Not like their others, but still solid
Visit what is probably the most magical escape room ‘Malvini’s Legacy’ in Hamburg and let yourself be enchanted by the enigmatic stage magician Edgar Malvini. Enter his enchanted magic chamber and solve the mystical puzzles on the edge of the occult. What lies behind Malvini’s legacy – just a few clever tricks or real magic? Go on a search for the legendary Book of Immortality to uncover the secret of Malvini’s legacy. Immerse yourself in the world of the magician, search the magic chamber for clues and combine your conclusions to bring light into the darkness. But be careful that the magic doesn’t lead you down the wrong path…
On our very quick weekend trip to Hamburg we’d actually only planned to play the two Ernie Hudson games at Skurrilum (Wailing Woman, and Zoo of Death, but it’s never a bad thing when plans change and a third game gets added to the mix. Our teammates for Hamburg, James and Charlie had to depart the city on their cruise but we had an extra night in the city, so we returned the following day to play Malvini’s Legacy.
Despite technically being in the same building as the Ernie Hudson games, this game is on the third floor and with a different entrance. When we arrived we were greeted by our GM (who we had met the day before), Issam. Issam greeted us and escorted us through to the comfortable and atmospheric waiting area where we could use the facilities and store our items securely away in one of the many lockers.
After making sure that our room was ready, Issam then joined us in the waiting area and proceeded to give us the health and safety briefing as well as some background story of what we were there to do. With the mission clear in our minds, and one final bit of advice from Issam, we were shown through to Malvini’s magic chamber and we were ready to begin.
IMMERSION/ROOM DESIGN
When we got into the room we were given a more thorough briefing by Malvini himself, he wasn’t there in person, but Skurrilum had used a solid system to keep up with the ‘magic’ feel.
It’s probably worth saying it now, this game is not at the same level as the Ernie Hudson games at Skurrilum, but it still is a fun game and shouldn’t be overlooked. The game area for Malvini’s Legacy also wasn’t the biggest, but you could still comfortably fit a larger team in and not tread on each other’s toes – as a team of two we had plenty of space to run around.
The space itself felt very atmospheric, with lots of noises being played at all times and the occasional comment from Malvini himself, sometimes with subtle clues/nudges, and occasionally just comments – oh and a few very light jump scares for good measure (but this is not a horror experience in the slightest).
Malvini’s Legacy had lots of props and items dotted around the room, some of which we even tried to use to create our own puzzles. But really, once you took a moment it was quite easy to work out what was important and what was quite simply set dressing.
PUZZLES
I mean no disrespect to Malvini’s Legacy when I say that this game was ‘simpler’ than the other games we played a Skurrilum. The majority of the puzzles resulted in combinations or keys for padlocks, but there was a little tech and some perfectly timed manual triggers behind-the-scenes.
Despite the game starting in darkness, this didn’t last long (although longer than it should have for us) and then we never had any issues with seeing things. Once we got the lights on, the puzzles generally revolved around; observation, searching, following instructions, simple maths and maybe a little wordplay.
The puzzles were generally all fair, although we did struggle with one puzzle which perhaps had something that was lost in translation. Another puzzle arguably needed outside knowledge to complete it and I could see people struggling with this one if they didn’t know what was needed. The last ‘puzzle’ or ‘task’ was again a bit of a stretch so we needed a little assistance to tell us to do this thing that we felt we shouldn’t do.
GM/CLUE SYSTEM
Issam was a great host, from our warm welcome, to perfect clueing in the game. After the game we also had a very thorough debrief and he walked us through the game and answered any questions that we had.
I touched upon it earlier, but the clues in Malvini’s Legacy came to us in a way that kept them perfectly on theme and quite cool. Issam was on the ball and we never found ourselves at a loss for too long before he was able to get us back on track, sometimes in a very subtle way.
ANYTHING ELSE
Malvini’s Legacy is a good traditional escape room. It doesn’t have the ‘wow factor’ of the Ernie Hudson games, but if you want a fun escape room with some decent effects, good lighting, and enjoyable puzzles, oh and with a hint of magic – then this isn’t a bad choice.
Success / Failure
Final Rating:
| Operation | |
| Puzzles | |
| Room Design | |
| GM/Clues | |
| Excitement |
Team: 2 players
Address: Spielbudenplatz 21, 20359 Hamburg, Germany
Website: https://skurrilum.de
*Disclaimer: we weren’t charged for these tickets, but this has not influenced our review*
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