Time Emporium Escape Rooms: Loveland - "Wizards Tower"

Updated: Apr 12

LOCATION:  Loveland, Colorado, USA

Photo above is property of Time Emporium Escape Rooms

Photo above is property of ESCAPETHEROOMers

📝 ETR DECODER

🔑 GAME: Wizards Tower
📅 DATE PLAYED: August 28, 2022
🎬 GENRE: Detective
🧠 DIFFICULTY (Based on 2 ppl): 7.5/10
👥 TOTAL # OF PLAYERS: Up to 6 ppl
🕒 LENGTH OF TIME: 60 Mins.
💰 PRICE: $40.00/ pp
☎️ BOOKING TYPE: Private
🔓 ESCAPED/ COMPLETED?: No

📖 THE STORY

You've always been fascinated by the Wizard's Tower. What kind of sorcery and mystery is happening in there? To prove yourself worthy, you must harness all 5 elemental runes in 60 minutes. Are you up for the challenge?

Video above is property of ESCAPETHEROOMers

🎯 HIT THE BULLSEYE

The set design was absolutely stunning. From magical walls that lit up to sounds of spells echoing around us, we literally felt like we were in a scene in Harry Potter.
Props like magical wands, caldrons and even peculiar creatures all added value to the immersion factor.
The concept of having players actually make a spell with the wands really involved us into the storyline.
We loved the discovery of the unexpected secret passageway.
The hint system was given by the wizard rather than speaking with the GM directly.
There was a cool way that the room made us feel like we've switched from one realm to another.

🧩 MISSED THE MARK

There was a puzzle that we had to use a magnet but the magnet felt too weak and was hard to maneuver the object.
There was a visual puzzle that we are still confused on how the solution came about from those clues.
An intro letter would be more helpful in this game rather than the GM explaining the game's rules. We didn't quite understand the rules when our GM explained it to us so we lost quite a bit of time at the beginning not knowing what to do. In this game, some reactions were manually triggered by the GM. It's very important that they pay attention to what we do at all times. There were several delays in the game and we thought we did something wrong only to realize later it was not because of us.
There was a book that provided too much information. The room was played in dim lighting so these red herrings really was unnecessary.
We had some reset issues with this room as one of the object was able to be taken out at the beginning but it was actually the item that was supposed to come out as a victory item all the way at the end. Also a cryptex was opened at the beginning that wasn't supposed to and messed up our game flow.
Inputting letters into the cryptex was quite a challenge in the dim room. We suggest adding a wand that has a light at the tip to help players see better.
The final puzzle was really difficult. I would suggest either giving the player a "pause" button or just a shortened version. The replay time is too long.

🏹 TAKE A SHOT?

The set design grasped my attention right away. I was very excited to explore this beautiful tower. Unfortunately there were some reset issues and we didn't have the best experience with the game master. We always say a GM can make or break a game and this is definitely one of those incidences. So we're unsure how fair we can be with this review as you might have a different experience than us. We do see the potential in this room after tweaking some of the "miss the mark" items. After playing the three games at their Loveland location, I can safely say that Time Emporium Escape Rooms is definitely doing something right. There's a lot of innovative ideas that they are incorporating into the escape room genre and we can't wait to see what they come up with next!

Photos above are property of ESCAPETHEROOMers

ℹ️ ADDITIONAL INFO

Free parking lot right in front
Lobby area with seating available
Merchandise available for purchase

BOOK NOW

(If you do decide to try this game, give us a shoutout or tag us on social media so we know you heard it from "ESCAPETHEROOMers"!)

Disclosure: We thank Time Emporium Escape Rooms for comping our tickets for this game. Although complimentary admission was generously provided, it does not impact our opinion on the review whatsoever.