The Wizard Four and the Book of Black Arts – Escaparium

Played on May 20th 2024 by:

The Wizard Four and the Book of Black Arts was the first room we played that evening at Escaparium Montréal. In this scenario, as potential new students at Sable Oak Magic School, you are asked to meet with the Headmistress to discuss your newly discovered powers—but first, you’ll need to save her from her own mistakes. We felt that the scenario was a bit short and lacking details on the website. However, the game master welcomed us while impersonating a character from the story and performed the introduction, which made the experience quite mysterious. We weren’t entirely sure what to expect going in.

The decor was very beautiful and well executed. The layout of the game was unique and fun, with one particular element that we had never seen in any other escape room. One thing we felt was missing was more objects and accessories to make the space feel more lived-in and realistic, but that’s a minor detail. The rooms are very large, so we understand that filling them completely can be more challenging. Overall, we were impressed by the high quality, execution, and attention to detail. We also enjoyed the background music during the game.

The puzzles were fun to solve and tied to the theme and story, and the room relied entirely on technology. However, we felt that there weren’t enough puzzles, and the logic behind some of them wasn’t very strong. In a few cases, we solved puzzles without fully understanding what we had done, which was a bit disappointing. There were also fairly long pauses where we had to listen to an actor advance the story, which we felt interrupted the flow of the game too much. Although the room is non-linear—which we usually enjoy—there simply weren’t enough tasks available at the same time for it to feel engaging. On a positive note, hints were delivered in a very fun and unusual way. We won’t spoil the surprise, but it was fantastic!

Overall, we liked this room but wished there were more puzzles with stronger logic behind them. We really enjoyed the decor, though the rooms felt slightly empty at times. It’s a family-friendly room that is better suited for groups of around four players. We were happy with our performance, as we completed the room with time to spare and only needed two hints. We liked it—and we escaped!

: Yes

Andrea