Telford, Mar 2024
I only realised after I’d booked it, but I’d played this room before – back in 2016, when it was The Book of Secrets at Clue Adventures in London. At the time I found it very impressive, and it was one of my standard recommendations for London rooms, but that was the better part of a decade ago and escape rooms have advanced a great deal since – would it stand up to current standards, and would I even be able to play it without remembering too many spoilers?
Fortunately the latter wasn’t a problem – my memory is dreadful, and while there were plenty of pangs of familiarity, what lingering memories there were didn’t help me complete any part of it.
The background story has been changed somewhat, and I believe XscapeNow have tweaked the content in a variety of ways. Still, most of what I wrote about the original version remains true here. With relatively simple set dressing it has less visual impact than some of the other rooms at the venue, though some of the props make up for that; but where it shines is in slick puzzle design and clever use of the conjuring theme. Enthusiasts may be able to think of a more recent UK game that also makes distinctive use of a conjuring theme, and if you’ve played that one then it’ll take the shine off Book of Magic somewhat; but otherwise you’ll find plenty of cool moments to impress you.
Book of Magic is still a game originally designed eight years ago, and standards have advanced since then. For that reason it’s perhaps inevitable that it didn’t wow me in quite the way it did the first time round. But it speaks well of both the original design and the way XscapeNow have adapted it that it doesn’t show its age, and remains an interesting and creditable room to play. 