Dark Maze Escape Rooms - Stigmata Review (Athens)

Hi all

The next escape room that we checked out on our November-December 2024 trip to Athens and Spain was Stigmata at Dark Maze Escape Rooms.

I had heard great things about this room, which debuted at number 63 on TERPECA when it opened in 2023 and currently sits at 104. The story of Stigmata is that you are doctors sent to a small town in the middle of the night at the request of a concerned father.

Stigmata was our 331^st room to date.  Here is what I thought:

• this room reminded me, from a stylistic perspective, of Woman in Black in Athens.  They are both beautifully-constructed worlds with excellent theming and attention to detail;

• I think the most impressive aspect of Stigmata is the actor interactions, which were excellent - the right level of jump scares and psychological torture, without bombarding players with impossibly-loud music and noises and jump scare after jump scare;

• I also thought the tension was really well-considered as it really built throughout the experience, again with some moments of levity to allow players to try to concentrate on puzzles. This experience contained some of my fondest jump scares that I will remember forever. 

• there was a strong storyline throughout the experience, which all made sense. The puzzles were all logical and satisfying to solve. The scale of this room was also enormous – I lost count of the number of areas we traversed in our adventure;

• the inevitable ‘courage test’ puzzle was also pretty memorable. Luckily for me, I volunteered Aaron to do the harder part of the courage test, but while I waited for him I was visited by the actor, so I did not feel left out.

Overall thoughts

I thought Stigmata was one of the few rooms in Athens that blended a very scary experience with solid puzzles and fantastic theming. The jump scares were not overdone (which in some respects made this scarier I thought than some of the other Athens rooms where I felt desensitised by the end of the experience). Stigmata was definitely one of my favourite Athens rooms.

Where:                          Paleas Kavalas 17, Egaleo, Attica

Duration:                      120 minutes

TERPECA:                    104th in 2024 (previously 63rd)

Themes:                        1 theme

Overall Rating:             Perfect execution of jump scares

More details: https://www.escapeall.gr/en/EscapeRoom/Details/stigmata