RATING: 4 Key          RESULT: Win          REMAINING: 23:00

Step into the pages of a timeless tale in search of a precious sword, but for legal reasons, all rings must be left in the lobby.

You and your friends have journeyed long and far to find the mythical sword, a weapon of great power. Retrieve the sword and escape the Mazebitt house before your terrible foe finds you and all is lost!

Gather ye here in the fabled Mazebitt house, which, for legal reasons, we are required to stress has nothing to do with Hobbits. We jest – but in all seriousness, we’re often asked where that proverbial “line” is between something being inspired by an intellectual property versus something that infringes upon it without license. Lord of Swords is a great (and rare) instance of a venue doing this correctly.

There’s no question that the mood here is inspired by The Lord of the Rings – but that’s where the similarities end. Lord of Swords evokes an adventurous fantasy mood, but stands on its own, relying on its own merit to create a whole new tale without copying any characters or styles along the way.

The shining star of Lord of Swords’ scenic prowess must unquestionably be the large head of a slayed dragon mounted as a trophy on the far wall. We can only assume it to be deceased, though if it’s one thing we’ve learned in these fantasy worlds, anything is possible.

Beyond the dragon, scenically Lord of Swords takes a bit of a minimal approach. Yellow walls trimmed in a dark wood with a few matching pieces of dark wood furniture finish up the first room, with essentially nothing but stone bricks floor to ceiling making up the second.

While the scenic doesn’t necessarily detract from the overall quality of this game, it also does little to enhance to it.

Lord of Swords does justice to its fantasy storyworld by keeping the puzzles locked as logical actions one might take inside it. Each step along the way is intuitive, flowing smoothly from one puzzle to the next to keep us at a steady pace.

Some uniquely enchanting moments further the storyline of this game, wherein we literally transform one object into something more useful to our quest thanks to a whimsical device created by the Mazebitt. That is, of course, assuming that device functions as intended. We can only speak for the moment we experienced it, and naturally cannot say if this was a one time glitch or common. But just the same, this transformative moment, which would have been one of the highlights of the game for us unfortunately did not work, causing quite the hiccup in our progress that required a bit of in-game maintenance before we could proceed.

Satisfyingly, conquering our quest does indeed gain us possession of that precious sword sought the land over. This type of puzzle and story climax always helps to add a layer of immersion.

Lord of Swords is one of three fantasy-flavored themes under Maze Rooms’ crop of newest offerings. The game itself is very enjoyable, but when comparing relatively as we always do, this one doesn’t quite live up to the magical whimsy sparked by Magic Kingdom and Wizard’s Tower.

Our 4 Key score reflects the value of experience we would have received had everything functioned as intended. While our personal experience on the specific day of our visit would have rated a bit lower, we don’t feel it’s fair to necessarily knock down a Key rating for something that could have been an unfortunately timed single instance issue. Just the same, we report honestly our experience in the event that it does come up more common than we’d like to hear.

With the rapid pace of expansion of Maze Rooms across the Los Angeles market, we find ourselves almost rating a sort of internal competition between their many different venues. Though it’s not quite our favorite, Lord of Swords is still a great game. At the end of the day, the precious fact remains that when competing against themselves, Maze Rooms as a brand absolutely still wins.

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Venue:  Maze Rooms

Location: Tarzana, California

Number of Games: 3

GAME SPECIFIC INFORMATION:

Duration: 60 minutes

Capacity: 6 people

Group Type: Private  / You will not be paired with strangers.

Cost: $99 per group (up to three), $33 per each additional person

We thank Maze Rooms for inviting us to play this game. Although complimentary admission was generously provided, that in no way impacts the opinion included within this review.