Breakout Chester - "Dark Magic"

Updated: Mar 20

LOCATION:  Chester, United Kingdom

Photo above is property of Breakout Chester

📝 ETR DECODER

🔑 GAME: Dark Magic
📅 DATE PLAYED: July 15, 2022
🎬 GENRE: Fantasy, Magic
🧠 DIFFICULTY (Based on 2 ppl): 5/10
👥 TOTAL # OF PLAYERS: 2-5 ppl
🕒 LENGTH OF TIME: 60 Mins.
💰 PRICE: £15-20/PP (Weekdays), £17-22/PP (Weekends)
☎️ BOOKING TYPE: Private
🔓 ESCAPED/ COMPLETED?: Yes (45Min, 3 Hints)

📖 THE STORY

After discovering a secret room in the wizarding school where you study, your team accidentally threatens to set free an ancient evil. Fortunately, a great wizard has hidden a powerful wand and instructions for a banishing spell in the chamber with you. Can you find it in time, or will you be responsible for unleashing an unspeakable evil upon the world?

🎯 HIT THE BULLSEYE

Like so many other rooms at Breakout Chester, Dark Magic is well-decorated with a strong sense of authenticity. Very cool!
The room takes enough familiar elements from Harry Potter to satisfy fans, but makes them original enough not to be a straight-forward ripoff of their inspiration.
The puzzle design really leans into the concepts of the room, discarding traditional lock and key puzzles in favor of technical wizardry that fits the theme well while feeling fresh and novel.

🧩 MISSED THE MARK

Because of the “magic” of the puzzles, causes and effects were not always clear. Sometimes we solved a puzzle without realizing that something in the room had opened as a result.
The theme of this room lent itself well to hidden passages and secret rooms, so it was a bit of a disappointment that the whole game took place in the starting room.
One puzzle involving a mailbox was surprisingly easy to finish by guesswork, which we ended up doing accidentally.
A puzzle involving a visual clue appearing at intervals in the room involved a long wait, and was only visible for a moment each time it appeared, meaning a lot of down time between attempts to decipher it.

🏹 TAKE A SHOT?

Having completed every escape room at Breakout Chester, it’s clear to me that lots of care and consideration goes into the rooms there. I recommend the establishment highly, though "Dark Magic" is a bit of a strange beast when it comes to puzzle design; the room’s greatest strengths and weaknesses are all tied to its commitment to magic as a theme, making it a room with both fun and frustration unique among its peers.

In many ways, "Dark Magic" is a great success in terms of puzzle design, discarding many of the physical elements common in escape rooms in favor of something more unconventional and fresh. Instead of solving a puzzle by finding a code to put in a number lock, one might look for magic words to speak while waving a wand in a particular way. When these elements work, they feel great and make the room stand out. Even experienced players will likely find something new here, and novelty is a thing of great value in an escape room.

Unfortunately, discarding the apparatus of conventional puzzle design also sacrifices tactility, making the room’s mechanics feel rather slippery. It wasn’t uncommon for my experienced team to fumble about with a puzzle wondering what we were doing wrong, only to much later notice a newly-opened lock without knowing exactly what we had done to open it (and thus which puzzle elements we were done using). Interestingly, the team at Breakout Chester reports that newcomers to escape rooms tend to have an advantage in Dark Magic over experienced players since they have fewer preconceived notions about puzzle design. Still, the room could do more with sound, light, and motion to signal changes in the room’s state, which would go a long way toward lessening frustration and delivering on the fantasy of magic puzzles.

At the end of the day, "Dark Magic" isn’t the best room at Breakout Chester, but it is nonetheless a solid experience only held back from being a truly great one by the weight of its own ambitions. If you’re looking for something a little off the beaten path and don’t mind a bit of slippery design, then this remains a room worth checking out.

ℹ️ ADDITIONAL INFO

Because it is in a historic building, Breakout Chester is not handicap accessible. Players need to climb multiple staircases before they reach any of the rooms.
This is in a car-free part of the city, so you will probably have to walk a couple blocks from the nearest parking lot or bus station.
Employees on an intercom need to buzz you into the front door and want you to arrive five to ten minutes ahead of your game (but not earlier) so they can spread out guests for health reasons. Plan accordingly!
This room contains flash lighting and may therefore not be suitable for anyone with photosensitive epilepsy.