Timescape: Spellbound (Belfast)

A Game for the Family

Deep beneath the busy streets of Belfast the sounds of the city night begin to fade as you discover a secret passageway, could it be the elusive Rivermouth Academy Of Magic?

There are stories that within lies the key to an ancient magic. One that, once mastered, grants magical abilities beyond comprehension. You must learn fast and be alert, for challenges and tests lie at every turn in the ultimate trial for all scholars of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Do you have what it takes to master the magic?

We booked our trip to Belfast primarily to check out the games over at Forbidden Quest, but it would have been wrong to not check out some of the city’s other offerings. So we found ourselves booked in for two additional games at Timescape.

The first game we played was Casino Heist and we had a good time. Annoyingly we had a gap between our games but this gave us an opportunity to find somewhere for coffee! If you’re in the area and are looking for a quick coffee stop (while avoiding the chains), we visited ‘Vintage Kolektyw Cafe & Shop’ which was just around the corner, made lovely coffee, and had some cool décor choices.

After our caffeine break, we returned to Timescape, rang the bell and then took the lift up to the reception area. A short wait in the comfortable waiting area and then it was time to get down to business. Our host for Spellbound was Brooklyn, and she escorted us to the outside of the room where we received the briefings.

I must admit, I am not a huge fan of ‘magic’ themed games. I don’t know what it is but I always lose the immersion when I have to wave a wand around, and things generally feel a bit ambiguous to me. But, each room is different, so I went into Spellbound with an open mind.

IMMERSION/ROOM DESIGN

Spellbound started off in a rather compact space, but did eventually open up into something bigger. As a team of four, there was a bit of shuffling to get around early on, but I wouldn’t say it was really an issue.

It was pleasant to play in a magic themed room and not feel like the venue had raided a Harry Potter gift shop. I can’t recall anything that stood out as being ‘gift shop’ and the props in this game felt like they had been crafted for it. The main centre piece of the ‘big’ room was certainly the stand out feature in terms of set design. It would have perhaps been nicer if we had more ways to interact with it, but it was still quite a cool centrepiece.

As we progressed through this game we were guided alone by some audio narration by a wizard (over the speaker system). This likely served to point us in the right direction and to look at the relevant things, but also helped to build the story and explain why we were doing what we were doing.

PUZZLES

Early on in Spellbound, the game was rather ‘puzzle light’, meaning there wasn’t much we could work on so we had to work together as a team to ensure we all had input. As the game progressed though, it opened up so that we could work on things independently of each other, but for the most part, to me at least, this felt like a rather linear game.

Magic games are always interesting, especially when given a wand. Sadly, I’m of the age where I don’t believe in magic, so as soon as I’m given a wand, the immersion is broken as I know it’s just a GM watching us on camera and then pressing a button if we’ve done it right – but that’s fine, I would imagine kids still love these things. Saying that, the wand did have some ‘physical’ uses which I appreciated as it made it feel more involved. Oh, and the other nice thing, we all got to select our own wands before the game started – no wand sharing here!

The puzzles all felt very magic related and no task felt overly out of place; observation, searching, teamwork, logic, pattern recognition, colours and audio. Solving puzzles generally resulted in a combination for a padlock, a key being retrieved or some magic (tech) triggering – or occasionally a scroll being thrown at you.

GM/CLUE SYSTEM

I don’t believe we needed any help in this game as we seemed to click with the puzzles quite well. We did slow down in one or two spots, but our GM left us just long enough to work out what we needed to do.

After the game, she was enthusiastic about our completion of the game, and invited us back into the room where she took our team photo. We were also able to ask her any questions we may have had about the room, and it was clear she had been watching us closely.

If we did need any help, it would have come through on the tv screen in the room that also showed a countdown timer. I think it was quite clear that a number of the triggers in the game were manual ones, triggered by the GM, and these were all done smoothly and at the right time. Nothing wrong than a manual trigger that is delayed and you start questioning your solution, and eventually the game.

ANYTHING ELSE

As far as magic rooms go, this one was fine. It didn’t feel like a carbon copy of the Harry Potter world, and had a unique set. I would imagine that kids would definitely enjoy this game, we certainly did. Although of the two games we played at Timescape, we probably preferred Casino Heist more.

Success/Failed

Final Rating:

Team: 4 Players

Address: 121-125 Royal Ave, Belfast BT1 1FF

Website: http://timescapegames.com/