Room Escape Artist

*Players lock themselves in a space mid-game by turning a deadbolt, which they can turn back to let themselves out in the event of an emergency.

REA Reaction

Escape Or Die presented a stylized satire of campy horror films and horror escape rooms. Honing in on this very specific subgenre, they made a lot with a little, and I adored it.

On the surface, Escape Or Die felt like a traditional escape room, with a fairly sparse set, fun low-tech puzzles, and plenty of locks reminding me of many a charmingly dingy basement-level escape room I frequented in the early days of the medium. Yet supplemented by a wealth of high-quality video content, this experience delivered self-aware comedy on all fronts and was bursting with character. In fact, despite the somewhat menacing title and framing, Escape Or Die was more spooky than scary, overall prioritizing humor over horror.

I can think of few escape rooms internationally that fit into a similar genre, with only Exit Game’s 13th Basement in Anaheim, California coming to mind. But in contrast to 13th Basement, which emerged in Southern California’s mature escape room market and leaned on prior knowledge of escape room tropes for its meta humor to fully land, Escape Or Die more broadly spoofed horror tropes and was accessible to newer players and enthusiasts alike.

Escape Or Die was originally created by Evan Raif, and later adopted and adapted by Ukiyo in 2023. I never got to play the original version to compare, but the newest version struck a fine balance between videos and gameplay, with a cohesive story and thoughtful pacing. If you are in Melbourne and looking for an original take on an escape room, Escape Or Die is well worth a visit.

Who is this for?

• Story seekers
• Puzzle lovers
• Fans of campy horror
• Any experience level

Why play?

• A self-aware spoof of horror tropes
• Entertaining video content

Story

As new employees at the “Escape Or Die” haunted house, we were sent to investigate a series of mysterious deaths.

Setting

Escape Or Die took place in a haunted attraction’s storage room, with a peculiar asymmetrical mannequin — the “Unfinished Thing” — taking center stage. The space was filled with employee lockers, desks, and various other spooky memorabilia.

Gameplay

Ukiyo’s Escape Or Die was a standard escape room with a moderate level of difficulty.

Core gameplay revolved around solving puzzles and making connections.

Analysis

➕ Escape Or Die featured a substantial amount of entertaining video content that not just fit in but helped to stylistically define the overall experience. I’d love to watch more experimental short films in this style, both in and out of the game. Individual videos were not overly long, and they were well physically situated in the room. There was also a chair in the room if a player wants to sit during these segments.

➕/➖ The puzzles were fun, funny, and logical. They made sense for the environment and directly furthered the meta humor of the game. That said, bits of redundant cluing occasionally muddled the flow.

➖ Even given the intentionally campy design aesthetic, Escape Or Die had a relatively weak sense of place. We were told we were in the storage room for a haunted house, yet with a fairly sparse collection of set pieces and no storage crates or the like, it didn’t particularly feel like a storage room. The haunted house itself was similarly never visually developed, beyond some brief fragments in the video content.

➕ We enjoyed a simple yet remarkably elegant reveal.

➖ A purchased puzzle prop worked fine but stuck out amongst the otherwise endearingly handcrafted components.

➕ A layered ending sequence built tension, played with our expectations, and left us wanting more.

Tips For Visiting

• Escape Or Die is in a different location than Ukiyo’s other experiences, The Crumbling Prince and Deep Space.
• According to Ukiyo’s website: “Escape Or Die is rated MA15+ and contains coarse language, gore and self harm themes.”
• Content warning: arachnophobia

Book your hour with Ukiyo’s Escape Or Die, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.

Disclosure: Ukiyo provided media discounted tickets for this game.