All 9 rooms that we played in Madrid and Toledo, Spain in 2024

Hi everyone

Here is the list of all 9 rooms that we played in Madrid and Toledo, Spain in November/December 2024. I have put together detailed reviews of those rooms that I really enjoyed or wanted to go into more detail on, and short comments only for those I didn’t enjoy quite so much.

Here is what I thought:

Experiencia Amarilla/The Yellow Experience (Colors Escape Room)  – Room 342

With little regard for IP laws I suspect, this room is based on the 1985 film The Goonies, which I think we would all agree is undoubtedly the best movie ever made. So needless to say I was a little excited to play this room. There were some really nice aspects of this room that brought out the inner Goonie in me, as well as some cool set designs and theming. Overall it wasn’t in the same league as some other fantastic pirate rooms that I have played elsewhere, but it was still a lot of fun and my favourite of the rooms that we played at Colors Escape Room in Madrid. If you would like to check out this room, you can do so here.

Experiencia Azul/The Blue Experience (Colors Escape Room) – Room 343

Of the 3 rooms that we played at Colors Escape Room in Madrid, this was probably my least favourite. The reason for that is that I found the theme to be the least interesting (compared to The Goonies and Indiana Jones). That being said, the theming was relatively well done and the puzzles were fun to solve. It was a solid room but not at the same level as the other rooms at this venue (and not in the same league at all to the best rooms on offer in Spain). If you would like to check out this room, you can do so here.

Experiencia Morada/The Purple Experience (Colors Escape Room) – Room 344

With similar disregard for IP laws as was the case with their Goonies room, this room is an Indiana Jones-themed room. As with The Goonies room, the theming and puzzles in this room were well-done. This was a fun room with solid puzzles. There was also a reasonable amount of nostalgia in this room for anyone who also grew up watching the Indiana Jones films. If you would like to check out this room, you can do so here.

The Mystery of Scumm Island (Madness Toledo)  – Room 345

This was a nostalgic, fantastic room that I adored (and in fact, it was the primary reason why we visited Toledo at all). You can check out my detailed review here, but I am sorry to report that this room has now closed down.

The Maze/El Laberinto (Descifra Escape Rooms) – Room 346

The Labyrinth/El Laberinto was an interesting room. It contained a number of interesting elements and unique puzzles, but the most memorable aspect is the room design, which has various rooms branching off from a central hub room. We had some challenges with a communication puzzle in this room (which had us on either side of a window trying to communicate using our hands) – it would not have been impressive to have watch us at that point. Overall it was an interesting room and I liked it more by the end of the experience than I did at the beginning. If you would like to check it out, you can do so here.

La Santa (Shock) – Room 347

I did not absolutely love La Santa, but I wanted to review it in detail given it is currently TERPECA 24 and a former TERPECA 4 room.  You can check out my detailed review here.

Disappearance of Professor (La Cronosfera) – Room 348

I found this room pretty frustrating (and for a time travel room, it contained very little time travel elements). The theming was very simplistic, about what I would expect from a Gen 2 room. Many of the puzzles were reasonable, but the hint system was one of the worst that I have encountered in the more than 400 rooms that I have played to date. Players are handed a device that helps them to “travel” in time, but that device is also how players receive hints. Players have no way to contact the GM and instead have to rely on the GM paying attention and then sending hints, which come through on an LCD on the device. There is no sound that plays when a message is sent, so unless you’re watching the device the whole time, it is very easy to miss hints (or not know whether any hints were in fact sent). This room is a hard pass for me until they fix the incredibly frustrating hint system. You can check out more about the room here.

Bites Motel (Bite the Fly) – Room 349

Bites Motel was my favourite room in Madrid. You can check out my detailed review here.

The Tailor/El Sastre (Locktopus) – Room 350

We played The Tailor on our last evening in Madrid. I had heard good things about the Tailor (and knew that it had previously held the spot of #136 on TERPECA). It was a fun, high adventure room with some really nice aspects. I thought the room had signs of wear and was starting to show its age a little, but the theming was strong. I really liked their use of the existing building spaces and the character interactions were fun. You can check out more about the room here.

Final thoughts on Madrid/Toledo rooms

We had a great time in Madrid and enjoyed the various rooms that we played there. I did not think that any of the rooms that we played were necessarily among the best rooms that we have played in the world, including La Santa which is currently TEPRECA 24. All of the rooms though were themed nicely and had some interesting puzzles. I would definitely describe the rooms in Madrid as being more puzzle focused than the rooms in Greece, which were largely (but not in all cases) more focused on jump scares. And of the entire trip around Spain and Athens, I thought the city of Toledo was incredibly beautiful and definitely worth the time investment if you’re in Madrid.

Bite the Fly - Bites Motel Review (Madrid)

Hi all

Another room that we played on our November-December 2024 trip to Athens and Spain was Bites Motel from Bite the Fly in Madrid.

I had heard good things about this room, but in the busy run up to the trip I had not looked into what story behind this room was. About 6 seconds into the experience, it became pretty clear that this room paid homage to Hitchcock’s Psycho, and that Bites Motel is a play on Bates Hotel from the film.

The backstory to this room is as follows:

Come to the quiet village of Bite The Fly and get to know it, you won't regret it. You can stay at the family-run Bites Motel run by Norman, a shy boy, and his mother. They will make your stay an unforgettable experience. Your rest is of paramount importance to them.

Bites Motel was my 349^th room to date and here is what I thought:

• The theming in Bites Motel was excellent. They have managed to create an entire world within a warehouse building, which includes an outdoor area and a multi-storey house. It really is awesomely constructed.

• There is a nice flow this experience, beginning with a character interaction and then the level of suspense increased slowly as we progressed through the house and the storyline.

• Speaking of that initial character interaction, we had a lot of fun while checking into the Bites Motel. Our game master/actor, whose name I have forgotten but let’s assume it was something like Norman, asked us to quit ringing the bell on the reception desk while we were talking to him. After about the fourth time we rang the bell, he gave us a murderous look and ripped the bell from our reach, while yelling obscenities at us. He later confessed he had difficulty not laughing and because his English wasn’t great, all that he could do was yell the same insults at us over and over again. I knew immediately it was going to be a great room because of that initial interaction.

• And a short tangent here, but to any game masters who read my reviews, do not underestimate the value that a great game master can add to an experience. We usually like to try to get actors to break character – sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but it usually leads to the most memorable times I have had in escape rooms. A great GM can play with it and get on board and it really can lift the enjoyment of a room incredibly. However, I have seen it go the other way, with GMs getting really annoyed with us for playing around and trying to have fun. Here is my take on that – lighten up a little and don’t read from a script, but instead adapt to the players, because they are the ones paying for the experience so take their lead. Try to match their energy. The best examples I can think of this have been in rooms with trained actors as the GM – the clearest examples I can think of are Magnifico in Montreal (TERPECA #1) and Intruders at Mission Sydney. Both examples had actors who really knew how to improvise and react and be open to having fun. But equally, with non-trained actors, we have had a lot of fun in making them break character and trying on things to help for an memorable experience for everyone

• The puzzles in Bites Motel were also really good. We were stuck on one for a little while and then with a nudge in the right direction, we saw the solution and were really impressed. This experience covers a large space and there are a lot of puzzles to get through. This is definitely one of those European rooms that, whilst scary, still has a primary focus on the puzzles and not jump scares.

Overall thoughts

I really enjoyed this room. The GM/actor did a great job and it was fun chatting with him afterwards. Judging this room from a fun and quality of puzzles perspective, it was my favourite room in Madrid. Really great theming, fun character interactions and great puzzles that were satisfying to solve.

Where:                                Calle Puerto de Pozazal 4

Duration:                            90 minutes

TERPECA:                          97 in 2024 (previously 75)

Themes:                              2

Overall thoughts:               A scary room with great puzzles and character interactions

More details:                      https://www.bitethefly.com/bites-motel

Shock Creations - The Saint/La Santa Review (Madrid)

Hi all

One of the rooms that we played during our November-December 2024 trip to Athens and Spain was La Santa at Shock Creations in Madrid.

The story behind La Santa is as follows:

The story tells of Sister Clara, who lives with the other sisters in the Abbey. A series of strange events lead her to inform the Church about what has happened there. A demon has terrorized the clergy. The Church contacts Father Eusebio, an expert demonologist, who immediately contacts the sisters. Father Eusebio begins to investigate the story. He discovers a terrible fact: centuries earlier, a demon had been walled up within the walls of Saint Clare Abbey.

La Santa was my 347^th room to date and here is what I thought:

• knowing that this was a top 25 TERPECA room (and a former TERPECA #4), this was a room that I really wanted to play in Madrid. It was however a real pain to try to book for just 2 players. I sent an email to Shock Creations asking if we could play as a team of 2 (even if we paid for a larger team) and after chasing them for a response, I got a pretty rude reply that they were busy and I should stop asking them questions that can be answered on their website. We ended up losing our deposit for the first booking that we made.

• ultimately, we managed to find another 2 guys to play with from an enthusiast group on Facebook (hi to Serg from Germany). So we played as a team of 4, which I am glad that we did (both so that we could meet fellow enthusiasts but also because in any horror rooms, there is safety in numbers).

• there were certain elements that I thought were done well in La Santa. I liked the quality of the theming throughout the experience and some of the earlier jump scares that I thought were well-designed. Overall I did not think that the puzzles were particularly strong throughout the balance of the experience, but they were fine.

• As far as cinematics go, there is one moment that is visually impressive. However, I think it was probably very impressive when the room opened back in 2021, but compared to other top 25 rooms I feel like La Santa is showing its age now with respect to the quality of the cinematics and theming.

• I wasn’t on the receiving end of this, but one of our team mentioned that one of the actors was pretty heavy-handed with them at one point. This wasn’t necessary (but as we saw in some other Greece/Spain rooms, sometimes the actors get a little too excited).

Overall thoughts

Overall I thought La Santa was a solid room but I did not think it deserved its current #24 TERPECA spot. The room was expensive (particularly when, like us, you lose your deposit and have to rebook) but I thought shows its age, the puzzles were just ok and the storyline was pretty weak. I also thought the communication and customer service at this business was poor. They were pretty slow and then pretty rude via email. The room is designed so that it can only be played with a minimum of 3 people, not 2. Having now played the game, it would take very little work on their part to make the room adaptable to a team of 2.

I did not think that this room is in the same league as the best rooms that we played on this trip on a number of fronts. Although there was one impressive ‘cinematic’ moment, that was really the only unique or memorable element of this room for me. I will not be surprised later this year when La Santa falls outside of the top 50, which I suspect it will.

Where:                 C. Juana Francés, 2, 28522 Rivas-Vaciamadrid

Duration:             90  minutes

TERPECA:          24 in 2024 (previously 4)

Themes:              4 themes

Overall Rating:   Showing its age and doesn’t deserve such a high TERPECA ranking

More details:      https://www.shockescaperoom.com/escape-room-hall-escape-lasanta/

Madness Toledo - The Mystery of Scum Island Review (Toledo, Spain)

Hi all

One of my favourite rooms that we played on our November-December 2024 trip to Athens and Spain was The Mystery of Scum Island at Madness Toledo.

The room is located in Toledo, which is a little under a 1 hour drive from Madrid. We were rushing from room to room that day, so we bit the bullet and took an uber from Madrid to Toledo. However, ubers do not run from Toledo back to Madrid, so we paid handsomely for a taxi in the evening to take us back to Madrid (where we had another escape room booked).

The Mystery of Scum Island is a room based on my all-time favourite 1990s PC adventure games, The Monkey Island series. I fondly remember playing The Secret of Monkey Island in early high school – I had played many Sierra and LucasArts games back then: the whole Kings Quest series, Sam and Max Hit the Road, Day of the Tentacle, Grim Fandango, Indiana Jones, Leisure Suit Larry, the list goes on. But my favourite was Monkey Island – trying over and over again to beat Le Chuck, figuring our how to make sea shanties rhyme with oranges and trying to figure out the game designers’ fascination with voodoo, grog and rubber chickens…

It was a fantastic game series and I was incredibly excited to play this room (I even wore my  favourite Monkey Island t-shirt :-)

The Mystery of Scum Island was my 345^th room to date and here is what I thought:

• this room was a complete joy to play. The quality of the theming was excellent. The use of sounds and music really helped to bring the world of Monkey Island to life;

• the room included interaction with a skull, who played the role of our Game Master. The voice actor did a fantastic job;

• the room design is a non-linear room, which allowed us to split up a little to investigate different spaces. Given though there were only 2 of us, we largely solved the puzzles together. And speaking of puzzles, I thought they were all a lot of fun to solve. They were also a nice mix of hunt and seek fun, more traditional puzzles and some higher tech puzzles and even computer-based interactive puzzles;

• the reason though that I loved this room so much is because the nostalgia. I really felt like I was inside the Monkey Island world and playing the role of a pirate. There was one puzzle in particular that was so incredibly clever and nostalgic that I would have given this room a huge rating purely for that puzzle alone. As soon as I glimpsed the puzzle, I smiled and laughed and knew I would never forget it.

The only criticism I had of the room is that I would have liked to have spent more time on a hunt and seek element, given we finished the room early and had plenty of spare time. It wasn’t clear from the room design that there were additional hunt and seek elements that we could have chosen to spend time on. This was a minor criticism though of what was a brilliant room.

Overall thoughts

If I judged rooms purely on fun, this was probably my favourite escape room of the entire trip. I suspect that many other enthusiasts who have played The Mystery of Scum Island grew up playing Monkey Island like I did, which is no doubt why this room debuted at 27 on the TERPECA list. I suspect the room would not have been quite as fun if you are not a Monkey Island fan, but even then the quality of the theming and puzzles was excellent. After playing the room, I later learned that it had been designed by the team that also designed Mayto Kingdom’s rooms. They are incredibly talented designers.

In sad news, The Mystery of Scum Island has closed its doors. I had heard rumours before we played that it might be closing and I am incredibly grateful that we managed to play it during its run.

Where:                Calle Nueva 5, 45001 Toledo, Spain

Duration:             90 minutes

TERPECA:          152 in 2024 (previously 27)

Themes:              Closed

Overall Rating:   A nostalgic joyful game that I didn’t want to end

More details:       https://www.madnesstoledo.es/

All 20 rooms that we played in Athens, Greece in 2024

Hi everyone

Here is the long list of all 20 rooms that we played in Athens in November/December 2024. I have put together detailed reviews of those rooms that I really enjoyed (and short comments only for those I didn’t enjoy quite so much).

Here is what I thought:

The Mansion (The Paradox Project) – Room 322

This was a decent (and very long) puzzle room, but it shows its age compared to more modern rooms. See my more detailed review of all 3 of The Paradox Project Rooms here.

The Sanatorium (Lockhill) - Room 323

We were a little underwhelmed with The Sanatorium. You can see my more detailed review of The Sanatorium here.

Woman in Black (Coven Escape) – Room 324

This was a beautifully-designed by very scary experience (which we loved). You can see my more detailed review of Woman in Black here.

Don’t Take a Breath (Verone) – Room 325

This is probably the most unique escape room we played on our trip. You can see my detailed review of Don’t Take a Breath here.

M’ama (Suspense) – Room 326

I was disappointed by this room, which is currently TERPECA 101 (but was formerly TERPECA 43). There were some half decent puzzles and what many Athenians described as ‘cinematics’ (which I would describe sort of like cut scenes in the experience where at certain moments, there are things to see that can be visually/audibly impressive). However, this was one of the clearest examples I can recall in our trip of an escape room that is only about 25% focused on puzzles and the remaining 80% is all about jump scares and INCREDIBLY loud music/noise. I covered my ears at times and had a headache by the end. You can check out M'ama here (although I read online that it will be closing shortly). 

Lethal Decision 2: Hell Awaits (EscapeClue) – Room 327

This room is currently TERPECA 64 (and formerly TERPECA 21). The theming and quality of the build in this room is very impressive. The pure scale of the room was enormous, as were the cinematics. There were also some pretty tricky puzzles, including some courage tests and a large number of interactions with actors. We enjoyed this room, although our GM/actor at the start told us to run if we saw any creatures for fear of ‘dying’ from the game, which we took to mean we might end the experience if caught – this didn’t turn out to be correct. The ending to this one was incredibly impressive.You can check out Lethal Decision 2 here.

Sherlock Maze 2 (Sherlocked Homes) - Room 328

This was one of my least favourite Athens rooms - I really did not enjoy it. I had heard some enthusiasts say wonderful things, but for me it was a miss. The theming was reasonably well done and there was one ‘woven’ puzzle that was truly unique and a standout, but there were just so many things I did not like about this room. There were puzzle elements in places that made no sense (at all), there were some puzzle elements that were very imprecise and there were a number of logic jumps. In fairness, I was tired when we played this room (it was after midnight at the end of a long day of rooms), so maybe I did not come at it with the right level of energy. But after about the third or fourth issue I had with the room, I lost faith in the room and its design. It did not help that the owner/GM was entirely closed off to any of the feedback that we provided. This room is TERPECA 146 but I think it should rank much lower. You can check out Sherlock Maze 2 here (although I wouldn't).

The Music Academy (The Paradox Project) – Room 329

There was a really broad variety of challenging puzzles in this room. See my more detailed review of all 3 of The Paradox Project Rooms here.

Hide and Seek (Brainiac) – Room 330

This was, and still is, one of my favourite rooms in the world. It is a perfect example of how a real escape room can also be a (very) scary room. It is TERPECA 22 but I think should be a top 10 TERPECA room. You can see my detailed review here.

Stigmata (Dark Maze) – Room 331

This room was a little older than some of the more modern Athens rooms, but I thought it was done really well and was scary as hell. You can see my detailed review of Stigmata here.

The Sculptor (Freaky Minds Escape) – Room 332

This room did some things really well, but there were safety concerns and some pretty rough treatment from the actors. You can see my detailed review here.

Creepy Store (Escapepolis) – Room 333

Unfortunately this was another room that I just did not enjoy. The quality of the theming and props were high, but there were a number of issues with the room. The storyline was weak. The game relied at certain times on the GM watching what players had done, so when the GM missed one aspect of what we had thrown in a cauldron, the game didn’t trigger the next step (which was pretty confusing). By far the most annoying part was that the GM tried to put on a character voice, but he spoke like the microphone was embedded in the back of his throat. His English was fine, but we just couldn’t understand anything. Given this was the main way to interact, it was incredibly frustrating. We had planned initially to return the following night to play 2 more rooms, but after our experience with the Creepy Store, we cancelled the other bookings. you can check out Escapepolis here.

Truth or Dare (Clock Escape Rooms) – Room 334

This was one of the better quality escape rooms that we played in Athens, based purely on puzzle design. You can see my detailed review here.

Chapel and Catacombs (Lockhill) – Room 335

This was a magical (and incredibly scary) room that currently sits at the 8^th place on TERPECA (and for good reason). You can see my detailed review here.

Prometheus (Clock Escape Rooms) – Room 336

This was a straight-forward spaceship-themed room. There were some nice puzzles, but overall it was pretty simple. We had fun but it was more of an average room, which you can check out here.

Rebellion (Clock Escape Rooms) – Room 337

This was a fun room, mainly because of the actor interactions. The theming was nicely done and the puzzles were all pretty interesting and quite varied. I would definitely recommend this room, which you can check out here.

The Bookstore (The Paradox Project) – Room 338

This was our favourite room at The Paradox Project. See my more detailed review of all 3 of The Paradox Project Rooms here.

Wanted: Dead or Alive (No Exit) – Room 339

This was probably the most light-hearted, joyful rooms that we played on the trip. You can see my detailed review here.

Omerta (Last Wish) – Room 340

Wowsers I really did not like this room. It had been recommended to us by local GMs and I sincerely wish we had gone somewhere else that evening. This room was a shambles – so many aspects just did not fit the space (at all). There were puzzles that were illogically linked together, each space did not link to the previous space and it felt like the designers had a bunch of puzzle ideas which they haphazardly slapped together into this escape room. This experience was a perfect example of props being shoe-horned into puzzle elements where they just made no sense. I don't understand how this room was ever voted in the top 300 TERPECA rooms. It was a hard pass from me. In the unlikely event that you would like to look further into this room, you can do so here.

Death Row (No Exit) – Room 341

This was a great room. I really enjoyed the mix of puzzles and crawling around. My playing partner had less fun – he had been handcuffed at the start and due to broken handcuffs, remained handcuffed for about the first 15 minutes. We still had fun (and really liked the ending). This room debuted at 56 on TERPECA – it’s clearly showing its age now, but it is still a really solid and fun room.You can check it out here.

Final thoughts on Athens rooms

Overall, I would describe the rooms in Athens as being most-suited to players that love horror and jump scares above all other aspects of a more traditional escape room. While there are some more traditional puzzle rooms (like Truth or Dare and the rooms at The Paradox Project), the vast majority of rooms in Athens are incredibly loud (you really have to play them to know just how loud I am talking about) with jump scare after jump scare. There are a select few though that are fantastic (like Hide and Seek, Chapel and Catacombs and Verone) that blend great puzzles, enormous rooms scale and great actor interactions), which is what puts those rooms ahead of the pack (and which I am sure is why they all top 25 TERPECA rooms). 

Also, a tip when booking Athens rooms. Confusingly, many of the Athens rooms use a central booking website (and some don't even have their own individual website). The central website is called "Escape All" - you can check it out here. I also found it helpful to contact rooms directly when I had questions about the rooms and available time slots, or the scare factor, etc. Many of them did not respond to my emails, but they were pretty responsive on Facebook Messenger. 

 

No Exit - Wanted: Dead or Alive Review (Athens)

 

Hi all

The next escape room that we checked out on our November-December 2024 trip to Athens and Spain was Wanted: Dead or Alive at No Exit.

Going into this room, I knew that Wanted: Dead or Alive was a current TERPECA top 100 room (having debuted at number 55 and sitting at 77 at the time that we played it). What I didn’t know at the time was just how joyful this room would be to play.

The story behind the room is that we are looking for the brothers McFailures, well known for their robberies, the worst band of thieves the town of Holy Cow has ever had to deal with.

Wanted: Dead or Alive was our 339^th room to date and here is what I thought:

• the reason why this room is as good as it is, is due largely to the amazing quality of the acting and interaction between players and the actor. Our actor played I think about 7 or 8 characters throughout our experience, all with a level of wit that I suspect is adapted depending on the audience. Some of the elements of the character interactions were stupidly silly, which I loved;

• there was a large number of puzzles to solve throughout the experience. After having played so many jump scare rooms without too many traditional escape room-style puzzles, we really enjoyed using a different part of our brain here;

• the theming of the wild west world that had been built was really strong – perhaps not at the same level as the best-themed rooms in Athens, but still strong and enjoyable.

Overall thoughts

Wanted: Dead or Alive is a room that completely sticks out from the norm in Athens, a city full of horror and scary rooms with live actors chasing you, grabbing you and jump scaring you over and over again. Instead, Wanted: Dead or Alive is a light-hearted, very family-friendly room with an enormous amount of actor interactions. We laughed our way through 90 minutes of fun, which was a really nice relief at the end of a long week of scary rooms.

Where:                          EF. Dedousi 13, Ilioupoli 16346

Duration:                      90 minutes

TERPECA:                   77^th in 2024 (previously 55^th)

Themes:                       6 themes

Overall Rating:            A uniquely comedic room that was a heap of fun!

More details:               https://noexit.gr/rooms/dead-or-alive-en/

Lockhill - Chapel & Catacombs Review (Athens)

 

Hi all

The next escape room that we checked out on our November-December 2024 trip to Athens and Spain was Chapel & Catacombs at Lockhill.

I had been looking forward to checking out Chapel & Catacombs for such a long time. I knew that this room was previously the number 1 room in the world and the current number 8 room in the world, so I was VERY much looking forward to playing it. I was however a little worried about the scare factor – again, we played as a team of just 2, which means there is no safety at all in numbers.

Chapel & Catacombs is a continuation of the story that players learn about in The Sanatorium (another room at Lockhill). You can see my review of The Sanatorium here.

Chapel & Catacombs was our 335^th room to date and here is what I thought:

• the incredible production value of this room begins upon entering the building. The room is a ‘cold start’ room, which I have come to learn is pretty common in Europe. A cold start room is where players start their experience immediately, without any introduction to the GM (and without any acknowledgment at all of the escape room business itself). It was a completely seamless integration that we absolutely loved;

• the quality of the theming, set design and props were all incredible. The pure scale of Chapel & Catacombs was also enormous – I easily lost count of the number of different spaces that we traversed throughout our adventure, but it was easily one of the bigger experiences we have played;

• in our adventure, we interacted with a pretty large number of actors. Sometimes the interactions involved players just watching the actors from a distance, while other times we had long discussions with several different actors. I really think actor interactions can absolutely lift the immersion in a room and that was certainly the case here;

• the puzzles in Chapel & Catacombs were really varied and there were many of them. They ranged from some dexterity puzzles to character interaction puzzles, high tech puzzles and hunt and seek fun. I really enjoyed the puzzles (and they were of a high standard) and I think what stood out here compared to other scary rooms in Athens was that a lot of thought had been put into the puzzles and not just the scary elements of the room;

• on the scary front, this was a very scary experience (particularly I think as a team of 2). This was particularly the case where certain courage tests had us separated on more than one occasion. I found the second half of the experience 100 times scarier than the first (and I am happy to admit that I spent part of the time with my eyes closed ‘feeling’ my way around as actors trying to scare me were within centimetres of my face);

• at the end of the experience, I was incredibly tired and drained, no doubt because I had been on high alert waiting to be scared for a reasonable amount of the 150 minutes. This was not a case though of jump scare after jump scare – in fact, I don’t remember many true jump scares at all. I think it was the combination of beautiful (and at times dark) sets, fantastic lighting and music/noise effects, and well-choreographed actors that made for psychological fuckery.

Overall thoughts

I understand why Chapel & Catacombs debuted at first place on the TERPECA list of best rooms in the world (and why 3 years later it is still in the top 10). Its scale is off the charts, with incredible attention to detail in all aspects of the theming, set design and room flow. The use of different cut scenes also allowed for some lighter moments, which helped to even out the scariness in this room. That scariness was also punctuated with some laugh out loud character interactions, which really made this one of the best escape rooms in the world.

Where:                          Averof 30, Nea Ionia 142 32

Duration:                      150 minutes

TERPECA:                     8^th in 2024 (previously 1^st)

Themes:                        5 themes

Overall Rating:             Phenomenal set design, enormous scale and brilliant actor interactions deserving of a top 10 room 

More details:                 https://www.lockhill.gr/chapel--catacombs.html

Clock Escape Rooms - Truth or Dare Review (Athens)

Hi all

The next escape room that we checked out on our November-December 2024 trip to Athens and Spain was Truth or Dare at Clock Escape Rooms.

I do not recall how I had first heard about Truth or Dare, given it only debuted on the TERPECA list while we were in Athens. But it was a really solid room with really fun puzzles to solve.

Truth or Dare was our 334^th room to date.  Here is what I thought:

• as far as theming goes, this room was probably slightly better than average. It was therefore not in the same league as the top TERPECA rooms in Athens, such as Catacombs or Hide and Seek on that front, but it did have its charm;

• we had some fun actor interactions, which I always enjoy and which I think can really lift the enjoyment of a room;

• I thought the standout aspect of Truth or Dare was the puzzles. I thought they were strong (and in some cases, multi-layered), which was something that at that point in our trip had not been very common in the Athens market. There was one puzzle in particular that had us scratching our heads until the satisfying penny finally dropped;

• Truth or Dare is not a scary room – there are dark elements and certain actor elements that can be scary, but compared to the Athens market I would rate the scare factor here about 0.5 out of 10

Overall thoughts

I thought Truth or Dare was a great puzzle room. It does not compete with the incredibly vast sets or amazing theming of some of the best Athens rooms, but for more traditional puzzle lovers who enjoy making actors break character, this was a really fun room.

 

Where:                          Dorieon 7 & Lagada, Agia Paraskevi

Duration:                      110 minutes

TERPECA:                     227^th in 2024

Themes:                        4 themes

Overall Rating:             A more traditional puzzled-based escape room

More details:                https://www.clockescaperooms.gr/en/