Room Escape Artist

[At the time of this review, Wizard’s Tower was called Very Potter Escape.]

Very Potter Escape is one of the best games in St. Paul, MN. Here are our other recommendations for great escape rooms in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area.

The Heroes Who Shall Not Be Named.

Location: St Paul, Minnesota

Date played: August 20, 2017

Team size: 2-10; we recommend 3-5

Duration: 60 minutes

Price: $24 per ticket

Story & setting

We took a journey to a school of wizardry, but absolutely not the one you’re thinking of. We had to break the rules and sneak into the Headmaster’s study to steal the Elder Wand before it was seized by nefarious forces.

Very Potter Escape was lushly decorated in shades of brown, red, and gold. It had a medieval fantasy vibe. It generally looked great.

Puzzles

As we solved the puzzles in Very Potter Escape, we mastered each school subject. Along the way, we interacted with the more recreational aspects of school such as magical creatures and sporting equipment.

The puzzling varied from mechanical to observational to logical.

Much of the puzzling felt magical. We maneuvered physical items and the school revealed its hidden secrets.

Standouts

Very Potter Escape captured the look and feel of an imaginary wizarding school that so many of us have fallen in love with. Without naming the characters, creatures, places, or stories, Trapped Puzzle Rooms recreated a world that adoring fans will recognize and the uninitiated can still enjoy.

The puzzling was varied and largely physical. We picked up props and figured out how to use them to conjure the magic. This could take a little doing.

We loved many of the puzzles in this escape rooms. They were simply a lot of fun.

Very Potter Escape included both padlocks and more tech-driven locking. These were distributed such that they made sense in the setting. When Very Potter Escape responded with tech-driven opens, they felt appropriately magical.

The hint system fit seamlessly into the story.

Shortcomings

Magical opens didn’t always give enough feedback. With a small team, it could be difficult to notice what we had triggered.

While Trapped Puzzle Rooms derived magical opens from technology, I would have loved to see more magic derived from manipulation of space. We know these types of schools have a lot of secrets hidden within their walls. There was opportunity for larger scale surprises.

The final few puzzles didn’t feel as exciting as the content offered by the vast majority of the experience.

Should I play Trapped Puzzle Rooms’ Very Potter Escape?

If you’ve enjoyed reading about a magical school of witchcraft and wizardry, or watching movies about one, you should absolutely visit Very Potter Escape. From the décor to the props to the puzzles, you’ll get to spend an hour making little bits of magic yourself.

Very Potter Escape was a mostly linear escape room. You won’t have to skip any dungeon classes to visit the pitch.

There is, however, still a lot of puzzle content in this escape room.

Note that you don’t need to know anything about magical schools to succeed at Very Potter Escape. You will likely have a lot of fun even if you miss the references.

Similarly, you don’t need any experience with escape rooms to fully enjoy this experience. It will be challenging, but likely still a lot of fun.

Book your hour with Trapped Puzzle Rooms’ Very Potter Escape, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.

Full disclosure: Trapped Puzzle Rooms provided media discounted tickets for this game.