Wizarding 101: Pay. Attention. To Your Surroundings! – Room: Wizard’s Tower – November 29, 2020 – The Escape Room Guys
ESCAPE ROOM REVIEW – THE QUICK AND DIRTY
Play if… you take pleasure in magic (suppose Harry Potter), castles, wizards (fantasy basically).
Avoid if… you dislike rats, potions, and towers.
THE BASICS
Time Emporium Escape Rooms:
Address: 391 Denver Ave, Loveland, CO 80537 (click on handle for Google Map)
Contact and Website: 970-619-8639
The Room – Wizard’s Tower:
Description (from the corporate web site): Explore a fantastical world the place issues aren’t at all times what they appear. In this thrilling new journey, you’ll journey again to the age of swords and sorcery. Can you harness all 5 elemental runes, unlock the mysteries of the Wizard’s Tower, and show your self worthy of the problem? But be cautious, courageous puzzle-solvers, as a result of if the crystals fall into the flawed arms, your entire world will likely be in peril.
Difficulty (1-10): Hard
Time Limit: 60 minutes
Cost: $28
Identifier: R1
Party Size: 6 Max
Staging Area: Small ready space with merch and a sofa.
Metro Access/Parking: There’s a parking zone for the power and the adjoining retailer. Unsure about metro entry.
OUR EXPERIENCE
This is the video we took earlier than we entered the room:
This is the video we took simply after we accomplished the room:
Note: I did the submit FB Live for this and trailed into the Pre-room FB Live video of room 2, so sorry for the abrupt ending right here as I cut up the video. ~J
Note: The ERG got the chance to check out this room totally free, with the understanding that we might proceed to supply an trustworthy evaluation and comply with the identical course of we’ve used on all of our different scores.
Logistics:
Description of the room: You’re in a freaking Wizard’s Tower. I’ll say nothing extra.
Understanding of the Mission: Retrieve the Time Medallion by fixing all of the puzzles of the Wizard, whose tower we’ve encroached upon.
Did We Escape: Yes
Time Remaining: 0:55!
Our Suggested Party Size: This room is listed 6 max, however 4 can be a candy spot. This can be extremely difficult for 1 individual because of the quantity of issues to do, IMHO.
Did the room problem your entire crew? Yes
Members of our crew (apart from the ERG): Steph D
Worth the money and time? Absolutely
Where to Eat/Drink Before/After:
OUR SCORING:
| JASON says: |
|---|
| Overall Expectation (Summary) |
| While we had been in Estes Park on a mini-vacation some weeks in the past, we went to Estes Park Escape Room and the GM there instructed us we should always actually go to Loveland to the Time Emporium (and gave us their flyer). I had it sitting on the counter for a while solely to be misplaced to the playfulness of our cats. Unfortunately, I hadn’t seen it was gone till I attempted to determine what location we had been instructed to take a look at in Loveland (and there are an excellent variety of places within the space).
One day, whereas minding my very own enterprise, our oldest cat, Lilly, determined it will be a good suggestion to knock my glass cocktail shaker on the ground, shattering it. During cleanup, as I pulled glass shards from below the fridge, out got here the Time Emporium flyer! Now that I knew the place we had been imagined to be going, I despatched an e mail to the homeowners (Jeff and Noah, beforehand interviewed right here), and scheduled a time to go to Loveland. I had solely been instructed good issues, so spirits had been excessive however expectations weren’t (as common for a brand new location). |
| Story (Rating) |
| Let me begin this evaluation off with a low level: we had been (fairly actually) instructed there was no ‘pre-game’ story. Everything you’ll want to know is instructed to you IN the room by a disembodied voice. (If you’ve ever performed Skylanders, this voice jogged my memory of Eon.) The solely factor we WERE instructed was that, when you hear that voice, concentrate, as a result of a few of the story parts are lengthy(er than others) so if it’s a must to have them repeated (which we did on a number of events), it might eat into your time.
That being mentioned, when you really get within the room and the door closes, you actually are in a tower (and I’ll get extra into this within the F/C/U part beneath). Now the narrator tells you what’s happening, which is principally {that a} Time Medallion owned by the wizard who lived within the tower has been hidden there. Now that he’s gone, it’s as much as you to seek out and declare it earlier than it falls into anybody else’s (nefarious) arms. There’s a ton extra element as you progress as a result of as you determine easy methods to use your wands (sure, it’s a must to flail (probably not) your arms within the air with magic wands to make issues occur), “Eon” offers extra background (and sure, I’ll most likely seek advice from him as “Eon” for the remainder of this evaluation as a result of…why not?). Side be aware: all the escapes at Time Emporium focus round this theme of time medallions, therefore the identify of the power. If this individual (or whomever) recovers all of the medallions, they will management time. It’s a fairly nifty idea and I used to be wanting to see how it will play out right here (and in our upcoming run of Murder in London). Rating: 9/10 |
| Mission (Rating) |
| Solve all of the puzzles in all of the realms to get better every corresponding time crystal. This means that you can get better the hidden time medallion else it might fall into evil arms and actuality as you already know it might by no means be the identical. (If you’ve ever watched DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, suppose the Spear of Destiny thread on that present.)
It’s an attention-grabbing idea, and as I discussed, matches into the general time-travel theme of the power and its different rooms. Have we performed different wizard-style rooms? Yes. Were they nearly as good as this one? Not even shut. Rating: 8.5/10 |
| Puzzle Diversity (Rating) |
| This room had some very distinctive puzzles to determine, not restricted to make use of of a magic wand. First, there have been no locks (zip, zero, nada, zilch, bupkis, nil) in any way, which is one among solely a handful of rooms I’ve (tried to) escape that may say such a factor.
Second, nearly all of the puzzles had been arms on, which means you needed to really manipulate one thing. You additionally should study the spells to make use of with the wands as you progress, which was enjoyable too. Pro tip: while you’re utilizing the wand, don’t simply contact the wand to the wall sensor; that sensor is definitely a button so that you can press and anticipate it to flash. To provide you with an concept of what was there: logic, sample matching, riddles, a maze, a puzzle much like the one we had hassle with right here (however a gazillion occasions simpler), amongst others. Hell, there was even a well-integrated (and freakin’ tough) discover the variations puzzle! Rating: 10/10 |
| Puzzle Complexity (Rating) |
| Let me begin by saying the two best puzzles made us really feel (1) silly for not figuring them out shortly and (2) silly for being fully blind to them. (That assertion is, in and of itself, really a touch. I didn’t imply to say it that means however will now go away in on your profit.) Just ensure you use Rule #10 on this room.
Looking again on this expertise, there have been few issues that truly had been straight up tough. There had been a number of issues that we weren’t positive we had been doing proper, and a few issues we simply blatantly missed (see the paragraph above), however greater than tough, there was only a LOT to do, particularly for two individuals. Had we had a number of extra, we simply may have made the chief board right here. I’d put the tough vary someplace round 2-7, which is an efficient unfold and offers you some actually fast wins at occasions. As I wish to say…CLICK HERE. Rating: 9/10 |
| Flow/Cohesiveness/Uniqueness (Rating) |
| Let’s begin with this: this room seems to be AMAZING. Because it’s crafted ground to ceiling, it actually feels such as you’re within the chamber of an previous mage. I can consider solely 3 places that I’ve seen rooms that had been this nicely crafted. (I don’t suppose I mentioned that concerning the different rooms, although, most likely as a result of both theirs had extra space or they simply weren’t as nicely crafted. Also, one of many 3 was a sneak peek; we didn’t really do the room.)
There are 5 distinct paths on this room, as there are 5 separate ‘realms’ it’s a must to work out easy methods to entry. This requires that you’ve the spells to entry them through your wand, which you’ll study as the sport progresses. As you do, you unlock extra that you are able to do within the room, finally ending every path with the disclosing of a time crystal. Oh proper, time crystals. To full your goal, you’ll want to discover a crystal from every realm to take away the sword from the stone, thus bequeathing unto your self the time medallion from the tower. (Side be aware: the medallion was bodily lacking from the sword after we had been there as a result of it was unceremoniously “eliminated” from mentioned sword by a previous group and never but fastened, so we didn’t get to see it. We did see the one in Murder in London, nevertheless.) Rating: 10/10 |
| Fun/Amusement (Summary) |
| Yes, we actually did. The solely bummer was not making the leaderboard! |
| Game Master (Summary) |
| Considering it’s considerably automated, “Eon” was good. Sam, the precise human GM, was nice, too. |
| How Helpful Were Any Clues Given, if any (Summary) |
| “Eon” didn’t make us really feel silly, and his “pet” was fairly humorous as nicely. |
| RAGE Meter OR ERG (pronounced URG, as in “we should always have recognized higher”) Score |
| I used to be solely actually irritated at myself for not seeing one of many puzzles (and I say “seeing” as a result of we very positively didn’t see easy methods to remedy it. And it’s ridiculously easy.
Rating: 0 fists |
ESCAPE ROOM GUYS’ OVERALL SCORING 9.3/10
Final Thought: After we accomplished this room, I instantly mentioned that this was my new favourite room and I couldn’t wait to do the remainder of the experiences there. So, keep tuned for the evaluation of Murder in London and, should you haven’t seen it already, watch the interview with Jeff and Noah. That mentioned, these guys have an analogous philosophy to the ERG in that they design the room across the story and never simply plug the story into the puzzles. If you’re in Colorado, this location is a MUST.