Summary
A variation on “you’re in here, now get out”, School of Witchcraft and Wizardry makes progress more tangible and has great theming of its puzzles.
Review
Let’s leave the intellectual property question out of this particular review – it’s a good storyline, and the room theming and decoration were certainly on-point.
Arriving in good time we went down a couple of floors to the basement where we crossed paths with the previous team departing. The well-equipped waiting room had a coffee machine, beanbags, table football, and other bits and pieces to keep us entertained whilst we waited.
The briefing was to the point – as students at the School of Witchcraft & Wizardry, we must study six subjects and prove, practically, that we have the skills necessary to obtain an Outstanding grade, and not Excellent or Acceptable, Terrible, or any worse.
The room is very well-designed and devoid of padlocks. Tech is the way it goes, and is nicely concealed. Very well decorated, no rough edges. Lots of effort has gone into the build. Cloaks/hats/etc. are available for use.
Several very nice reveals and wows, and one particularly innovative puzzle. These are, however, counterweighted by a bit more busywork and searching than I’d have liked. We made short work of the first three subjects, and the next two followed fairly quickly. One of these used a fair amount of maths and logic, but with an accountant and two maths graduates on the team, this wasn’t an obstacle.
The last subject took us a lot of time due to either an unjustified fear or a misleading instruction, depending on your point of view. We knocked it out promptly once we’d taken our one hint.
Our host was notable mostly by his absence and non-involvement; we arrived at the appropriate time but were deposited in a waiting room (nice by waiting room standards) for about 10 minutes before getting a short briefing on what we needed to do, and at the end he took a quick photo before leaving us to show ourselves out. Hints were by request (waving at the cameras) and delivered over loudspeaker.
Outcome
We completed the room with a maximum score in about 47 minutes – the timer’s an hourglass so I worked off what I noted on my watch as start and end times. We used 1 hint, which we shouldn’t have needed.
In numbers
Overall: 6/10
Difficulty: 4/10
Theming: 9/10
Host: 3/10
Wow: 7/10
Pretty straightforward this one and we made fairly short work of it once we’d got our heads around the puzzles; making sense of them took longer than it possibly should have.
Other details
Accessibility: Located in the basement and I did not see any lift. Low door in one section.
Alerts: Low light for a short period. Possible phobia triggers. UV. Mandatory lockers.
Capacity: This and Enigma Quests’ other room, The Million Pound Heist, each take 3-5 players. A third room, Interstellar, appears to be under construction. I’d have asked the host, but as mentioned, he shot off. In our team of 5, nearly everyone had something to do most of the time. A team of 3 would have been stretched.
Cost: We paid £120 for our team of 5. The minimum of 3 costs £90 and it’s £108 for a team of 4. American Express is accepted.
Photo: Taken immediately afterwards by DSLR and emailed to us within minutes of leaving the building.
Getting there: 5 minutes away from Moorgate (Nothern, Circle, Metropolitan and Hammersmith & City lines).
Website: https://enigmaquests.london/