Another year at the Wizarding School brings with it new challenges. You have been summoned by the headmaster to find a most precious artefact which has been lost for many decades. Its whereabouts unknown, your search leads you to a mysterious part of the castle where no one has ventured in years. You feel danger lurking around every dark corner…
Rating: Magical!
Completion Time: 50 minutes
Date Played: 2019
Party Size: 4
Recommended For: Adventure Seekers! Larger groups, teambuilding, beginners
It’s another trip down memory lane with today’s escape room review! Wizarding School: Fang of the Serpent is one of the rooms I played long before The Escape Roomer existed, back in 2019.
*gasp*
What was I doing with my time if not writing about escape rooms? I dare not remember.
It’s always been one of those escape rooms I return to when friends, particularly friends who are fans of a certain magical wizard whose name rhymes with Larry Trotter, ask for recommendations in London. It’s just such a classic in the magic school genre and Breakin’ Escape Rooms absolutely nailed it. The story, the theming, the magic! Love, love love.
So when I recently visited to play Heist Plan, I asked the owner if I could stick my head into the Fang of the Serpent room and have a look around. Just enough to job my memory so I could do a good job reviewing the experience. That said, for all my fond memories of the escape, this is a review written two years after the fact. So please take this with a pinch of salt – rooms change, teams change, the world changes.
Yer a Wizard, Mairi…
If you’re still waiting for your letter to Hogwarts to arrive in the post (dw, the owl’s just been a little delayed I’m sure it’s on it’s way), then playing Wizarding School at Breakin’ is the next best thing. It’s a three-room escape room experience where each room represents a different area of the wizarding school and takes you on a narrative journey not too dissimilar from The Chamber of Secrets.
To get you started, all players are given a magic wand at the start of the experience. Why? To do magic of course!
Once you’ve figured out how to magic some light into the room, you quickly realise you’re in a breathtakingly detailed wizarding school. Seriously, no expense spared and I definitely spent more time perusing the ancient books on the shelf and trying to swish-and-flick my way into levitating objects than solving actual puzzles. Oops!
From here you solve puzzles in the first room, uncover the second room, and the third in time for a grand finale. I don’t want to spoil too much about the further spaces, but I will say that they were very clever. The room is packed with surprises and at the time, I definitely ranked this room as one of the most impressive in their use of space ever.
Puzzles for witches and wizards
To really succeed in Wizard School: Fang of the Serpent, I’d advice brushing up on your knowledge of magic. Since playing Fang of the Serpent, I’ve seen similarly themed puzzles in play at home games and other wizarding world games alike – so there’s definitively a theme! Potions making puzzle? Tick. Puzzle involving magical emblems? Tick. Book themed puzzles? Tick.
My favourite of the puzzles in the game involved potions. Well, what can I say? It’s my favourite subject in the magic school genre by far. Breakin’ Escape Rooms’ interpretation of the ancient art of potions making was creative and delightful. It did something different that I’d not personally seen matched at any other escape room before, and I love that.
If we needed a clue at any point, we could request one via a walkie-talkie in the room. It was slightly immersion breaking, but at least it’s consistent! Every room available at Breakin’ delivers clues in a similar way, so at this point (many rooms later) I don’t mind.
The Verdict
Overall, Wizarding School: Fang of the Serpent is cinematically impressive, putting you at the centre stage in your own magical story. I really enjoy a good magic theme and I think Breakin’ absolutely aces it. I look back on this room very fondly, and whether that’s just rose tinted glasses or because it was a genuinely good quality adventure, I’ll leave that up to you to decide.
In fact, let us know in the comments what you thought of this room!
Wizarding School: Fang of the Serpent can be booked on Breakin’s website here.
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