During a recent trip to Nottingham, the City Adventurers learnt that a terrible fate had befallen the land of Mysteria. An evil sorceress had usurped the rightful monarch of the land. She had stolen the enchanted Crown of Mysteria, known to bring harmony to the region, and had been using the crown’s powerful magic to torment the innocent Mysterians and punish anyone who opposes the Witch Queen!
Obviously, our team of brave adventurers were needed to overthrow the Witch Queen and restore Mysteria to its former glory. We would have to venture forth and seize the source of her power: the Crown.
We immediately set off for Cryptology to begin our mission. Would we be crowned victorious?
Witchful Thinking – Review
We were greeted on arrival by a costumed games master who lead us up to the top floor of the Cryptology building for our mission. When we booked, we read on the website that the toilets are on the second floor and they recommend you go to toilet before arriving. We’d followed their instructions, stopping at a nearby coffee shop for tea, so it was a surprise to find ourselves climbing all the way up anyway. And yes, it is a lot of stairs.
Witchful Thinking is a Medieval themed game and the set is decorated with a mystical/fairy-tale feel. The game is 90 minutes long and your task is to find the crown and overthrow the evil witch. Set in a magical kingdom, with spells and mystic runes, it includes reference to Robin Hood and Nottingham.
This is a linear game that flows along nicely to a story driven narrative.
During the briefing we were told there is only 1 key lock in the whole game. Everything else is magical. Solve the puzzle and something magical happens. Before we began, we asked if we would need torches and were told we could use our phones if we wanted. We definitely needed to use torchlight during the game.
As with most escape rooms the puzzles required logic, observation and teamwork. As we expected with this theme, there were magic potions and spells. There was also a fair bit of humour, although one of the first puzzles tested my sense of humour. We had spotted the clues and worked out what to do immediately, but nothing we did seemed to work. Yes, you can call out for clues, which we did. However the hints supplied just told us what we’d already discovered so the help wasn’t all that helpful! We ended up getting the answer by trail and error. Not the most satisfying way to start a game.
After that any hints we got from the GM were nudges to move the story along rather than clues and the game became much better.
We were told during the briefing, when we asked about clues, that we would meet characters during the game that would help us on our way. Don’t worry, there are no actors in the room with you.
There were also a number of physical challenges as well as interactions with characters throughout the game. Nothing too strenuous but tasks involving props and costumes. They move the story along nicely and can be used to regulate a teams progress.
We’ve played other rooms that make you sing a song and keep you singing until you get it right. I know some people see this as a time waster while others love the immersive interaction with the GM. In this game it did not feel like a time waster but added to the humour and no, there was no singing involved.
There were some very good tactile puzzles and some difficult puzzles along the way. The room was well themed and quite difficult but we managed to solve it within the 90 minutes.
Book your adventure at https://cryptologyrooms.co.uk/nottingham/witchful-thinking
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