Magic Escape Room: Fuga da Azkaban / "Escape from Azkaban" (Rome, Italy)

Magic Escape Room's "Escape From Azkaban" was touted as one of the best escape rooms in Rome. It seemed like all their games were available in English so it was easy for us to book without having any language concerns. Note that in Rome, most escape rooms take payment in full in cash, a stark contrast to what we see in North America

"As you are returning from a party with your friends, in the middle of the night, you become distracted and lose control of your car. The car swerves, breaks a fence and you find yourself facing what appears to be an old abandoned country house. Under an incessant storm, decide to seek shelter ...Will it be a good idea?

Game Play, Set Design, Puzzles

There was a good mix of puzzles ranging from riddles, search and correlations. The story took place in the Harry Potter world with significant references throughout the game. The game succeeds in creating a fun atmosphere without having to resort to high tech elements. There were more padlocks than the latest rooms we've played in America but the group still ran around as if they were students in Hogwarts. The hint mechanism was pretty creative and also had a strong nod to the Harry Potter movies.

Memorable Moments 

For Harry Potter fans, being in the universe is quite the delight. For me, as a muggle, I would say the GM interaction was fun and thematic.

Room For Improvement

There was more than one puzzle that used some of your senses other than sight and touch. One puzzle would have taken me, and it seems many others, forever to do because not everyone has an ear for certain things. Other than that, experienced players may fly through this room.

Overall Thoughts

This family friendly room was fun for our entire group and even if you aren't a Harry Potter fan, you will still have a great time.

• Set design: Great
• Difficulty: Medium
• Price: 30€-110€ ($34-$126) for 1-6 people
• Number of players: 1-6, private (we recommend 2-4)
• Duration: 60 minutes
• Overall Rating: ★★★★½

See their website here: https://www.magicescape.it/en

Escape Room Roma: The Ring (Rome, Italy)

This Ring girl shrieked like the real deal

Escape Room Roma has something called a "Real Movie Experience" and these games, on their site, are separated from their regular escape room games. There is no clock as the goal is for you to experience the complete session and teams typically take between 50-85mins to get through it all. We requested if we could play the room in English and they obliged which we are extremely grateful for. We were also the first non-Italian players to play the game so once again not a simple task for their staff and actors. The translation was pretty much spot on. There were no issues except for one minor detail with a book that was not translatable but we were able to work it out.

I played with two other people who jumped at everything and we had one person who decided not to play a few minutes before the start time because of the theme. Special thanks to Sarah for being a good sport and playing even though you jumped at everything. The scariest parts for me were my teammates literally jumping across the entire room when something spooked us. From their site:

"As you are returning from a party with your friends, in the middle of the night, you become distracted and lose control of your car. The car swerves, breaks a fence and you find yourself facing what appears to be an old abandoned country house. Under an incessant storm, decide to seek shelter ...Will it be a good idea?

Game Play, Set Design, Puzzles

The start is great as you are thrust into a very believable world of the Ring. The game is largely played in the dark and featured the creepy AF little girl from the Ring. There are a lot of jump scares and loud sounds that will scare anyone and I applaud the actress for being able to shriek like an actual demon girl. There was one room where a light would sometimes turn on and off but 80% of the game is in the dark where you have to use artificial candles to light the way.

If you enjoy horror, you will like this room. If you don't, you will be stressed out to the point of exhaustion. The actress played a huge role. She was great. The puzzles were mostly average but of course you're not going to play this game for the puzzles.

Memorable Moments 

You wanted a movie-like experience? You got a movie-like experience! The fantastic start and strong finish will forever be in our memories.

Room For Improvement

There was more reading than I would have liked for a room that takes place mostly in the dark. I prefer not having to read more than two sentences and could be just me. It's especially difficult to read multiple pages of text when your trying to brace yourself for when your teammates dig their nails into your arm every few minutes.

Flashlights might have made things a lot more convenient but that might also lower the immersion because it wouldn't have been so dark so not sure how well this would work out.

Overall Thoughts

We are not horror fans, we don't watch the movies and didn't even see the ring. Yet, because of my affinity for escape rooms, we've played Zoe and Murder Co in Los Angeles which are some of the most intense and scary games in the US so some great references to benchmark against. Zoe was perhaps a tad scarier whereas Murder Co. was more twisted than scary. For horror fans you will truly be delighted at this Real Movie Experience.

• Set design: Excellent
• Difficulty: Medium
• Price: 90€ ($103)/ for 4 people +18€-20€ ($21-$23) per additional person 
• Number of players: 4-10, private (we recommend more than 4 to make it less scary :D)
• Duration: 55-80 minutes
• Overall Rating: ★★★★½ (★★★★★ for horror fans)

See their website here: https://www.escaperoomroma.it