Mad Land: Magic Universe (Madrid)

A Thing of Beauty

It’s not an escape room, nor a park, nor an interactive play. You don’t have to imagine anything, because everything is constructed to feel real. The sets, the music, the lighting, the timing… everything responds to a cinematic narrative structure, but experienced from within. There are no spectators. Just people who inhabit a world for a limited time. The result is something that can’t be recorded or told: it can only be experienced.

We had been hearing lots of chatter about a game in Madrid that was likely to do well in the TERPECAs. Typically, it opened after our last Madrid trip, and when it came in at number 2 in the 2025 TERPECAs, we knew that we had to get booked in. Initially we were going to do an extreme day trip, but as times didn’t line up, we made it a weekend trip and added a few extra games – but Magic Universe was the focus of the trip.

We got an Uber out to Mad Land from our hotel in Madrid which was easy and only took around 30 mins. We played at 9am on a Sunday morning, and as this venue is located on an industrial estate, the area was eerily quiet as everything else nearby was closed.

The entrance to Mad Land is round the back of a very large industrial building, and there’s no doubt you’re in the right place thanks to the signs outside. At our allotted time, we rang the doorbell and waited for the door to buzz open.

Inside the building it was like we had stepped into a totally different world to the one outside. Dark at first, but with atmospheric lighting. We were instructed to place our belongings in the provided locations, and use the facilities if we needed. There was also water on standby which was a lovely touch.

As far as first impressions go, we knew we were in for something special. The waiting area, and indeed the bathrooms felt like they had been designed by Disney – some top quality stuff. Everything here was part of the Mad Land world, even the voice-over managed to feel classy and add an air of excitement to the most standard of messages.

And then it was time. It was time to begin our 2.5 hour adventure and see what made this game number two in the world.

IMMERSION/ROOM DESIGN

If you ever hear anyone talking about Magic Universe, chances are that the first thing they say is how incredible the set was, and oh my god, this set is something else. There are so many things that take place in Magic Universe that to know about in advance would spoil the magic, so for everything that we tell you in this review, just know that there are many more things we’re not telling you.

I’m not even sure where to start with this. The size, the scale, the feeling of adventure, the quality of the set. It just had everything and no expense has been spared in building this amazing world. I’ll probably say it many times, but really if Disney did escape rooms – this is what they’d be like.

I know they have a lot of plans for this game, and it sounds like they’re aiming to make it replayable, where you follow the story of different characters. This could be why some areas we visited were simply to look at; maybe in future they will be full of puzzles. That’s probably my biggest gripe with this game is that you are whisked away to amazingly beautiful sets, and you simply move through them. I would love to have had more time to explore and really take in everything – but perhaps that will come in the next iterations.

After the game we spoke in detail about this game a lot, and we still are. This is a game where I would have loved to have been able to see some footage of our faces at key reveals (yes, more than one), as I’m sure our jaws were on the floor throughout. Simply beautiful sets, and I can’t see how any other game could ever top what they’ve crafted with Magic Universe.

PUZZLES

This game is a ‘spectacle chasers’ dream. If you’re one for beautiful sets then you will be in heaven. But to me, an escape room, regardless of how immersive the world is, needs great puzzles to pull it all together. Magic Universe did have some great puzzles, one could argue they were on the easier side, but that’s fine. For me, I would have liked more puzzles, but that could have just been because of the feeling I mentioned earlier where we had beautiful sets that we simply transitioned through.

All of the puzzles were diegetic in this magical world. Tech was used to keep that illusion of magic, and, something that I particularly liked – no wands were involved! In fact, all of the ‘real’ magic was performed by the actors, which for me, helped with the immersion.

We played as a team of four, and although there were a few moments here or there where someone was standing around, for the most part we were always doing something and often we could work on multi-linear puzzle paths. I’d say this game starts off as a more traditional escape room in terms of sets and puzzles, but it soon turns everything up to 11.

Observation, teamwork, communication, logic, searching, skill, and spatial awareness are all key puzzle tropes in Magic Universe, and some of the puzzles were really satisfying to solve. One particular part of the game felt rather search heavy, but there were still other things to get on with. We seemed to complete the searching in-between solving other puzzles.

Now that I think about it, there was one puzzle that had a really cool mechanic that we haven’t seen anywhere else. Ok, there were many cool puzzles, but this one in particular stood out, you could say it blew the others away.

Actually, the more I think about it, there was another puzzle mechanic that was amazing and on balance was one of the highlights of the game (other than the set). It took multiple puzzle types and threw them all into one really cool space/mechanic. Glorious.

GM/CLUE SYSTEM

When you look at at least the top two games in the TERPECAs, the key thing that connects them is space, scale, and live actors. The actors in Magic Universe were integral to the story and progressing players through the game. They played multiple characters and appeared when we needed to progress, but not at times when we could just be left to puzzle.

The only issue we had was that at times it was a bit loud and it became challenging to understand some of what was being said, but that generally didn’t impact the game, and seems to be something we notice more in these grand scale games.

After the game we had many many in depth discussions about Magic Universe, including with some well known people in the industry who have also played it. And we think we worked out that one thing that perhaps keeps this at number two in the TERPECAs and stops it dethroning Magnifico, and that’s that it is lacking the sense of self-exploration. In many top games, you solve a puzzle, something opens, and you investigate. In Magic Universe, you solve/complete a space and an actor appears to take you on to the next space, so you never get to truly find your own way though the game. A couple of times you do, and they were wonderful.  I’m sure this is done to stop players getting lost (the space is huge) and to add more narrative, but we would have just loved to have been able to explore.

If we needed any help (we didn’t) the hints would have been woven into the game’s narrative either being delivered by a GM or another system so as to not break the immersion.

ANYTHING ELSE

There is no doubt about it, this is one of the most beautiful games we have ever played, and it deserves its spot as one of the best in the world. If you want to play a game that you will never forget, this is the one. Is it a must play? Yes. Yes it 100% is.

So very many moments made this experience amazing. I would love to be able to talk about everything that made it special, but that would spoil it. So if you’ve played it and want to discuss it – we’re here for that discussion.

Obviously a game can’t legally use the Harry Potter universe without getting in trouble, but Magic Universe is clearly heavily inspired by it, both in terms of set and soundtrack. In a way it’s a shame they kept things close to the HP world when they could have just made some tweaks to make it totally separate. I’m not a Harry Potter person but I’m told there were a lot of similarities that both simultaneously made it better, and worse.

Success/Failed

Final Rating:

Team: 4 Players

Address: C. de Fuentespina, 13, Villa de Vallecas, 28031 Madrid, Spain

Website: https://www.madlandmadrid.es/