Room Escape Artist

Erzsebet is one of Belgium’s best escape rooms. Here are our other escape room recommendations in Belgium.

Blood in the locked tower 🩸

Location: Retie, Belgium

Date Played: March 2, 2025

Team Size: 2-6; we recommend 2-3

Duration: 60 minutes

Price: €130 per team

Ticketing: Private

Accessibility Consideration: All players must briefly climb, but there’s a way around

Emergency Exit Rating: [A] Push To Exit

Physical Restraints: [A+] No Physical Restraints

REA Reaction

In a region filled with so many escape rooms themed around male murderers, it was, oddly enough, a nice change of pace to encounter a game centered around a female serial killer. And when it comes to historical female serial killers, it doesn’t get much more iconic than Báthori Erzsébet, an infamously murderous 17th century Hungarian noblewoman who is rumored to have been an inspiration for Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

At nearly 10 years old, Escaping Belgium’s Erzsébet showed its age — but not in a bad way. Erzsébet was a particularly cohesive take on a classic escape room, with top-notch puzzle design that put a creative spin on various common escape room puzzle types. The game used its space and props efficiently and cleverly. Its lighting design was also well ahead of its time. From start to finish, Erzsébet was a satisfying solve.

There was a multi-year gap between when Escaping Belgium created Erzesebet and when they released its more mature older brother Le Prince. The progression between these two games was impressive, and Erzsébet provided a strong starting point for the many ways in which Escaping Belgium further leveled up their puzzle design and object design in Le Prince.

Erzsébet is slated to close by the end of 2025 to make room for a new experience at Escaping Belgium. While I can’t wait to see what Escaping Belgium is cooking up next, I’m also sad to see Erzsébet go. It’s a stellar example of how good gameplay is truly timeless, and with consistent maintenance, a well-designed classic escape room can still hold up after a decade. I wouldn’t say that Erzsébet is worth traveling to on its own, but if you have the time, I recommend it as a solid warmup before playing Escaping Belgium’s Le Prince. Especially for puzzle lovers, Escaping Belgium should be on your “don’t miss” list in the Benelux region.

Who is this for?

• Puzzle lovers
• Any experience level
• Players who don’t need to be a part of every puzzle

Why play?

• A polished take on a classic escape room
• A bounty of satisfying puzzles

Story

We visited the personal chambers of Erzsébet to discover if the murderous accusations against her were in fact true.

Setting

Erzsébet took place in the grand bedroom of the “Blood Countess” herself. A large canopy bed was surrounded by the various trappings you’d expect from a young royal’s quarters: a vanity, a well-stocked bookcase, and of course a tall portrait of herself. The space was elegant and moodily lit.

Gameplay

Escaping Belgium’s Erzsébet was a standard escape room with a moderate level of difficulty.

Core gameplay revolved around solving puzzles and making connections.

Analysis

➕ Erzsébet was jam-packed with satisfying, layered puzzles that put clever twists on common escape room tropes. This escape room was all about the gameplay, and it slayed.

➕ The set design was polished and cohesive. For a game that was almost 10 years old, everything was impressively well maintained.

➕/➖ The lighting design throughout Erzsébet was dynamic, bringing the space to life as we progressed through it. However, certain spotlights were positioned such that when standing in front of a set piece, it was too easy to accidentally block the light for other players.

➕ Simple environmental reveals helped to tell the core story clearly and visually.

➕ An elegant interaction transformed a common escape room prop into a different puzzle type. I’m surprised I’d never seen this before.

➕ Even when we recognized common puzzle mechanics, Erzsébet still pulled us in with unusual, creative objects that made so much of this game a tactile delight. Satisfying design like this doesn’t require a high budget or even advanced fabrication skills, and we were impressed by how Erzsébet made a lot with a (relative) little.

➖/➕ Erzsébet was consistently enjoyable but lacked a primary “wow” moment. That said, the decade-old game design in Erzsébet was still markedly stronger than many new, more talked about escape rooms in the Benelux region in 2025.

Tips For Visiting

• There was a parking lot.

Book your hour with Escaping Belgium’s Erzsébet, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.

Disclosure: Escaping Belgium comped our tickets for this game.