Room Escape Artist

Chapel & Catacombs is one of the best escape rooms in Athens, Greece. Here are our recommendations for other great escape rooms in Athens.

Update 7/1/25: If you enjoyed this article, we hope you’ll check out our interview with Chapel & Catacombs creator Bill Dalitsikas on Season 9, Episode 12 of The Reality Escape Pod.

Praise Dagon!

Location:  Athens, Greece

Date Played: January 27, 2025

Team size: 2-8; we recommend 3-5

Duration: 150 minutes

Price: from 60€ per player for teams of 2 to 30€ per player for teams of 5-8

Ticketing: Private

Accessibility Consideration: All players need to duck, crawl, climb stairs, and use a ladder. There is also fog.

Emergency Exit Rating: We were locked in various spaces within the game. We’re unsure what fire escape measures there were, if any.

Physical Restraints: [F] No Emergency Release

REA Reaction

Chapel & Catacombs has been one of the most renowned games in the world for a long time. It’s one we’ve been eager to visit since it appeared on our radar in 2021, shortly after we were wowed by Lockhill’s earlier game The Sanatorium when we first visited Greece in early 2020. It has remained in TERPECA’s top 10 ever since, including a #1 finish in 2022. It was a lot of hype to live up to. Chapel & Catacombs continues to leave its mark on players because it doesn’t play like any other escape game we’ve encountered. And it resonated with us.

Lockhill didn’t just build a game, they built a world: a town, a chapel, a catacombs, and even a graveyard. These four distinct sets had unique looks and feels, but each was impeccably detailed. They were imposing, captivating stages.

Furthermore, each stage had its own rules of engagement, which enhanced the worldbuilding. It also created an ebb and flow of tension, keeping us engaged for the full 2.5-hour game clock.

The creatures of Chapel & Catacombs were the stewards of this world. They existed both to terrify players, and to subtlety corral us through the expansive maze of catacombs. It was impeccably choreographed, and an unorthodox way of using actors for game mechanics. Furthermore, Lockhill avoided common pitfalls of horror menaces, keeping the stakes high and upping the intensity at the end by challenging each player in different ways.

Chapel & Catacombs didn’t quite stick the landing, instead fumbling a few pivotal scenes in the third act. While we wished the experience hadn’t petered out at the end, we fully enjoyed the exciting adventure that it was.

This dark Lovecraftian universe offered us a winding route to unravel as it shifted before our eyes. Chapel & Catacombs was unlike any other escape room we’ve played – horror-themed or otherwise.

Who is this for?

• Adventure seekers
• Story seekers
• Puzzle lovers
• Scenery snobs
• Lovecraftian horror fans
• Best for players with at least some experience

Why play?

• Some of the finest worldbuilding in the escape room business, complete with incredible sets
• Fantastic actor-driven play
• Interesting and varied puzzles and challenges

Story

The Town of Lockhill had only one place of worship: the Temple of Dagon, the menacing sea deity. We set out to investigate its secrets.

Setting

Chapel & Catacombs was – in a single word – massive. As the name implied, there was both a chapel and a catacombs, and each of them could have easily stood on its own as an individual escape game. Both had extensive worldbuilding and narrative movements. Lockhill brought them together artfully, blending them into their grim, Lovecraft-inspired universe where evil has infected absolutely everything.

Gameplay

Lockhill’s Chapel & Catacombs was a theatrical horror escape room with a moderate level of difficulty.

Core gameplay revolved around avoiding the monsters and puzzling while exploring, navigating, and understanding the physical space.

Analysis

➕ Chapel & Catacombs opened in character with an unorthodox cold start that transported us into the world of the game. There was a break, however, to stow our belongings, use the bathroom, learn the game mechanics, and get ready for the experience. We appreciated this design, which we didn’t take for granted. And while the action paused for us to get our bearings, that too was fully in-world. When we entered the main experience, we were primed, already engaged with a fully realized world, and also fully prepared.

➕ The chapel set was magnificent, and the gameplay took advantage of this, giving us a full appreciation of the build. Lockhill used space, sound, and light to control the environment. The gameplay was familiar in style, and through the puzzles we learned more about the place we were visiting.

➕ The catacombs were vast. High walls, narrow passageways, and no visible ceiling made it feel like the space extended forever in every direction. This was unnerving in a good way, and it made the space itself into a puzzle, something Lockhill leaned into with the game design to great effect.

➖ Chapel & Catacombs was excessively foggy. Everything tasted of fog. We also went the wrong way at one point early on and accidentally stumbled into the fog-making room, before quickly realizing the space was out of play.

➕ We encountered multiple characters in Chapel & Catacombs. The menaces had complete command of the space, and they didn’t fall into the regular traps of escape room menaces. They positioned themselves so as to direct us through a daunting catacombs, haunting and scaring us, while corralling us toward our next goal.

➖ Sometimes the parts that should have been easy were hard. We’d solve a puzzle, but struggle with a lock in the dim environment. Or we’d solve a puzzle and not know what we had accomplished. There was an opportunity for light or sound to draw our attention to newly revealed spaces.

➕ Lockhill kept the gameplay interesting for the duration of the 2.5-hour game clock. Tension ebbed and flowed well. In safer spaces, we solved more challenging puzzles. In some scenes, we searched as menaces gave chase. In one interlude, we encountered a new space, with a new character, and new rules of engagement. The gameplay evolved over the course of the experience.

➕ Late in the game, Chapel & Catacombs challenged us to face our fears of the space and understand its twisted inner workings, giving different players different types of hero moments.

➖ While the majority of the world was impeccably designed, one place that gets a lot of visual focus was conspicuously under-designed.

➖ Chapel & Catacombs wilted in the end game. The final door opened even though we’d accidentally failed to take the MacGuffin, so we had to go back for it, which was clunky. At that point, a character pushed us through the narrative arc, and into a room with a terribly anachronistic set piece as the focal point. This transitioned into a scene that should have been dramatic, if predictable, but was undercut by the delivery.

➕ One of our favorite moments, however, landed upon us during this chaotic end sequence. It was surprising, humorous, and narratively justified. 

Tips For Visiting

• We are unsure about parking.

Book your hour with Lockhill’s Chapel & Catacombs, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.