Magnifico

Escaparium (Laval, Canada)

Time limit: 150 minutes

Age limit: Recommended 10+ (Under 16 requires adult)

Player limit: 4-6

Difficulty: Hard

Awards: TERPECA Top Rooms No. 1 (2024,-2025), Best of Morty (2024-2025), Golden Lock Award (2025)

Date visited: July 2026

Magnifico really needs no introduction. Built by a team of 25 people (20 full-time, 5 part-time) for CAD 1.4 million over nearly a year and a half. Voted the best escape room in the world by TERPECA in a landslide in 2024, and repeating that honour again in 2025 by a slim margin over Magic Universe. It was admittedly difficult to keep expectations in check going into a game like this, so I simply told the family to live in the moment and enjoy whatever comes our way. So was Magnifico truly the greatest show there is?

• Magnifico was AN EXPERIENCE. Massive in scale, with countless sections to explore; a stunning set with so much attention to detail and fun little effects; 3 live actors playing multiple roles — I won't reveal just how many characters there were, but full credit to them for making each one distinctive and memorable; an incredibly diverse range of fun, challenging, and diegetic puzzles; and a lovely and tragic story that truly touched my heart. Even though it was 150 minutes, I didn't want it to end.

• In many ways, Magnifico was not what I expected at all. I was expecting a mind-blowing spectacle of dazzling effects, and while there were certainly moments of spectacle, the main driver of the game was story and immersive theatre carried by the wonderful performances. How much you enjoy Magnifico will depend on how much you can immerse yourself in the story and the interactions with the actors. For players like us, who often have no idea what the story is about and don't really care, it's amazing that we were able to follow the story from beginning to end and actually feel something!

• The set was astonishing, but also not in the way I was expecting. Aesthetically, it didn't have the wow factor of Ctrl Alt Reboot (futuristic sci-fi) or The Forgotten Cathedral (gothic church) — this was, after all, just a circus. That said, it had the largest footprint of any Escaparium room and utilised the space extremely well — including the high ceilings — revealing one cool new section after another. Some single sections were bigger than entire escape rooms we've played elsewhere. And the theming of every section was top-notch, with plenty of extra little details demonstrating all the care they put into the design.

• Many big budget escape rooms put their focus on the set and special effects, while the puzzles become an afterthought. Not this game. In fact, you could even say what sets Magnifico apart from some of the other top-rated games in the world is its puzzles. This was a game that tested just about everything, not just traditional escape room-style puzzles that require observation, logic and teamwork, but also puzzles incorporating physicality and situational interaction. Being a circus-themed room, there were several especially magical puzzles we had not seen before. Even more conventional puzzles employed a clever twist. However, what impressed me most was that every puzzle had a reason for being there, and every solve propelled the story forward. That's not something most escape rooms can claim.

• A lot of thought must have gone into the design of the game flow too, because it was shockingly smooth for a 150-minute experience. There are cut scenes and performances to watch throughout the game, but also plenty of interaction with the actors and moments where you are left alone to solve puzzles. As noted in an earlier review, Escaparium's newer games are more "guided", such that the live actors will find ways to prolong or speed up your experience so that you finish close to the game duration. In our case, even though we didn't need any hints, our actors stretched out some other parts of the game to ensure we finished around the 150-minute mark.

• Magnifico is not an over-the-top spectacle like Ctrl Alt Reboot; it doesn't have the whimsy of Wardrobe for Sale, is not as thrilling as Final Stop, and it doesn't quite match the grandeur and awe of The Forgotten Cathedral's set. But it possesses all of these elements at a very high level, culminating in a superbly well-rounded game that also has the best puzzles and the most engaging story of any escape room I've played. It is no wonder why this unforgettable experience is No. 1 for so many enthusiasts.

• I've had nearly 2 months since playing Magnifico to really digest and process the experience and appreciate it for the marvel and labour of love that it undoubtedly is. Initially, I ranked it as my second favourite game of all-time behind Ctrl Alt Reboot (J ranked it as his favourite, and Z ranked it as his third favourite after The Forgotten Cathedral and Reboot, while E had it at No. 5). But the more I think about it, the more I like it and its enduring resonance, to the point where it's more correct to call Reboot and Magnifico my 1A and 1B. Perhaps I could sum it up like this: The sheer spectacle and excitement of Reboot makes it the best "game", but the all-round brilliance of Magnifico — especially its puzzles — and its abundance of emotion and heartfelt moments makes it the best "escape room".

Escape time: 150 minutes? Who knows?

Theming	Atmosphere	Puzzles	Creativity	Fun
A+	A+	A+	A+	A+

Verdict: Well-deserving of its reputation as the best escape room on Earth for two years running, Magnifico is an ambitious, epic and heartfelt journey that opens the format to a new world of possibilities and forces us to reimagine what escape rooms can be.

OVERALL RANK:

H	E	Z	J
S	S	S	S