Locked In Glasgow: Glasgow School of Magic (Glasgow)

Magical family friendly fun

You have been offered a place to study at Glasgow School of Magic. You will test all your senses, cast spells and mix potions.

Are you going to graduate as a Wizard/Witch? You have only 60 minutes for your final exam… Good luck!

Our first game of this lovely rainy day was at Locked In Glasgow, where we’d booked in to play four games; Glasgow School of Magic, Dolls House, Bloodline, and Ghost Hunters – games we knew less than nothing about.

We arrived at the rather large building and took the lift up to the fifth floor (good for accessibility) and then followed the signs down the winding corridors to the waiting area for Locked In Glasgow, where we were greeted by our host, Emma.

We took a seat on the comfy couch and then when it was game time, Emma proceeded to give us the health and safety briefing. With that out of the way (and really hoping there was no fire as we didn’t want to have to descend five flights of stairs) we were escorted to the Glasgow School of Magic where we would be sitting our tests. Inside the room, Emma gave us our mission briefing and then ‘poof’ just like that it was time for us to get studying.

IMMERSION/ROOM DESIGN

I briefly touched upon it earlier but this venue is quite accessible (to at least get into the waiting area). In this game itself there was an area where there was a step but if that would cause an issue it could be worth reaching out to the venue to see if there is a workaround – other than that, the game took place in some quite open spaces.

Despite it being a rainy day in Glasgow it was also quite warm so we were very glad to see that magic was at work to keep the room cooler (in the form of a fan). There was also plenty of lighting which I always appreciate in a room, and I don’t recall struggling to see anything at any point during our game.

The set design was decent and created distinct spaces. The first space was pretty standard and not overly exciting but still felt like it belonged within the theme, and the other space(s)…well, let’s leave that as a mystery for you to discover. To help with the immersion there were ambient noises being played throughout.

PUZZLES

This wasn’t the hardest of games we’ve ever played, especially early on when there is a mechanism that you have to interact with that guides you to all the puzzles and helps guide you in what you need to do. It was a cool system and I imagine newer teams would enjoy this bit of hand holding in the early stages. We found one or two bits with it to be slightly glitchy but with perseverance we managed to get through it.

As the game progressed, that hand-holding disappeared and we were left to work out what went with what. One nice thing was that this game was non-linear pretty much through-out, this meant we could split up and work on whatever suited us. When we did solve puzzles they gave us a code for a padlock or triggered some magic (tech for us muggles).

There were a good variety of puzzles in this game and all felt like they belonged in a magic school themed room, or perhaps a room inspired by a certain child wizard. Observation, searching, logic, wordplay, physical, audio and pattern recognition made up the bulk of the puzzles, and despite not being challenging, they all were logical and made sense.

GM/CLUE SYSTEM

I can’t recall a timer in this game so I’m going to go on the assumption that there wasn’t one – but then again, while sitting an exam do you really want to see your time ticking down in front of you?

We gave Emma a pretty easy ride as we didn’t need any help, but I’m sure she would have been on the ball if we did. After the game we asked how the clue system would have worked and apparently we would just need to request them by asking a magic mirror and then help would appear in writing in the mirror.

ANYTHING ELSE

There’s no getting around it, this would be a good game for beginners or families and probably not overly challenging for enthusiasts. Saying that, it’s still a fun game and it has its moments.

Success / Failure

Final Rating:

Team: 2 players – 31:23

Address: Central Chambers, 93 Hope St, Glasgow G2 6LD

Website: https://escaperoomglasgow.com