Room Story - from Escapologic
The year is 1942, World War 2 rages on. You are an elite spy deep undercover at the operations bunker of the infamous splinter cell group known as SPYKE. The group has reached an agreement with the mysterious Magnus, an aerospace engineer, and he has agreed to develop a new super weapon that could change the tides of war and leave devastation in its wake.
show more.... After months on a covert operation an assault on the base has left you free to finally gather the intel needed on the inner workings of this weapon and ascertain the technology for the allied forces.
Your only line of communication is a fellow agent who has been placed amongst SPYKE’s ranks for this very moment, they will be on hand to assist you throughout the mission but must do so without blowing their cover.
This could truly be the turning point of the war; The Allied forces, the Resistance and even the fate of the world, rests on your shoulders.
Godspeed agent.
...show less
Key Stats
Review
When we headed to Escapologic Leicester, we only planned to do Reactorvate and Chronos, but when we got there we got excited and decided to do all three rooms and complete Operation Magnus as well.
Operation Magnus is a WW2 themed room set in an underground bunker. As soon as you enter the room, you’re immediately struck by the quality of the theming and the realistic feel of the room. From your initial point of entry, you can also see that there’s going to be quite a lot to explore in the game.
We got going on the first puzzle and floundered instantly. We tried to solve the puzzle in lots of different ways and couldn’t come to any logical answer. There was something the host had hinted at in their initial introduction that we decided to try and with that, we successfully completed the puzzle. It left us really confused though as we had no idea how you got to that answer with the clues presented. It felt like a real red herring. I spoke to some friends who’d done the room the week before and they had exactly the same experience.
Solving the first puzzle unlocks the next part of the room, which offers lots more to explore and ups the immersion as you enter a realistic living quarters complete with beds, uniforms and realistic props from the WW2 era. This part of the room requires lots of searching and we required a few hints to help us find everything and progress. Hints are delivered via an old fashioned telephone in the room.
When we progressed, we then hit another part of the room where we weren’t really clear what we needed to do to proceed. There are a number of pieces of on theme equipment to interact with and we had a vague idea of what we needed to do, but weren’t quite sure how to achieve it. We did successfully complete the task, but all the way through there was a lack of confirmation we were on the right track so we didn’t feel very confident with what we’d done.
The series of actions we completed led to the grand finale of the room, which was an impressive surprise we weren’t expecting! This was a really big moment, well integrated into the theming and storyline of the room. You’re often given missions in escape rooms where the series of steps you complete don’t really tie into the mission or allow you to see the effect of your in game actions. This really wasn’t the case in this room!
We all came out feeling a little bit mixed about the room. We loved the theming, atmosphere and museum like setting of the room, but we felt like we blundered our way through, never completely sure of the actions we were completing. We felt that at times the room was overly dependent on the clue system to guide you through, rather than providing enough in game hints on how to progress.
Ratings
The year is 1942, World War 2 rages on. You are an elite spy deep undercover at the operations bunker of the infamous splinter cell group known as SPYKE. The group has reached an agreement with the mysterious Magnus, an aerospace engineer, and he has agreed to develop a new super weapon that could change the tides of war and leave devastation in its wake.
show more.... After months on a covert operation an assault on the base has left you free to finally gather the intel needed on the inner workings of this weapon and ascertain the technology for the allied forces.
Your only line of communication is a fellow agent who has been placed amongst SPYKE’s ranks for this very moment, they will be on hand to assist you throughout the mission but must do so without blowing their cover.
This could truly be the turning point of the war; The Allied forces, the Resistance and even the fate of the world, rests on your shoulders.
Godspeed agent.
...show less
Key Stats
| Room Name | Operation Magnus |
| Venue | Escapologic |
| Location | Leicester, UK |
| Date | 2018/04/15 |
| Escape Time | 45:00 |
| Team Size | 3 |
| My Recommended Team Size | 2 - 5 |
Review
When we headed to Escapologic Leicester, we only planned to do Reactorvate and Chronos, but when we got there we got excited and decided to do all three rooms and complete Operation Magnus as well.
Operation Magnus is a WW2 themed room set in an underground bunker. As soon as you enter the room, you’re immediately struck by the quality of the theming and the realistic feel of the room. From your initial point of entry, you can also see that there’s going to be quite a lot to explore in the game.
We got going on the first puzzle and floundered instantly. We tried to solve the puzzle in lots of different ways and couldn’t come to any logical answer. There was something the host had hinted at in their initial introduction that we decided to try and with that, we successfully completed the puzzle. It left us really confused though as we had no idea how you got to that answer with the clues presented. It felt like a real red herring. I spoke to some friends who’d done the room the week before and they had exactly the same experience.
Solving the first puzzle unlocks the next part of the room, which offers lots more to explore and ups the immersion as you enter a realistic living quarters complete with beds, uniforms and realistic props from the WW2 era. This part of the room requires lots of searching and we required a few hints to help us find everything and progress. Hints are delivered via an old fashioned telephone in the room.
When we progressed, we then hit another part of the room where we weren’t really clear what we needed to do to proceed. There are a number of pieces of on theme equipment to interact with and we had a vague idea of what we needed to do, but weren’t quite sure how to achieve it. We did successfully complete the task, but all the way through there was a lack of confirmation we were on the right track so we didn’t feel very confident with what we’d done.
The series of actions we completed led to the grand finale of the room, which was an impressive surprise we weren’t expecting! This was a really big moment, well integrated into the theming and storyline of the room. You’re often given missions in escape rooms where the series of steps you complete don’t really tie into the mission or allow you to see the effect of your in game actions. This really wasn’t the case in this room!
We all came out feeling a little bit mixed about the room. We loved the theming, atmosphere and museum like setting of the room, but we felt like we blundered our way through, never completely sure of the actions we were completing. We felt that at times the room was overly dependent on the clue system to guide you through, rather than providing enough in game hints on how to progress.
 |
| The team were Beth, Daniel and Becky. |
Ratings
| Overall |  | It’s a fantastically themed room, with a few hidden surprises and a great ending but you’re not always clear what you should be doing. |
| Difficulty | | We needed a lot of clues to progress in this room. |
| Fun |  | There are some really fun moments in the game, but we did spend quite a lot of time wandering aimlessly and unsure how to progress. |
| Puzzles | | There are a few fun puzzles in the room, but there’s quite a few where you’re not quite sure you’re doing the right thing. |
| Immersion |  | The theming was excellent; it felt like a fully immersive experience. |
| Surprises | | There are a few nice surprises in the game and lots to explore. |