Review: Irvine School of Wizardry and the Goblin’s Secret, Hidden Donkey, Irvine, CA
Fun Factor 8
Irvine School of Wizardry and the Goblin’s Secret
Hidden Donkey Escape Rooms
17925 Sky Park Cir, Suite B, Irvine, CA 92614
Date we played: December 30, 2024
Booking size 2 to 7; We recommend 2 to 4
Game time: 60 minutes
Objective: You’re students at the Irvine School of Wizardy - the headmaster has set you on a task to uncover some dark secret!
Horror Theme: No.
Difficulty: Intermediate
We highly recommend Irvine School of Wizardry and the Goblin’s Secret by Hidden Donkey in Irvine, California. This room has a fantastic set that opens up in many surprising and immersive ways, as well as fun and engaging content.
In fact, this room offers an experience we find most joyful—a genuine “cinematic moment.” These are hard to achieve, yet Hidden Donkey features a scene that left my group smiling broadly and exclaiming, “Wait, is this really happening?”
My favorite type of puzzle (the hardest to design) is one that feels organic to the situation—meaning that you’re not just solving a puzzle but truly experiencing the environment around you. Since the premise of this room revolves around a school, receiving guidance from the headmaster and demonstrating our magical prowess, even puzzles that are somewhat instruction-based fit naturally into the scenario. This is an advantage of a school-driven story. For this reason, we believe that the Irvine School of Wizardry and the Goblin’s Secret may also be a good choice for less experienced players. Hidden Donkey has incorporated a clever game-flow technique to keep you on track — fortunately, one of my teammates saw its value…as I was overlooking it!
You will join the Irvine School of Wizardry at its Department of Beast Mastery.
The room can be booked by groups of 2 to 7, but we believe a good size group is 2 to 4. The set is rich in details, and more eyes looking for clues and making connections can benefit from it. However, it is not that big of a space, and groups of five or more may find themselves a bit crowded. This game is less about scavenging for hidden items and more about making connections with what you observe.
As with the other great magical-themed rooms, Hidden Donkey gives us plenty of time to use our magical wands—but not excessively, and there will come a time when the use of wands will no longer be necessary and that is clearly communicated. Irvine School of Wizardry and the Goblin’s Secret offers a nice variety of puzzle techniques; as mentioned, some are highly instruction-based, but many require imaginative out-of-the-box thinking - but we found all of the solutions clean and elegant.
Irvine School of Wizardry and the Goblin’s Secret’s set really shines! Thanks to Hidden Donkey's fantastic set, the expanse and progression of the set far exceed its physical footprint. Our group just kept smiling and enjoying the world made for us to explore.
Adding to our fun, Hidden Donkey made good use of technology to give the illusion that we were interacting with characters.
Hidden Donkey’s staff is very friendly and engaging. Hidden Donkey is located in a business park and thus, there is plenty of free and available parking.
We had previously played Hidden Donkey’s first escape room - Irvine School of Wizardry and the Dragon Wand, which we also recommend.
The Irvine School of Wizardry and the Goblin’s Secret scored very well on the 2024 TERPECA ratings - as it was rated number 251 in the World!
We highly recommend you check out the Irvine School of Wizardry and the Goblin’s Secret - please let Hidden Donkey know you read our review, let us know what you think and HAVE FUN!
