Athens could be a case study for escape rooms. It counts at least 200 escape rooms and is the "escape capital" for good reasons, while also hosting the best Escape Room in the world.
Lockhill in the Athens neighbourhood of Metaxourgeio succeeded and brought Greece to the top of the world ranking on the map of Escape Rooms.
Escape rooms have become increasingly popular in recent years. For those unfamiliar, an escape room equivalent is essentially a physical adventure game where players are locked in a room and must use elements of the room to solve a series of puzzles and escape within a set time limit.
How Escape Rooms Work
Rooms typically consist of a series of puzzles that players must solve in order to progress. Puzzles can be anything from finding a hidden key to decoding a message. Players must use their inductive reasoning and problem-solving skills to escape the room within the predetermined time limit.
While some escape rooms are designed for solo players, most are meant to be played with a team as well. This is because escape rooms often require players to split up and search different areas of the room for clues.
Teamwork can help players communicate and work together more effectively to solve the puzzles. There are a variety of different escape room games, each with their own unique theme and set of puzzles.
Some popular themes include prison breaks, haunted houses, heists and mystery investigations.
There are also many different difficulty levels to choose from, so you can find an escape room that is the perfect challenge for you and your team. In Athens there are many interactive rooms with a strong horror element and with actors who can chase you, scare you, and even touch you.
D&D and Escape-history
The room trend has its roots in the Dungeons & Dragons craze that began in the 1970s, and the adventure games that were a big hit on British television in the 1980s, such as Get Out of That (1981) and the sci-fi themed game The Adventure Game.
The most successful adventure series of them all contributed to them: The Crystal Maze, which first aired in 1990.
This trend fueled computer games, which had spawned "escape the room" titles in Japan. In 2007, Takao Kato, a 34-year-old publishing house employee, launched his first Real Escape Game in Kyoto. The teams had one hour to decipher the clues and find hidden objects to get out.
“I wondered why interesting things weren't happening in my life like they were in the books,” Kato, a manga fan, told the Japan Times in 2009. “I thought I could create my own adventure, a story, and then I invite people to be part of it."
As rooms spread across Asia and the Americas, Hungary emerged as Europe's leading escape room enthusiast. In 2011, Attila Gyurkovics, a former social worker, started the Parapark franchise. Escape rooms in Budapest have proliferated in empty buildings with low rents and cool cellars.
The country certainly has a legacy of puzzles, with Ernő Rubik selling his first cube in Budapest in 1977. In 2012, Attila Nagy and Csaba Vinkler, two thirtysomething Hungarians, opened Britain's first escape room in north London, with the their escape room, HintHunt is now a global chain.
Escape fanatics
The truth is that visiting a room with a scary concept is like playing a horror. It's basically like that scene where the protagonist hears a noise from the darkroom and goes to see what could have caused it.
So if you are looking for a unique and challenging experience, an escape room is the ideal activity for you.
There are several reasons why escape rooms have become so popular. First they provide a unique and challenging experience unlike anything else. Players must use their wits and teamwork to solve the puzzles and escape the room, which can be both exciting and frustrating.
Second, escape rooms are often themed around popular cultural elements or movies, which makes them even more appealing to many people.
For example, there are escape rooms themed around the Harry Potter series, the Hunger Games, and even Stranger Things. With so many different themes and difficulty levels to choose from, there is an escape room game for everyone.
At the top of the world ranking
Lockhill has been loved by so many Greek and foreign escapers because of its high level, unique gameplay and dark atmosphere. It was voted the world's best Escape Room at the TERPECA Awards, winning first place among 929 rooms nominated from 28 countries.
In Lockhill its live action rooms are linked together by a common story, offering a unique experience where players are challenged not only to escape, but to be able to find the edge of the tangle of a very special and dark story with deep influences from HP Lovecraft.
Before you go, be sure to take second shoes, comfortable clothes, good fearless friends and a lot of courage, especially if you are going to visit the "Chapel and Catacombs" room, which is the largest escape room in Greece, occupying an area of 550 square metres.
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