Lucardo: University of Magic: The Entrance Exam (Manchester)

Faith restored in Magic

You have been offered a place to study at the mystical University of Magic. In order to secure your place, you will need to cast spells, recite incantations, mix potions and battle with dark forces. Do you have what it takes to play this ultimate escape room and become the next Witch or Wizard of the University of Magic?

Having just escaped from The Prison it was time to enter a world that couldn’t be further away from prison, the world of magic. We’ve done a number of magic rooms before and in reality, we haven’t really done any that were that great so we were a bit apprehensive about what we may find here.

Our GM, Orlando gave us the usual health and safety briefing, explained our mission,  then gave us our university robes. Suitably attired, it was time to enter the university of magic

It seems impossible nowadays to do a magic school room without ripping off the Harry Potter franchise in one way or another. Although this room was obviously inspired by Harry Potter I wouldn’t call it a rip off from it, and it is certainly not a scary room so is perfect for families.

PUZZLES

With the attention to detail that Lucardo have gone to with this room, it’s no surprise that all the puzzles fit into the theme perfectly.

There’s a lot of observation, a little searching, and as you’d expect, a lot of magic.

There weren’t really any puzzles we struggled with as they were all very logical and once you had everything you needed to solve it, it became obvious what needed to be done.

One of the last puzzles took us a while to solve but once again that was because we missed something key in our eagerness to complete the room. We were on the cusp of asking for a clue when we spotted what we needed and solved it.

Once we completed the final puzzle there was a satisfying end to the room which left no doubt in our minds that we had succeeded in our exams.

IMMERSION/ROOM DESIGN

We’ve done a few magic-themed rooms now and our experiences in the past haven’t been great so we were apprehensive with what we might find in this room. So often a magic-themed room just means the designers ransacked a Harry Potter gift shop, but Lucardo restored our faith in ‘magic’ rooms.

The attention to detail was spot on and there was nothing in the room that broke with the immersion. Even the air conditioning unit was thought about during the room design process and this was disguised in a way that you didn’t even question it being there.

GM/CLUE SYSTEM

We only required one clue which was down to an observational fail on our part but our GM, Orlando had it ready and waiting. Clues were delivered promptly using the screen in the room.

If one wanted to really nitpick you could complain that the clue system and timer could have been integrated better as they were just a screen in the room, but that didn’t detract from our experience in the slightest.

ANYTHING ELSE

Due to bad experiences in the past we tend to stay away from magic themed rooms, but this one has restored our faith. Now we need to head to the Lucardo Rawtenstall branch to check out the sequel!

Success / Failed

Final Rating:

Team: Two players

Address: Virginia House, 5-7 Great Ancoats Street, Manchester, Greater Manchester, M4 5AD

Website: https://lucardo.com