Kid friendly journey to "hogwarts"

 Table of Contents

Location: Home

Date Played: May 2024

Team size: 1; recommended 1 - 4 players

Duration: 1.5 - 2 hours

Price: ~S$40 on their website

Premise

Wizcape Academy is an escape game that mixes puzzles, narrative and technology, immersing you in a magical world. An envelope full of enigmas and magical elements will come to your hands. You will have to use your wits to solve all the puzzles, pass the tests and join the magic academy.

Plot

In this new adventure, you will have to use your magical power and test all your senses to pass the entrance exam to the magic academy. Will you be able to perform the spells and prepare the potions correctly?

Your magical powers are awakening. It's time to prove that you have excellent magical skills, will you be able to enter the Wizcape academy and become part of one of the four great houses?

Components

Most of the components are paper-based and are of decent quality. Alongside them, there is a cool glasses and a spy glass decoder. 

While they were quite gimmicky, I'm sure that it'll be enjoyable for kids to figure out how to make use of the various items within the game.

Gameplay

Similar to other Key Engima games, you'll be using their website to navigate through this escape room. There'll be an AI who'll help you out throughout your journey, telling you what to do and offering hints and answers if you get stuck.

The game is linear through and through, there's no instance of working on simultaneous puzzles. Some might be put off by it but for me I'm fairly neutral on it.

Puzzles/Thoughts

➕Cute and lovely theme. The idea of entering a wizarding school and creating some potions is really cool and will definitely attract kids.

➕Decent puzzles. They weren't groundbreaking but some were fun to solve and some were really unique.

➖On the easier side. As the game is more targeted towards kids, most puzzles are generally quite easy. Don't let this fool you however as some of the puzzles still stumped me and I had to reach for the hints.

✖️One puzzle in particular was a memory game. It felt more of a chore to me but I could see it being fun for kids.

✖️Some puzzles required more signposting. It was difficult to tell what components to use or what to do at times. Having more subtleties to signify the next step would help alleviate the game.

Verdict

Wizcape Academy is fine and I would recommend it for kids! For more seasoned escape room gamers, this game might not satisfy your cravings but it's still worth a try.

Rating: 3/5

★★★✩✩

You can buy their game here