Yes, I travel solely for the purpose of visiting escape rooms. This isn’t my first trip, but Manpans usually writes about them. Considering she’s not joining me on this trip, I would need to keep track of it somewhere.

The purpose of this article is more a guide to what one can expect when travelling to do an escape room in Greece.

Pre-Trip

Greece has multiple rooms opening on a yearly basis and there is much discussion in the ER Discord #Greece channel, as well as TERPECA What’s App group on which new rooms to do. (I don’t know if the latter is public or a private group). Deciding on rooms was challenging.

In the end, my sister (Leezet) and I put together this spreadsheet. I had a few goals:

• Get as many TERPECA games in there.
• Balance horror and non-horror rooms, since the majority of people do not like scary rooms. There were more horror rooms than not, so this was tricky.
• Start off with non-horror rooms. I wanted us to acclimatize first.

For prep, we didn’t do much.

• We tried to book by area. Keep the escape rooms close together to make sure travel time was as short as possible each day.
• We pre-booked all our rooms a month in advance. Some rooms you could only book via Facebook.
• We booked an AirBNB in Athens about 10 minute walk from the Acropolis.
• I brought about $400 in Euros. I also have a Wise card to help with exchange rates (I’m Canadian).
• I bought some clothes and shoes. One room (Sanatorium) advised to bring an extra pair of shoes. Others advised clothes for active wear.

Sadly, my sister (Leezet) had a flight cancellation (with no explanation). They rebooked her the next day. However, that would mean she’d miss out on the first two.

Two Types of Horror in Greece

I did not do many horror rooms, I only did five labelled horror.  From those five, I discovered there were two styles of horror:

• Cinematic Horror: After you solve each puzzle, you are treated to a cinematic cut scene which may involve the players.
• Chase / Hide Horror: The main mechanic in this room is being chased or finding a place to hide. While solving puzzles, you may be interrupted by the chase or hide mechanic.

Sometimes, it can be a mash of the two. Of course, I’ve only done just a handful, so there may be far more, but those were the two styles I’ve discovered.

There is something about me that is weird¹, and that is I don’t get scared in escape rooms. And it’s not because I’m naturally not scared. No, I get scared all the time, but my brain is too small. I cannot hold more than one emotion in my head. So, if I am playing a game and solving puzzles, I cannot be scared at the same time.

This means most of my horror experiences are tainted because it’s missing the main part a lot of people want in a horror game: fear. I can only judge the experience on how good of a game it is.

Although I personally can’t judge how scary a game is, I do play with some of the most frightened people on the planet. The reason for this blog is to document what is scary in the escape rooms I’ve done.

Lee-Fay did ask if I had tips for handling scary rooms. My sister’s comfort is large effeminate men surrounding her². If you cannot procure that, I was told this when I felt like crying at a funeral and I needed to do a speech: Do math in your head.

Of course, that may be challenging if someone is chasing you, but at least you can practice your math skills for those rooms that insist on putting math in there.

By the way, I will be referring to the scary antagonist as ‘the monster’ in the below reviews. They may be ghosts, evil entities, whatever, but they will be referred to as ‘monsters’.

Day 1

Our flight left at 6pm Saturday (Toronto time) and arrived around 11am Sunday (Greece Time).

• We took the train from the airport to the city. I was only travelling with my daughter at the time, and she could get half of the ticket because she still is a student with Student ID (which we had to show).  Total cost for both of us was €13.50.
• The wait time for the train was around 20-30 minutes. The trip itself was also around an hour to get to Athens.
• There are many feral cats.
• In our group, there were 9 of us, and we ate dinner/lunch at a restaurant close by. Total came ~€160, but I wasn’t sure on exact cost. The receipt was confusing because it had no total, and each line item had a percentage added to them.
• I was exhausted so I took a three hour nap before our first game, which we booked around 7pm to give us time to acclimatize.
• Our AirBnb is great. We found a place near the Thisseo subway station, very close to the Acropolis. It was a joy to wander about the streets.
• One thing I learned, however, is that you don’t flush toilet paper in toilets. There’s a bin for them. This is something I won’t get used to. Maybe I’ll just hold it for a week.
• For escape room transportation, we’ve read Uber was the most convenient way to do it. From what I can tell, Ubers are just taxis, since every vehicle had a taxi sign on it. There were some places you could take by transit, but sadly, we never explored that option. Would have been cheaper.
• We had five people, but taxis only take four people at a time, and there didn’t seem to be taxi drivers with larger vehicles. We had to take two taxis.
• We always chose the cheapest option for Uber, and an uber would usually show in four minutes. However, there were two times when it took almost 5-10 minutes to find a ride, and then 12 or more minutes to get to us. I don’t know if this was dependent on the time, or area, or season. You will need to gauge when you get one, so always give yourself plenty of time.
• Greece is dry. We were thirsty all the time. Drink as much as you can.

Game 1 – Scooby Who at The Art of Escape

About the facility:

• Our Uber cost – €8. Traffic-wise, the expected travel time google maps suggested was accurate.
• The Art of Escape’s front isn’t flashy, but easy enough to find if you were looking for it. Doors are locked and you need to buzz to get in. We were roaming about the outside wondering if it was still closed.
• Free water in the facility! I am so used to paying for water in North America, it’s nice to see a water cooler. In fact, buying water is cheap. A huge bottle is a Euro. Water is a human right, so there is a cap on how much they can charge for it.
• Bathroom was available in this place. I was worried since some places don’t have it available unless you’re in the game itself.
• I still don’t know if we were supposed to put our phone away, but I did. (They didn’t tell us to).
• We paid for the game after we played it. I’m used to paying up front.
• The game had air conditioning! In fact, the remote for the air conditioning was available in the game. So cool!

About the game:

• Game info:
  • 👥: 3 – 5 Players.
    We played with five. (Myself, Myra, Ekko, James, and Emma)
  • 🕒: Duration 2 Hours.
    We finished with a healthy amount of time left over.
  • 🏷️: Kids Friendly,  Case Investigation, Non-horror.
  • EscapeAll entry.
• How scary is it?
  • Despite the fact this was non-horror, there were some minor parts that were a little scary for our jittery group.
    Scare Elements

    While doing something, your ankle may be grabbed.

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    This was the extent of it though.

• Very cute game, and, as you can tell from our group photo, the Mystery Machine is there!
• Game had no locks, was all tech.
• The set design was fine.
• The puzzle didn’t feel ‘tight’ to me: the answers felt ambiguous at times. There were many instances where we would attempt iterations of answers to see which one would work.
• One puzzle had a hindrance mechanic which annoyed me.
  Interface spoiler (not puzzle).

  A button was used to set a number. Instead of cycling numbers in order, it would randomly give you a number. One in 10 chance to get the number you wanted. Unfortunately, there were five of these buttons, because we needed to set five numbers. To further cause annoyance, the solve was ambiguous, so we tried putting an answer in multiple times. After the sixth attempt, I was not happy and it soiled my experience.

  [collapse]
• Game host, however, monitored us the whole time to make sure we were on the right track. Validation was done through audible clues, which was nice, considering the ambiguity. While we were brainstorming answers, if we were correct, we’d get a ‘ding’. If we were incorrect, we’d get an error sound. (This was for puzzles which we were struggling on. The validation didn’t come in until we’ve worked on it for a bit).
• We got a lot of prompting and hints, which we didn’t mind and was welcome during more frustrating times. Two puzzles were solved by luck or brute-forcing.
• Assessment: 2023 TERPECA ranking: #194.
  • Due to the poor puzzle design, I don’t know if it should make the top 200. I’m positive there are 200 games out there that have better puzzle design.

This completed our first game, and our first day. I arrived home a bit after midnight, and immediately fell asleep.

Day 2

I slept through the night and woke up around 9am the next morning. Ekko, Myra, and I went for coffee. I tried my first Greek Coffee and it was great (a bit like Turkish coffee). I also ordered eggs, toast and bacon. Shown is a photo of the receipt. I think the Greece population must be really good at math, because they don’t put the total in it.

Fortunately, the escape rooms haven’t asked us to do mental math. I would have failed at that.

For our next room, Ekko, Myra, and myself took an Uber. James and Emma took the metro. The uber there cost ~€12.

Game 2 – Sherlock Maze 2 at Sherlocked Holmes

About the facility:

• The facility was tucked away in the back of a store. It’s best to have Google Maps to guide you, because we missed it the first time. Look at that streetview image! The sign is all you have.
• This was another room with air conditioning controls available to you. I can understand this would be important during the summer. At the moment, the temperature during the day was 28°C with no humidity, so it wasn’t bad at all.
• We didn’t need a bathroom or water, so I don’t know if that was available. I’m assuming it was considering there was a lobby.
• As of now, I still don’t have a game picture from them. If you want a game picture, make sure you take one on your phone.

Gameplay:

• Game info:
  • 👥: 2 – 5 Players.
    We played with five. (Myself, Myra, Ekko, James, and Emma)
  • 🕒: Duration 1 Hour 45 minutes.
    We finished with a healthy amount of time left over.
  • 🏷️: Non-horror. No actor.
  • EscapeAll entry.
• How scary is it?
  • Despite the fact this was non-horror, this game was a little scary for our jittery group. 
    Scary Elements

    • It is very dim, and during some points, you will need to walk through darkness.
    • Strobe lighting does occur with scary sounds effects.
    • There is at least one jump scare.

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  • After the first scary moment, Ekko kept moaning “They said no horror!” Also, they screamed a lot when thrust into darkness.
• The atmosphere and set design was set up nicely.
• Game design was smooth.
  • The game had a mixture of locks and tech.
  • In regards to game direction, we never felt lost on what to do next.
  • Puzzle validation feedback was strong. At no point were we confused if puzzle solves did anything.
• I enjoyed the puzzles in this game.
  • There was one puzzle I thought was really neat.
  • From what I can tell, puzzles seem to be more challenging than what I’m used to in escape rooms. There is more than one layer to the solve, which I am enjoying.
• We didn’t ask for hints, but were guided a number of times by the game host.
  • Two or three hints given were searching related or reminders to read. 😀
  • Three hints were for puzzles which were fair and we didn’t get. There was an extra layer I didn’t realize (as mentioned earlier). I need to up my game in these rooms.
  • Two puzzles we got by luck or bruting. I didn’t see the clues for one of them, so I can’t assess whether it was a fair puzzle or not, but given the rest of the room, I trust it was. 😀
• Assessment: This game is too new to be on TERPECA.
  • I really enjoyed the game and it is worth doing. The set design is nice, but the puzzles are the stand-out here. However, it doesn’t have the spectacle and wow factor the top TERPECA games tend to lean towards. If you’re looking for a game with good puzzles, do this game.

Game 3 – The order of Light at Braincells

If you recall, my sister’s flight was cancelled, but she had arrived in time for our next game at Braincells. Our team number has dwindled down to three, because the rest of our travelling group wants to tour ruins. Not us though, we’re here for escaping! 😀

About the Facility

We originally had two games at this company, but unfortunately, the actor was not available so our game with Frankenstein’s Legacy was cancelled. I am all about interacting with actors, so I was sad I could not do so here. In the end, we only did the one game: The order of Light.

• I do not remember struggling to find this location. In fact, when I looked it up on google maps, I don’t even recall seeing the front entrance, maybe because it was too easy to find. It boldly displays its company name with a sign and you should have no problems finding this place.
• Bathroom and water coolers were available here.
• This one did not have air conditioning we could control in the room. Ha! I was getting used to that.

Gameplay

• Game info:
  • 👥: 3 – 6 Players.
    We played with three, myself, Myra, and Leezet.
  • 🕒: Duration 1 Hour 45 minutes.
    We finished with a healthy amount of time left over. James and Emma tend to speed through rooms, so with just us three, there was a lot of sauntering. It surprising we had as much time as we did left over.
  • 🏷️: Non-horror.
    Nothing scary happened in this room. Leezet wasn’t even scared. That’s impressive.
  • EscapeAll entry.
• In regards to decor, out of all the secret society games I have played, this may have been one of the top sets I’ve seen.
•  Gameplay
  • A bit of searching was involved. Or at least better observation skills than we had.
  • Some parts get dim for my old man eyes. Young people should be fine.
  • Sometimes it was difficult to discern between decor and clues, but you get used to it after awhile.
  • Game has a mixture of tech and locks.
  • The puzzles were okay. Better validation would have been nice to let us know we were wrong. A lot of that was due to not realizing an order was needed. For example, when placing objects, it’d be nice to know whether or not you need to do it in order, or if order doesn’t matter. Making us read to discern this is less desirable than making it intrinsically obvious.
  • Game host was wonderful, but mentioned we did really well because we only needed five hints, where most teams need twenty or more. Most of the hints we got were on where to go next, searching, and validating what needed to be put in order or not.
• Assessment: This game is on TERPECA., but the last time they were in the top 200 was in 2020.
  • At the moment, it is nominated but isn’t in the top 100, which I agree with.

This completed our second day. We did try to book another escape room, but we learned later that the escape room required twenty-four hours to convert it to English. Make a note of that: some escape rooms may not be able to make the game available to you as quickly as you want.

Day 3

I’m getting to the point I don’t remember what is happening 2 days prior. Good grief. This was the day I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn’t fall back asleep, so I started this blog.

I did fall back asleep, but I was operating on only a four hours of sleep. Escape rooms are worth it though!

Today was the day, however, that I was finally able to get a sim card. I have been borrowing other people’s data this whole time.

I probably could have found a cheaper card, but in the middle of Monastiraki square, we found a small kiosk selling 12 gig sims with phone numbers for €13. I bought three of them. In the end, I used a little over 2 gigs for the whole trip. I need to gauge my usage better.

Game 4 – The Mansion at Paradox Project

Back in 2019, TERPECA’s second year, I learned Greece had rooms that lasted  for 3 hours! I have been waiting for this chance to play them for a long time.

About the facility:

• Before the game started, we were given instructions on what to do because it was a cold open. We did not see the game host and would not see her until the end of the game. Considering this game came out in 2016, I could imagine a cold open would have been mind-blowing back then.
• The facility was easy enough to find, and there is signage.
• Because the game is a glorious three hours, there is a bathroom in the game itself, and halfway through, they even offer a break. Mind you, we’re not talking about a short dinner break, but time to drink some water from the water cooler and go to the bathroom.
• There are a number of rooms in this game, and in each room, there is a remote to control the air conditioning. It’s so nice!

Gameplay

First off, the game shows its age. This is the first one for this company. There were some aspects puzzle-wise which I found a little rough.

But I loved it.

Three hours flew by incredibly fast.

• Game info:
  • 👥: 4 – 7 Players.
    We played with three: myself, Myra, and Leezet.
  • 🕒: Duration 3 hours!!
    We finished with 2 minutes to spare. Ha! We’re so slow.
  • 🏷️: Non-horror.
    Nothing scary happens, however:
    Spoiler if you are claustrophobic

    There is one part where you are locked in a dark and small room.
    You will not be able to get out, you are physically locked in there.
    We forgot to bring in our communication device before it locked us in. Whoops.

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• There is very little tech in this game.
• There are a LOT of puzzles in this game. And also a lot of reading.
• There is a story, a very intricate story, and the owner (Dimitris) puts great effort into story consistency and continuity. I can’t really get into it without telling spoilers, but the amount of detail is impressive.
• There is an incredible amount of searching in this game. However, you are primed well, and as you progress through the game, you get into the flow and style of what to do and where to search. I felt like a searching god after this game.
• As mentioned before, there are some puzzles I found to be a bit rough, but at the same time, there were a few “Aha” puzzles. This is a joy, because I rarely get to experience an “Aha” in puzzles.  Furthermore, puzzles had multiple layers, were creative, and there were puzzles of all types. It was wonderful.
• Also, there were puzzles I haven’t really encountered before in an escape room. That was a surprise and a joy!
• Assessment: This game is on TERPECA., but the last time they were in the top 100 was in 2019. Understandable, considering what voters prefer in TERPECA. However, it still is one of the few puzzles games that last for three hours. and I would have been happy for it have lasted longer. Is there any other game like this? I don’t think so. I will talk about which one I prefer out of the three games at Paradox Project, but you’ll have to wait a bit for that. 😀

Game 5 – Zoe at XII Divisions Escape Rooms

This was hard to find. I am glad we were an hour early, because we spent half of it trying to find the address. Why didn’t we use Google Maps? We did. And on Google maps, it says this:

Permanently closed?! That’s not good. And considering how many rooms were closing down, we were worried. Furthermore, when we did go there, Google Maps (and the Apple one too) pointed us to a construction lot. Furthermore, if you can’t read Greek, the road signs are all confusing. After talking to a random assortment of Greek people (Myra had a conversation for about 10 minutes with a wonderfully kind older gentlemen who couldn’t speak English), we did find it. It looks like this:

Sure, the building number is there (seven), but we were looking for signage. When you take a close look at the buzzer, you see this:

There’s the signage! All in its sun-faded glory. Don’t make the same mistakes we did and I hope you find the room, because it’s worth it.

About the Facility:

• This is a cold open. I don’t think there are any bathrooms. We never asked for one, and they never offered one. There weren’t any bathrooms inside that we saw.
• I think there is air conditioning in each room. We were not hot at all.

Gameplay

• Game info:
  • 👥: 2 – 5 Players.
    We played with three: myself, Myra, and Leezet.
  • 🕒: Duration 1 hours 50 minutes
  • 🏷️: 💀 Horror. Has actors.
• How scary is it?
  • This room is Cinematic Horror.
  • There is no touching. Or you can ask for no touching.
  • Scare Elements

    • Jump scares. Many jump scares.
    • Lights go out, lights go on, monster in front of you.
    • Flashing lights. Strobe lights. Many times in darkness.
    • Many times wandering around in dim light.
    • Pretty useless lanterns given for those dark times.
    • I don’t know if the monster bothers you during puzzle solving because my sister did ask for no more jump scares.

    [collapse]
• This game has a mixture between tech and locks.
• There was one simple puzzle I liked in this and am sad we needed to  receive a hint, because I should have gotten it. I blame my poor vision.
• There is actor engagement. I got a chance to talk to actors and had a wonderful time.
• Set design, atmosphere, and production was top notch. The whole experience ran without a hitch.
• The cinematics and story in this one were amazing. Further highlighted by how the game ended. This is how narrative should be shown and experienced by the players.
• Assessment: This game is too new for the TERPECAs, but its style is very similar to No Exit’s El Exorcista. Given that, this game should make it to the top 30, if not 20. Leezet booked this game not knowing it was horror. It was harrowing for both her and Myra. However, taking the in-the-moment fear out of the equation, it was a beautifully-made game. Beautiful may not be a good adjective for a horror game, but it was done so well.

Day 4

Can I just say I’m not a fan of the toilet bin? I’m not. 😀

I am, however, having a Greek Coffee (double) every day.

Game 6 – The Bookstore at Paradox Project

About the facility:

• This is located right beside The Mansion, so I won’t share another picture.
• Bathrooms, water, air conditioning, all available in the Bookstore.
• Cold open.

Gameplay:

• Game info:
  • 👥: 4 – 7 Players.
    We played with three: myself, Myra, and Leezet.
  • 🕒: Duration 3 hours 20 minutes.
    We finished with 2 seconds remaining.
  • 🏷️: All puzzles. No horror.
• There is a significant upgrade to the set design and reveals.
• There is a mixture between tech and locks in this game.
• Obviously, there are wonderful puzzles and, I think, better-designed puzzles than The Mansion. I enjoyed it a lot!
• Having said that, I think I had more “Aha” moments in The Mansion than I did in The Bookstore.
• Furthermore, I felt we needed to be prompted a lot with hints.
• There is a very intricate narrative in this game since it’s a sequal to The Mansion. You could “Ask Why” on any aspects of the story, and you will receive an answer.
• Assessment: Paradox Project is amazing. It should be higher on the TERPECAs for its uniqueness and puzzling focus. 😀 This assessment may feel short, but I will expand more on Paradox Project later.

Game 7 – Ice Tiki at Way Out Escape

About the facility:

• This place is the farthest we booked for this trip.
• Uber travel times will change because of rush hour. Our 25 minutes turned into 45 minutes. I’d suggest if Uber gives you a time, double that just in case.
• Place looked like a house, but easy enough to find.
• They offered bathrooms and water!
• If you haven’t already been warned, you can only play in socks. I brought a pair, and then discovered there was a hole in it. Darn it.
• It gets warm in there, considering how active you are. Wear active clothing. It’s only cool in the latter half of the game.
• Sadly, this game is closing down in November, 2024. 🙁
  But a new version will be created in its place! 😀

Gameplay:

• Game info:
  • 👥: 3 – 7 Players.
    We played with eight people!  Myself, Myra, Nathan, Steph, James, Emma, Emmy, and Leezet. Leezet was tired, so she sat and watched for most of it.
  • 🕒: Duration 1 hour 50 minutes. I think we solved it in 57 minutes. I’m not the one that hurries in rooms, but those kids do.
  • 🏷️: You need to be active in this game, but you don’t need to jump. You may have to hoist yourself up though.
• This room is incredibly fun.
• This room is great for kids.
• There were many aspects in this room I enjoyed which I don’t want to spoil.
• There were a couple of puzzles I thought were neat.
• The set design is optimized for fun, but not for looks.
• The Game Host is EXCELLENT in this room. He makes it fun.
• I had an absolute blast in this room.
• Assessment: This is the most playful room I have ever been in, and may have been the most fun escape room I have ever done. I did not cheer when we exited the game, because I wanted more. On TERPECA, this room is ranked #94 as of 2023. I, personally, plan on ranking it higher. I can imagine it may not be as impressive to other voters because the set doesn’t look as pretty and there are not as many reveals, but you know what? This is an incredibly unique game that embodies child-like joy.

Game 8 – Truth or Dare at Clock Escape Rooms

About the facility:

• We were late again to this one. As a person who likes to be 20 minutes early, it was killing me. This was one of those times where it searched for 5 minutes for a driver, and then it took 10 to 15 minutes so show up. Even though we were only 10 minutes away be car, we arrived about 5 minutes late.
• Normal amenities: water cooler, and bathroom. I’m not sure on air conditioning though. It was a bit cooler by night time, so I don’t know if any were running.
• The facility is on the second floor and the signage is also on the second floor. We were a bit lost at first, but fortunately, one of us looked up. I think we were able to get to the second floor on the left side of the building.

Gameplay:

• Game info:
  • 👥: 3 – 5 Players.
    We played with five people!  Myself, Myra, Leezet, James, and Emma.
  • 🕒: Duration 1 hour 50 minutes. We solved it in time with about 9 minutes left over.
  • 🏷️: Not horror. Actor. The escapeall site shows Adults only, but I don’t know why. Maybe for hinted at violence?
• How scary is it?
  • This is labelled as non-horror, but there are still spooky parts appropriate to the theme.
  • No Touching nor chasing.
  • Spooky atmosphere and sound effects.
  • Scare Elements

    • Although we are given some flashlights, there are some areas that are pretty dark.
    • At one point, you may some violence done to an actor.

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• There is mostly locks in this room, with some tech.
• This room had some fun puzzles in it! I really enjoyed the puzzle correlations in this one. I know I’ve been saying I’m enjoying the puzzles a lot, but that is not common. I think all puzzles in escape rooms are ‘mid’. But Greece has opened a whole new appreciation for puzzles in escape rooms.
• There is actor engagement. I got to talk to them, which is always a joy for me.
• Assessment: I enjoyed the puzzles in this one, as well as the actor interaction. This game, however, is not on the TERPECAs, and I don’t think it has enough of the wow-factor that TERPECA voters would go for.  Sad, really, I liked the puzzles in this.

Day 5

I’m tired every day. I probably fall asleep around 1am, and wake up around 9 or a bit earlier, but I’m still tired. I’m not even active and walking, since I’m only doing escape rooms, but it’s been exhausting.

Food, btw, is amazing. I haven’t even been yearning for rice. For breakfast, I keep going to this one restaurant called Sin Athina. It has a nice view of the Acropolis, and I like their salmon omelette.

Game 9 – The Music Academy at Paradox Project

About the facility:

• This is located close to the other rooms, but not at the same building.
• Easy enough to find, and building is adorned with music decorations.
• Bathrooms, water, air conditioning, all available in the Bookstore.

Gameplay:

• Game info:
  • 👥: 4 – 7 Players.
    We played with four: myself, Myra, Leezet, and Kay-Lan, my daughter’s boyfriend.
  • 🕒: Duration ~3 hours.
    I don’t know how much time we had. I know we had a lot of time for the end puzzle, so Dimitris let us work on it.
  • 🏷️: All puzzles.
• How scary is it?
  • It is not scary. However, there is a creepy antagonist.
    Scary Element

    And this antagonist does appear in the game, but separate from you.

    [collapse]
• There were some great puzzles in this game. I enjoyed the puzzles in Music Academy more than Mansion and Bookstore.
• I enjoy the attention to detail in this game, which I can’t even say because of spoilers.
• When it comes to set design and reveals, Bookstore is the clear winner.
• Assessment: Out of the three, this is my favourite. There isn’t much in this writeup, but I will comment further below when I give my assessment on the whole trip, because Paradox Project warrants its own section.

Game 10 – El Exorcista at No Exit

About the facility:

• The facility was easy to find, and has signage to help you out.
• They have water and bathrooms.
• They did not have great temperature control, however. Some rooms had air conditioners, and some didn’t. We were quite warm throughout the whole experience, and it wasn’t that warm out. So it’s best to do these rooms when it’s not hot out.
• We did the three games at this location.
• The only critique I would have for this place is that we weren’t 100% if puzzles were solved. We did get a number of hints along the lines of “Something has opened”.

Gameplay

• Game info:
  • 👥: 3 – 5 Players.
    We played with four: myself, Myra, Leezet, and Kay-lan.
  • 🕒: Duration 1 hour 30 minutes
  • 🏷️: 💀 Horror. Has actors.
• How scary is it?
  • This room is Cinematic Horror.
  • Scare Elements

    • Many jump scares.
    • Lights go out, lights go on, monster in front of you.
    • There is touching. At most on your shoulder.
    • Flashing lights. Strobe lights.
    • A few times in darkness, but most areas are lit well enough to solve puzzles in.
    • Some low spaces, tall people will suffer.
    • You are never separated.
    • No chasing. No Hiding.
    • You will not be bothered during puzzle solving.

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• This room is based on The Exorcist. If you are a fan of that movie, you will see a lot of easter eggs.
• There is a mixture of techs and locks in this game.
• I loved the cinematic moments on this.
• The actor who plays the ‘monster’ in this is brilliant. Her real name is Evgenia, she does an excellent job, and she must have amazing core strength.
• No need to talk to the actor or engage in anyway. They just scare you.
• Assessment: As someone not scared, I loved the cinematics in this game. The actor does a wonderful job of being the possessed girl. For TERPECA 2023, this games is ranked #20, and I do believe it’s for the cinematics and the actor alone. It’s well deserved and one of my favourite horror rooms.

Game 11 – Wanted Dead or Alive at No Exit

• Game info:
  • 👥: 3 – 5 Players.
    We played with four: myself, Myra, Leezet, and Kay-lan.
  • 🕒: Duration 1 hour 30 minutes
  • 🏷️: Comedy. Has an actor. No horror nor any chance to be scared.
• I liked the puzzles in this one and there were some cute reveals.
• There is a mixture of tech and locks in this room.
• Unlike other Western rooms, you don’t have to escape a prison!
• I loved the actor in this. His real name was Filippos, and he was wonderful. I spent most of my time engaging with him. I played off things he said, he played off things I said, we had wonderful banter together.
• In fact, I may have spent an inordinate amount of time with the actor. There was one puzzle they made me do, where I needed to run back and forth between rooms. In between, every time I ran into the actor, we’d tell a knock-knock joke. Let’s just say we didn’t solve this game quickly at all.
• Assessment: TERPECA 2023 has this game ranked at #55, and I’m sure the main reason is for the actor alone. He makes it unique, he was funny, and engaging with him is a joy.

Game 12 – Death Row at No Exit

• Game info:
  • 👥: 3 – 5 Players.
    We played with four: myself, Myra, Leezet, and Kay-lan.
  • 🕒: Duration 1 hour 40 minutes
  • 🏷️: Non horror but an aggressive actor. Lots of crawling, and claustrophobic tight spaces.
• How scary is it?
  • The room is non horror, but you do have an aggressive actor.
    Scary Elements

    The actor is an unhinged guard who will scream and swear at you and make you uncomfortable with his aggressive anger.
    They don’t touch you, but at least two people gets either strapped to a chair or handcuffed, so you will need to be touched during that processed. There is no touching, however, to induce fear.

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• If you’ve done a prison escape, then almost everything you can imagine is in this game.
• There is a mixture of tech and locks in this room.
• The set design is wonderful in this, as are the props.
• You will get very physical in this game, and hot. Hopefully you are wearing comfortable clothing.
• Assessment: TERPECA 2023 has this game ranked at #116. It is a well-designed game with an impressive set, but nothing mind-blowing for the average voter. Having said that, I think it ranks highly as it does because this is the best prison escape room I have ever done.

Day 6

This is it, the day of horror. Leezet has been dreading this. She was not planning on doing the rooms here, but every one was telling her to do Chapel and Catacombs. Since Sanatorium is the scariest room on the list, she decided not to do that one.

For the most part, although she was screaming her brains out for the scary rooms, she did appreciate how good the previous rooms were. This day, not so much.

Game 13 – Chapel and Catacombs  at Lockhill

About the facility:

• We were late again. You’d think we’d learn. We were five minutes late. I normally go to escape rooms a half an hour early. I go to airports 4 or more hours early. We were at the airport 6 hours early for our trip to Greece. To me, being late is an affront and incredibly disrespectful to the person waiting for you. You have no idea how much it kills me to be late to something.
• There are two locations, quite far from each other. Make sure you are at the right one.
• The entrance has a sign, as shown in the photo, and you have to go through a little alley to find it.
• There are a lot of stairs to get to this one. By the way, that reminds me, the first floor in Greece is Level 0. The floor called 1 in Greece is the next level up.
• Bathrooms, water, air conditioning, all available.
• The room is a cold open and you pay up front. This is the first time we paid up front, which is the normal custom in North America.

Gameplay:

• Game info:
  • 👥: 1 – 7 Players.
    We played with seven: myself, Myra, Leezet, Nathan, Steph, James, Emma.
  • 🕒: Duration 2 hours and 10 minutes.
    I don’t know how much time we had left over. At the end, there’s time to debrief with the game hosts, so we must have had a lot of time.
  • 🏷️:💀 Horror. Has actors.
• How scary is it?
  • This room is Chase Horror with some minor cinematic elements in it.
    Scary Element

    • Many jump scares.
    • There is touching.
    • You can be dragged away if caught, where there is a lot of touching.
    • Many times in darkness. Very dark. Very dim. Useless candles to hold.
    • You will ALL be separated at least once, and be all by yourself in the dark if you don’t have a candle.
    • You will be chased. You can’t really run since it’s too dark. You can’t really hide, since there’s no where to hide.
    • You are moving around in a maze. You will get lost.
    • There are some moments of respite, but there’s always dread of being chased.
    • You won’t be chased on stairs. I don’t recall many stairs on this.

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• This set is large! It is also varied and impressive with the decoration. They put a lot of effort into the beginning and you’re not there for long periods of time. It also does a great job of setting the atmosphere with the fog, the darkness, the soundtrack, and sound effects.
• I think the puzzles are fine. I didn’t do most of them, but the ones I saw were pretty basic. I think most of the puzzles are tech based. I think there were a couple of locks.
• I didn’t have a proper experience in this one, because I was caught twice. Furthermore, I had to sit in darkness for a part of it because my group left me once. I didn’t catch up to them because I couldn’t see. I also knew where they had to end up, so I just waited at their destination.
  Spoiler

  The catacombs is a maze. And while I was trying to see where they were when they left me, I noticed one of the monsters closing a whole section off. In other words, they move the maze around. I couldn’t see anything, since I didn’t have a candle to hold, so there was no point in me bumbling around in the dark because the place is HUGE.

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• For reference, I liken this to Stay in the Dark (SitD) in the Netherlands, which is also a Chase and Hide game. In SitD, you are given rules on how the monster behaves, and when you follow those rules, you can play game and even manipulate the monster. In Chapel & Catacombs (C&C), we were given rules, but I couldn’t seem to figure out how exactly they worked. I could not figure out the game mechanic easily because the monsters did different things than what I was told. So I could not play it as a game.
• I did get to engage with actors who weren’t monsters, and had a wonderful time talking to them.
• As mentioned above, I did get caught twice, and I didn’t do it on purpose. If you get scared easily, don’t get caught. If you wish to ask me for my experience when caught, please do in the discord. I don’t want to spoil all the fun! 😀
• When told to do C&C, we were informed you needed to see it for its cinematics. There are cinematic elements, but it’s not the impressive part of C&C. You will find much more impressive cinematics in Zoe or Exorcist.
• Assessment: TERPECA 2023 has this as one of the top three games, and originally, I didn’t know why. However, its uniqueness, the thing that sets it apart, is its spectacular set. As someone not wow’d by set design, I tend to rank that element lower in my assessments, so for me, it’s not as mind-blowing. Still, Chapel and Catacombs is top-tier and deserves to be at the top of TERPECA. And when it comes to the top-tier TERPECA games, rooms are usually well-rounded and the voting, in my opinion, comes down to personal preference.

Also, if you witnessed the discord drama that my sister started, I’ll comment on that below.

Game 14 – Sanatorium at Lockhill

About the facility:

• This facility is closer to the center of Athens, and fortunately, closer to our AirBnb. Again, make sure you’re at the correct one.
• The entrance doesn’t have a sign, and when we were dropped off, we weren’t too sure where we were. Eventually, Myra saw a sign on the second floor of a building, but we couldn’t find the entrance to that building. We walked around for a bit and found it as pictured.
• The lobby is very atmospheric and they had bathrooms and water. I don’t know if they had air conditioning, but we weren’t hot. I was told not to wear my jacket for this though.
• This room isn’t a cold open, but it’s all done in character.
• There are three modes to this:
  • Day mode: only puzzles.
  • Night mode: horror with puzzles.
  • Midnight mode: Horror and puzzles are more challenging.
• We wanted Midnight mode, but booked Night mode by accident. To be honest, as long as it wasn’t Day mode, I was happy. 😀
• This is the room requiring a change of shoes. You don’t need a change of shoes if you are careful and listen to the instructions. If you are like me, and forget what they told you three times, then you will get your shoes wet.
• On EscapeRoomers.da, this is ranked 9 for scare factor. I can see why.

Gameplay:

• Game info:
  • 👥: 1 – 5 Players.
    We played with four: myself, Myra, Nathan, and Emmy.
  • 🕒: Duration 1 hour and 30 minutes.
    We finished in time, although I don’t know how much time we had to spare. The game host said we did very well.
  • 🏷️:💀 Horror. Has actors. Crawling and small spaces.
• How scary is it?
  • This room is Chase and Hide Horror.
    Scary Elements

    • Many jump scares.
    • None of us were touched, but considering you can be caught, there must be touching.
    • Visibility is greatly reduced. You will have amazing flashlights, but the smoke is so thick, you can only see a few feet in front of you.
    • There aren’t that many flashlights, but you need to be able to turn the flashlight off immediately so as not to be seen by the monsters. The most scared people did not want a flashlight at all.
    • You WILL be separated at least once and be all by yourself.
    • You will be chased. You can’t really run since there’s no room. You can hide, but you won’t feel well hidden.
    • There are some moments of respite, but you will be interrupted by jump scares and monsters when solving puzzles. You never know when they will come.
    • You will need to explore, and you will constantly need to enter and re-enter covered doorways not knowing what’s behind.
    • The place is small so you won’t get lost. You may get claustrophobic though.
    • You will always be on edge and filled with dread.

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• The atmosphere in here is oppressively scary. The soundtrack is loud with creepy noises, masking the approach of monsters. In fact, you never know where the monsters are, and thick smoke constantly clouds your vision.
• The set felt cramped, which was good for the game, but it didn’t feel like a large sanatorium. Having said that, it looked very good, and the decor is amazing in this room.
• The flashlights are brilliant in this room. They are super strong and pierce the dark. They don’t pierce the smoke though. Not at all.
• There is one game mechanic that I found cool, however, it was hard to understand during the game. After being told what it was, I think it’s a great mechanic for newer players (but confusing in-game).
• There are rules for the monsters in this Chase horror, and I found that the monsters followed the rules. In fact, they probably bent the rules in our favour, because I’m positive my hiding skills sucked. I was fully expecting to be caught, but never did.
• We were incredibly stupid in this game. One of the hints we got was “Turn the paper over.” Maybe it’s good we didn’t do Midnight Mode.
• Assessment: TERPECA 2023 has this ranked around #81 (the Midnight and Night mode get combined), but I enjoyed it a lot more than Chapel and Catacombs. It had a set of rules I could follow and play. Furthermore, this game does oppressive fear very well. I enjoyed this game a lot.

Day 7

Our last day of escape rooms. We didn’t book much, which was nice, because I was exhausted. It wasn’t so much jet lag that was exhausting me, but I did go to bed late and wake up early. Or maybe it was jet lag. I have no idea. I’m glad we only had two escape rooms, but also sad we only had two escape rooms.

Game 15 – Mystic Project at Mystic Corporation

About the facility:

• This facility was easy enough to find, but there were two entrances. One was a door with an escape-room-looking lock on it, and another was a gate which told us to wait there. Considering we had two rooms booked, one which was inside, and one which was outside, we weren’t too sure where to go. In the end, we discovered we needed to wait at the gate.
• This was a cold open. I think we were asked if we wanted to go to the bathroom. There is no lobby though, so no water.
• There were air conditioners in each room, but the day was cold so we didn’t need it.

Gameplay:

• Game info:
  • 👥: 3 – 6 Players.
    We played with six: myself, Myra, Leezet, Choy, Emma, and James.
  • 🕒: Duration 2 hours and 30 minutes. I honestly don’t know if we finished in time because we started the next game immediately.
  • 🏷️:💀 Horror. Has actors.
• How scary is it?
  • This room is Cinematic Horror.
    Scary Element

    • A few jump scares. Monster may show up when you don’t expect it.
    • There is touching in this game, but it’s not touching to scare. It’s touching to move you out of the way.
    • There are a few times where you need to crawl into darkness. You do have a lamp. It tends to go out.
    • Claustrophobic, tight spaces. Lots of crawling.
    • Flashing lights. Strobe lights.
    • You WILL be separated at least once, however, it’s more stress than it is scary.
    • You will not be interrupted by monster when working on puzzles.
    • There are some cinematic moments where there is a lot of violence towards another actor. This may be disturbing to watch.
    • There is a chance one of you may be taken away. That never happened in our play-through, but it did in another group’s play-through.

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• Wonderful Victorian steam punk set in this one.
• There are some fun cinematic moments. There was one I particularly enjoyed when we needed to be quiet.
• I engaged a lot with the non-monster actor, although, that’s not really part of the game. I still had a lot of fun. Actors did a great job.
• Lot of puzzles, I don’t think there were any locks. It was mostly tech. I could be wrong though, I didn’t work on many puzzles, just got a glimpse of them. There was a cool one I liked though.
• Assessment: TERPECA 2023 has this ranked at #75. I did enjoy it a lot, but I think most of my enjoyment was from talking to the actors, which is not an inherent part of the escape room. Still, it was a beautiful room and we had a lot of fun, and Leezet wasn’t even that scared in it! I mean, she was scared, but less than normal. I think the other rooms helped her build up a resistence.

Game 16 – Mystic Investigation at Mystic Corporation

About the facility:

• This was at the same place above, but it was outside of the building. If it’s cold out, bring a jacket.
• We launched right into the this game right after our previous one. To be honest, I didn’t realize we were done the first game and started the second.
• We had a bit of a hiccup because some people had to go to the bathroom, and then grabbed something to eat while at the bathroom. This happened a half an hour into the game.

Gameplay:

• Game info:
  • 👥: 4 – 6 Players.
    We played with six: myself, Myra, Leezet, Choy, Emma, and James.
  • 🕒: Duration 2 hours. We finished in time, but it was hard to tell.
  • 🏷️:Immersive experience. A few puzzles at the beginning, but mostly actor interacting and engagement.
• Role-playing and actor engagement is my happy place. In fact, I will chat with the actor to the detriment of everything else. The name of our actor was Peter (in game and out) and he was great! I had such a great time engaging with him.
• A few of our crew are very non-social. They chose to do escape rooms because they did not want the crowds of the tourist areas. For them, the social engagement felt very awkward and uncomfortable.
• There are puzzles in this, mostly tech. There were some cool social-engineering puzzles I enjoyed doing with the actors.
• The set is outside, but it’s done in an immersive way. I really liked what they did.
• Assessment: I loved it. Again, I had an incredible amount of fun engaging with Peter. However, my team is more fond of escape rooms and found things a bit hard to follow. It didn’t help that the actor and I went on a number of ridiculous tangents the actor. I doubt this game will make it to the TERPECAs, but if you love immersive experiences and enjoy engaging with actors, you must do this game after you do Mystic Project.

Sadly, I forgot to get a photo for this game, because we were talking so much to the game host. Myra and I left in our Uber, and that’s when I think they remembered to take one.

And thus ended our escape room week. Honestly, it felt so full, but went by so fast. I will continue on with a few other notes.

On Chapel & Catacombs & Consent

I mentioned there was some drama that occurred in the discord, and that was Leezet’s rant about touching in C&C.

• Leezet did ask in an email not to be touched.
• She did ask during the intro not to be touched. The Game host then asked, “Like this” and then touched her and she screamed not to be touched.
• She wrote on the signed waiver to not be touched. And she circled it.
• Yet, in the game, they touched her. It was minor, they tapped her foot to see if she would scream, and she did. And then they tapped it again when she screamed “Don’t touch me!”
• Was it a lot of touching? No, but at that point, the trust was gone. She knew they would goad her to scream by pressing those boundaries.

Leezet screamed in all the escape rooms, but all the actors respected her boundaries. Only in Chapel & Catacombs did they goad her.

Yes, you come to Greece to do the scary escapes,  but the companies seemed fine for reducing scariness and gauged the individual players well. So why was it so hard not to goad her?

In fact, Chapel & Catacombs did reduce the scare factor for my other friends who played it next, because one of them had a pacemaker. They chose to stay 10 feet away from him. (He still found it terrifying.) They were also very accommodating to me. There was at one point (when I was captured) where I said jokingly, “You know, this place could do with air conditioning” and then I heard a fan come on.

And so I’m sad that such a lack of judgement on C&C‘s part soiled the experience for my sister. I am someone who doesn’t have much empathy, and that’s because I don’t experience the same things as other people. I can have sympathy, but not empathy. I don’t know what anxiety is like. I don’t know what a panic attack is. I don’t even understand FOMO.

And so I don’t make assumptions on how severe or not severe these are for another person. And that’s what I believe C&C did: they assumed it wasn’t as big of a deal as Leezet made it out to be. But that’s not for us, or myself, to decide.

Thus, if a person has boundaries, just follow them. Believe it or not, I’m a troll, but I need truly understand a person’s boundaries to see how far I can troll. Otherwise, I’d be a monster of an asshole. To some, I probably am.

The Escape Room Scene in Greece

I loved the rooms here and I loved the puzzle creativity. I could be wrong in doing so, but I attribute the level of puzzling to Paradox Project’s influence. I am mostly bored with puzzles in escape rooms, so it was a joy to find creative implementations here in Greece.

And it didn’t happen just once. It happened multiple times. To date, I honestly think Greece has some of the best puzzling I’ve seen.

Furthermore, almost all the game hosts and actors were attentive to our game progress and ensuring we had a great time. In some rooms, we had multiple people. I know there are four actors in Mystic Project.

And Paradox Project’s game hosts have to sit there for THREE OR MORE HOURS watching us stumbling through their game. Good grief.

I didn’t get a chance to play as many horror games in the Netherlands, so I don’t know how the cinematic horror compares, but it was wonderful here! There were truly some amazing moments where I was all 🤯🤯🤯! Of course, a lot of horror games are dark or dim. If you have bad sight in dark like me, you will need to bring the youth.

Where the Netherlands has great set design and mind-blowing reveals, I significantly enjoy the puzzle and the cinematic aspects more. This doesn’t mean Greece doesn’t have great set design. There were some that were wonderful! The Netherlands just do ridiculous things, as does Montreal.

By the way, that reminds me. One game host was quite aware of the Greece/Netherlands/Spain trifecta, but didn’t know about Montreal! We need to advertise better.

One other thing I forgot to mention, the rooms here, in comparison to other countries, are cheaper! I have heard you get more value for your money and we were surprised how much rooms cost. Sure, it was still pricey for a Canadian like me, but given the duration, the dedicated game hosts and actors, and the high quality games, it was all worth it.

In the end, I loved my trip to Greece. I would come back again in a heart-beat, if it weren’t for things like putting my children through school. Rotten kids.

I’ve also learned more on my preference:

• I prefer Riddle Rooms (what the Greeks call non-horror rooms) to Horror rooms. The top rooms for me will be Paradox Project’s, of course, with Music Academy being my favourite of the three. I can see why Bookstore is rated so highly, but the Netherlands do reveals that blow your mind. I enjoyed solving the puzzles of Music Academy, and being allowed the time to sit and think about how to solve a layered and challenging puzzle.
• I prefer Cinematic Horror to Chase/Hide Horror. For horror rooms, this is harder to decide. I was blown away by Exorcista cinematics, but the narrative and actor engagement of Zoe was so good (as well as the cinematics). I also prefer Zoe‘s narrative to Molly‘s Narrative. 😀
• I don’t like toilet bins. That’s the only thing keeping me away from Greece.

And now, it’s over and I am off to figure out my ranking for TERPECA 2024. Oh dear, this will be challenging.

1. I know some of you would argue there’s more than one.
2. I assume only in escape rooms.