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 335th 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: 8th in 2024 (previously 1st)
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
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