Escape London (Islington): Magic Emporium

Great escape room that is perfect for Harry Potter fans. A fun set and unique puzzles.

The theming of this room - diagon alley style - was ok but could have been better executed. Things like using brick pattern wallpaper instead of brick slips or tiles made it feel a bit cheap and basic. Technically the room was split into two chambers - the premise was that you had to break into a shop - but as the shop front was entirely glass, there was no fun reveal for the second section as everything was visible from the start. I did think the clue delivery system was great though and very fitting with the theme. A final slight annoyance was that screams could periodically be heard from the next-door horror room, along with other general comings and goings.

The room was fairly plain and there wasn’t much to explore that was puzzle-related, however there was a large amount clutter and some red herrings. It’s a low-tech room that relies mainly on padlocks. Much of what little tech there was seemed to be broken, and we required instruction from the GM on how to manipulate a piece of tech in order to get it to work. Most of the puzzles were based on observation. In the second chamber this presented a problem as some of the puzzles required us to spot things and identify colours in very dim lighting that were extremely difficult to see.

This is where the hosting let us down a bit. The GM mentioned at the start that she would be able to see us but not hear us. I don’t know how usual this is, but I did wonder if it had an impact - clues given were generally not quite pertinent to the thing we were working on at the time. A simple ‘look up’ at the point where we got really stuck would have helped enormously.

Not as bad as Demon Barber.

Aesthetically - it is decent. 

Puzzles are varied but AGAIN, like with ALL of ESCAPE's games, there is so much that needs repairing. 

A huge problem for this company seems to be to employ someone who can actually repair things. 

The staff are often completely uninterested / unskilled / de-motivated to do anything like maintain the games. I've visited this venue a few times now and each time I am baffled by the apathy displayed by the staff. 

They often look knackered and fed up. For this particular experience, the staff member informed us that if we wanted any clues he would be unlikely to notice because he was running 4 games at once....!?? 

Wow...thanks for that.  Make us feel 'special' why don't you.

Why the hell was he having to run 4 games at once? WTF is that about?

Surely that isn't commonplace for GM's at escape? That is a H&S risk... 

But this is what escape does - it is ALL about the money and maximising profit at the expense of staff welfare and customer enjoyment. 

Soon - I am sure - escape will collapse in on itself and people will stop visiting due to some significant issue / event. 

The game itself was challenging - particularly as several things were damaged, plus in one room you are required to notice items quite high up above you and they're not well lit... 

I always feel that escape's games are very much about get their money, get them in, get them out... reset...repeat...ignore feedback.

I'd avoid all their games. A poor experience...

A lovely room, great set dressing and we enjoyed it.

Good game, some fun puzzles, although a little confusing at one stage as very loud music is triggered and everything goes dark apart from flashing lights which just added mayhem and the only way to stop the music/darkness/flashing isn't something logical.. but the volume means there is no way to get a clue.. ended up with the games master coming into the room and confusing us further.