjoyed our Secret Mission game! We put a lot thought into building and running our games so we're happy to see that it doesn't go unnoticed.

via Tripadvisor

Clever clues and hidden gems

The game/tour was a great team building activity and would also be great for larger groups to compete with each other. The guidebook, challenges and spy kit were well designed and cleverly thought out. All of the challenges were extremely clever and fun to solve. We also got to know the city and its buildings better even discovering a couple hidden downtown city gems we had never seen/been to. Huge thanks to Tanya and her team for an amazing experience.

via Tripadvisor

Great ice-breaker!

Really neat escape room-type puzzle solving activity. Only thing I regret is that my friends and I are so competitive we didn't really take in the city like we should have! Our spy master was great and we had a ton of fun! It was a great icebreaker activity for a group that didn't all know each other before this trip.

via Tripadvisor