It had been nearly a decade since the City Adventurers had graduated from the School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (AKA Enigma Quests escape room) and now we were being called upon to use all our skills within the real world.
We arrived at the Magical Department of EQIC, expecting to take part in a once-in-a-lifetime interview for a thrilling job opportunity knowing we would only have 60 minutes to impress…..
However, once we arrived we were sent to sent to investigate a disturbance in a wizard’s study instead. Professor Thistlewick, an esteemed wizard connected to a dark prophecy, had disappeared.
It became clear we would need to follow a trail of clues leading into a mystery far deeper than anyone predicted! Across a range of magical locations, our deduction, memory, and problem-solving would be tested to the limit!
Background to our Mission
As noted in a previous blog post, The City Adventurers backed Enigma Quests in their fund raising appeal to produce new games for a new venue. Having purchased our tickets in advance to all three proposed games plus their Arcade Games adventure, the construction hit a few snags and it took much longer to get to play the games than we envisioned.
When we were finally able to book the rooms, we attempted to get our team together asap. Our first game was the completely new Inventor’s Odyssey Through Time. Our second game was The World of Witchcraft and Wizardry, which was initially described as a direct sequel to their previous School of Witchcraft and Wizardry escape room. However, it was not an obvious sequel to their previous wizard game. It was also unfortunate that one of our team was unable to attend on the day, so it was left to three of us to solve the puzzles.
We meet at the venue again, with its industrial style architecture, plenty of open space for large groups. As before, we decided against stashing our stuff in the lockers as there are places by the escape room entrances to leave your belongings. Storage is probably more of an issue for the arcade game.
Review
Just as the description of the room was a little confusing, so was the mission of the game. It was as if they had started to write an interview game, then changed it to a missing person challenge, and tried to amalgamate the two challenges. So the plot of the game became irrelevant.
We began the (new) challenge in Professor Thistlewick’s study and made a stupid mistake by over complicating our answer. But once we realised our error we were off and running, (not literally). Being a magical game, there were some “magical” moments, as you would expect during game play. Some nice touches and great special effects. The staging was good in each room visited.
There was even a surprise, partway through the game, when we unlocked a tray of drinks and were unsure if they were safe to drink. (They were safe).
Compared to Inventor’s Odyssey Through Time everything just flowed so much better. Again this was a multi-room experience, with each space containing at least 2 – 3 unique puzzles to find and solve. The puzzles are linear, so we were glad to be a small team. Everyone was able to take part in solving the puzzles, whereas I felt very left out during the Inventor’s Odyssey Through Time game.
Like the last game, the ending was a bit lacklustre. Without a fanfare for the final puzzle, we began to look for another clue/puzzle to solve, when the Games Master arrived to congratulate us on completing the mission.
We liked the World of Witchcraft and Wizardry much better than the previous game. While both had a good quality build, the wizard room did not suffer from the annoying over loud music. It was possible to hear hints from our Games Master which is always a plus point.
We completed our mission in 52 minutes.
Try this escape room yourself at https://enigmaquests.london/escape-rooms/world-of-witchcraft-and-wizardry/
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