Lucardo Manchester: University of Magic: The Entrance Exam

By | March 20, 2019

by Lucardo Manchester (website)

Virginia House, 5-7 Great Ancoats Street, M4 5AD

Manchester

2-6 players

60 minutes

Wheelchair suitable - contact the venue for details
You have been offered a place to study at the mystical University of Magic. In order to secure your place, you will need to cast spells, recite incantations, mix potions and battle with dark forces. Do you have what it takes to play this ultimate escape room and become the next Witch or Wizard of the University of Magic?
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Overall rating

Rated between 3.5 and 4 out of 5

based on ratings from 37 users
combined with 7 pro reviews

Your review

Player reviews

🔐SpontaneousIllusion expert rated this:Rated between 25 and 25 out of 5
Outcome: Failed 🙁
illogicalbroken techpoor hosting
d.green26 expert rated this:Rated between 25 and 25 out of 5
Played: 25 Oct 2023 Team size: 2 Time taken: n/a Outcome: Failed 🙁
illogicalpoor hosting

I feel that this room has either changed or been over reviewed in the past as I picked this room due to the good reviews and it certainly didn't live up to it. We have done over 150 rooms now but this had puzzles that just didn't really make sense and some that fell flat. I did get really frustrated with one puzzle which they had to guide us through in the end and could have been us having a bad day but we wasted so much time on it. Most of the room looked fine but the main puzzle towards the end the props really let it down. I unfortunately cant recommend this for enthusiasts.  A good team that didn't have the same problem as us would also go through this quite fast as there didn't seem to be as many puzzles as most rooms.

🌵Juliette B expert rated this:Rated between 40 and 40 out of 5
Played: 12/07/2019 Team size: 2 Outcome: Successful escape!

Great room, our favourite of the 3 we played there. Very well themed and some great puzzles. Recommended if in the area. 

Scotus0 expert rated this:Rated between 35 and 35 out of 5
Played: 19/01/2020 Team size: 4 Time taken: 47:34 Outcome: Successful escape!

Sorcery on a Sunday!

I came here for my final (at least for now) Lucardo challenge with a few friends.

Story

Secure your place at the University of Magic by finding a wand and mixing a potion.

Puzzles

There were some truly unique, ‘magical’ tasks closely related to the theme/story. We required two or three hints, but none of them were overly complicated. The previous group had written the answer to the penultimate puzzle down, and this wasn’t rubbed off prior to us going in. While we still effectively solved it, the information we shouldn’t have had made it obvious we were doing it correctly. Since the answer didn’t become accessible until right near the end, it wasn’t too big a deal.

Mise-en-scène

A quirky, close-packed room that utilised every inch of available space for brooms, wands, quills, creatures and potions. I identified a fair few of Poundland’s Halloween wares as props, but if you don’t know, some of them do look authentic. There was one item that struck me as impressively Harry Potter-esque, but not quite as interactive as it perhaps should have been. As a whole, the room did feel part of an immersive, wizarding world.

Final Comments

An impersonal brief was saved by another bouncy Game Operator who welcomed us into the room in-character. I wouldn’t take more than 4 people, or else you’ll be struggling for puzzles to solve.

Allie Abbott rated this:Rated between 40 and 40 out of 5
Played: 02/01/20 Team size: 3 Time taken: 35 Outcome: Successful escape!
imrahil experienced rated this:Rated between 35 and 35 out of 5
Team size: 2 Outcome: Successful escape!
PurpleB expert rated this:Rated between 40 and 40 out of 5
Played: Jan 2020 Team size: 2 Outcome: Successful escape!

A great set and some interesting well-themed puzzles.  The game was let down a bit by the last puzzle though, which was lacking proper constraints and required you to make assumptions which didn't fit with the story.

🦡cipherdelic virtuoso rated this:Rated between 35 and 35 out of 5
Anonymous rated this:Rated between 40 and 40 out of 5
Played: 28/10/2020 Team size: 2 Outcome: Successful escape!

Really good room by Lucardo. We were hoping to complete this room since we did Dragon's Heart back in 2018.

It really didn't disappoint but we were left a bit lost by the story, we didn't know what the aim of the room was, not sure if we missed it in the introduction video (which had very low volume) so once all the padlocks and doors were opened, we lost a bit of time trying to understand why we were meant to do.

The game master (Emma, I believe) was fantastic. She really is enthusiastic about escape rooms so it made our experience even better as she knew to wait before sending us clues.

Anonymous rated this:Rated between 35 and 35 out of 5
Played: 13 Aug 2021 Team size: 3 Time taken: 55 Outcome: Successful escape!
great hostingmagicalthematic

Quite fun and magical feeling, and impressed with the props! Slight downside that I feel like some of the puzzles weren't so challenging and leaned slightly too much towards the looking around for things

Alice Lucy rated this:Rated between 50 and 50 out of 5
Team size: 2 Outcome: Successful escape!
matt_keds expert rated this:Rated between 40 and 40 out of 5
Played: 17 Mar 2018 Team size: 2 Time taken: 55 Outcome: Successful escape!
beautifulcleverstory-driven

#5

Fantastic quality of puzzles ands set decoration. A very original room,  attention to detail was great and it was loads of fun! The best room out of all of Lucardo’s that we’ve done. Still hovering around our top 10 after 40 rooms.

Mark Greenhalgh expert rated this:Rated between 30 and 30 out of 5
Played: 06/11/18
Simon (The Overthinkers) expert rated this:Rated between 45 and 45 out of 5
Played: 21 Apr 2019 Team size: 2 Time taken: 48:39 Outcome: Successful escape!
immersive
Anonymous experienced rated this:Rated between 25 and 25 out of 5
Team size: 2 Outcome: Successful escape!
Arjay Henshall expert rated this:Rated between 25 and 25 out of 5
Played: 18 Sep 2021 Team size: 4 Time taken: 43 Outcome: Successful escape!
magicalbroken techpoor hosting
Exotic Turtle experienced rated this:Rated between 30 and 30 out of 5
Played: 18 Sep 2021 Team size: 4 Outcome: Successful escape!
broken techpoor hosting
abooth expert rated this:Rated between 30 and 30 out of 5
Played: 8 Apr 2022 Team size: 2 Time taken: 43 Outcome: Successful escape!

It was pretty good, looked great. Bit of broken tech at the end that takes away from the story.

flyingoctopus expert rated this:Rated between 40 and 40 out of 5
Team size: 2 Outcome: Successful escape!

Nice fun room. Family friendly. 

Beautiful set.

Runs alongside the magic room at the other venue. It's nice that the 2 stories run back to back

oliviaxx rated this:Rated between 35 and 35 out of 5
Team size: 5 Time taken: 48:15 Outcome: Successful escape!

Couple of nice puzzles. Flowed nicely too. 

Escapetopus experienced rated this:Rated between 40 and 40 out of 5
Played: 8 Jun 2023 Team size: 2 Time taken: 58:29 Outcome: Successful escape!
magical

A nicely themed room with a good variety of puzzles, including a few I hadn’t seen before.

Speedy Sloth expert rated this:Rated between 30 and 30 out of 5
poor hosting
TheEscapeBoomers expert rated this:Rated between 35 and 35 out of 5
Team size: 2 Outcome: Failed 🙁
originalimmersivepoor hosting

I did enjoy this game and although we didn't escape,  we had a fun day. 

Our host on this day was truly awful and clearly didn't care or watch the game. We received the same clue 15 times on the final puzzle... Recently the staff seemed to have slipped.  

StaceyF expert rated this:Rated between 35 and 35 out of 5
Played: 13 Aug 2022 Team size: 3 Time taken: 58:44 Outcome: Successful escape!
family friendlymagicalpoor hosting
Jess_keds expert rated this:Rated between 35 and 35 out of 5
Outcome: Successful escape!
beautifulhi-techimmersive
Gavin B rated this:Rated between 40 and 40 out of 5
MartinStrong76 experienced rated this:Rated between 35 and 35 out of 5
Team size: 5 Outcome: Successful escape!
immersivegreat hosting
AubreyB expert rated this:Rated between 35 and 35 out of 5
Team size: 2 Outcome: Successful escape!
gimiabreakout experienced rated this:Rated between 40 and 40 out of 5
Played: 5 Mar 2023 Team size: 2 Time taken: 39:36 Outcome: Successful escape!
immersivemagical
roberts0502 experienced rated this:Rated between 40 and 40 out of 5
Played: 22 Sep 2022 Team size: 2 Time taken: 50:00 Outcome: Successful escape!
beautifulmagical
Molly Smith experienced rated this:Rated between 40 and 40 out of 5
Played: 4 Aug 2022 Team size: 5 Time taken: 57 Outcome: Successful escape!
family friendlymagical

Fun to play with children and great theming.

MerseyMarauders expert rated this:Rated between 40 and 40 out of 5
Team size: 4 Outcome: Successful escape!
beautifuloriginalfamily friendlyquite easy

Played with a friend and her two little ones - and they seemed really to enjoy the game more than us! As an overdoneone theme, we'd love Lucados take on the magic theme. 

Laura McGill expert rated this:Rated between 30 and 30 out of 5
Played: 14 Dec 2021 Team size: 2 Time taken: 40:00 Outcome: Successful escape!
family friendlymagicalquite easy
Kelley Wolatz experienced rated this:Rated between 40 and 40 out of 5
Played: 15 May 2021 Team size: 4 Time taken: 45 Outcome: Successful escape!
beautifulfunnymagical

This was a fun room that is beautiful. It has great theme and the GM was fun! No telescape, so I enjoyed that also. A pixie fairie provides the camera view!

🔐James Bloodworth expert rated this:Rated between 45 and 45 out of 5
Played: 18/03/2021 Team size: 5 Outcome: Successful escape!
When a great Avatar turns a good room into a great room!  Fantastic experience.
Jens (Bruteforce) expert rated this:Rated between 40 and 40 out of 5
Played: 14. Mai 2021
🦡cipherdelic virtuoso rated this:Rated between 45 and 45 out of 5

Wonderfully  charismatic and engaging host/avatar, and great use of the camera pixie to give you a great view of everything. Its a great room to start with, but the addition of the two characters of Prof Rick and Emzie the camera wielding pixie really elevates this adventure as your drawn even further into the narrative. The absence of an inventory is alos really refreshing as you're not diverted from the action. 
A few adaptation to the IRL puzzles actually make gameplay better (in my opinion) as the puzzle that can cause so much frustration (and in my case borderline rage quit!) has been modified and is no longer a time sink.
This is a wonderful family game, and a cracker of a game for introducing new players to the world of online escape rooms. Go play, iits so much fun!

Reviews by escape room review sites

Well deserving of its great reputation University of Magic was a fun, well-decorated room and, while the challenges focus more on observation than hard puzzles, there's still some meat in there to keep you busy.
Due to bad experiences in the past we tend to stay away from magic themed rooms, but this one has restored our faith. Now we need to head to the Lucardo Rawtenstall branch to check out the sequel!
It’s an extremely popular game and we could see why. It’s a beautifully themed and high-quality game with good puzzles excellently tied into the theme. 

Lucardo has built a reputation in the UK for quality games and had long been on my wish list of places I wanted to visit. They entered the online market in mid-2020 with Gemrunner (which I rated highly for its design and the overall experience). I’ve not had the chance to play Safe House as yet so when the opportunity came up to play the University of Magic I immediately signed on. Along with Prisons, pirates and sci-fi, Magic is one of my go-to themes.

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