Room Escape Artist

Non-consensual violence

Location: Athens, Greece

Date Played: January 31, 2025

Team size: 2-6; we recommend 3-4

Duration: 120 minutes

Price: from 120€ per team for teams of 2 to 180€ per team for teams of 6

Ticketing: Private

Accessibility Consideration: We chose “without physical contact” but there was a lot of contact. Be prepared to be dragged, taped, and handcuffed. There was also fog.

Emergency Exit Rating: We were locked in various spaces within the game. There were push-to-exit buttons. Additionally, fire was used in this game, though there were fire extinguishers throughout.

Physical Restraints: [F] No Emergency Release. 3 out of the 4 players on our team were temporarily put in positions where they could not have freed themselves in an emergency.

REA Reaction

In 11 years of covering this industry, I have never been this angry at the creators of an escape room after playing their game.

This review will include spoilers that pertain to health and safety issues, and I do not care if Freaky Minds Horror Live Games consents to this decision that I am making on their behalf. I’m not doing this to be spiteful, but because players need to understand what The Sculptor is, and how Freaky Minds Horror Live Games operates in order to make an informed decision about booking this game.

Some Facts About The Sculptor:

1. We booked “without physical contact” mode for The Sculptor.
2. Early in the game, Lisa was grabbed by a performer, dragged across the floor, and bound with packing tape.
3. One of our teammates was grabbed, forced onto a table, and hogtied to a chain hanging from the ceiling with packing tape. This teammate was over 50.
4. I was grabbed, dragged away from my group, and forced to my knees. My left hand was handcuffed to a chain hanging from the ceiling. My right hand was packing taped to my cuffed left hand. A bucket was put over my head, flammable material was put atop the bucket, and it was lit on fire while my wife and friends watched. Yes, it was actual fire. I felt the heat.
5. In the late game, I was handcuffed between a bed and the wall, arms outstretched in a notably uncomfortable position for an extended period of time (that most certainly would have been longer with less competent teammates).
6. I’ll repeat that we booked “without physical contact” mode for The Sculptor.
7. At the end of the game, the owner asked us “where The Sculptor should rank on TERPECA?” We asked him if he understood that we had booked “without physical contact” mode, and he assured us that he “made the right decision to give us a better experience.”
8. We are aware of at least one other group who had the same experience that we did after booking “without physical contact” mode.

We consented to none of this. In fact, we actively asked that they not make contact with us. And furthermore, when we booked the game, even if we chose “with physical contact,” it never would have occurred to me that this included being lit on fire.

To Freaky Minds Horror Live Games’ credit, they did have many fire extinguishers on hand, and it appeared that they had other emergency equipment… but (and this is a very big “but”) in order for any of this to make me feel better, I’d have to trust Freaky Minds Horror Live Games. How the ^&*# do you trust a group of people who had precisely zero respect for our stated wishes?

Doing This Right?

If Freaky Minds Horror Live Games really felt that we made the “wrong choice” when we selected “without physical contact,” they could have emailed with us, or spoken to us at the door. They could have persuaded us to change our minds. The fact that they didn’t do so made all of this feel so much worse. Knowing that we had chosen “without physical contact” mode and watching my wife get dragged away through a trapdoor was a messed up moment. We had to play the entire game knowing that this company had no respect for us.

On a personal note, I asked my team, “did I look cool?” while I was set on fire. They said, “no… it looked underwhelming.”

A few quick rules for setting people on fire in an immersive experience – which you shouldn’t do, but if you must:

1. Make sure your actions are legal
2. Get my consent
3. Do it extremely safely
4. And make it look cool. If it’s not going to look epic, why even bother?

Go Someplace Else

If it isn’t clear: I do not recommend The Sculptor with every fiber of my being.

That’s not to say that The Sculptor is devoid of creativity, uniqueness, or care. Below there is a discussion of some of the game’s virtues… but those strengths are eclipsed by the gross breach of trust that Freaky Minds Horror Live Games forced upon us.

To answer the question of where The Sculptor belongs on TERPECA? I do not believe that it should be in the running at all. And if it is, I promise you this: it will be dead last on my list.

Who is this for?

• Adventure seekers
• Horror fans
• Best for players with at least some experience
• Thrill-seekers

Why play?

• Over-the-top intense moments, even when playing “without physical contact”
• Solid puzzles for the style of game

Story

It was 1985, and our group of journalism students were traveling historic Route 66, producing a documentary about the famed highway. During a stop at Mom’s Diner, we had a chance encounter with a deeply deranged serial killer known as The Sculptor.

Setting

Most of the horror sets that we encountered in Athens were grim homes. The Sculptor opened with something unique, setting us loose within a rest stop off Route 66. Freaky Minds Horror Live Games poured a ton of detail into this game world, and it looked fantastic.

Then they put us into a grim house. It looked fine, like they all do.

Gameplay

Freaky Minds Horror Live Games’ The Sculptor was a theatrical horror escape room with a moderate level of difficulty.

Core gameplay revolved around searching, solving puzzles, and being repeatedly captured.

Analysis

❌  When Lisa was dragged out a trap door, I started wondering where Freaky Minds got their definition of “without physical contact.” We explicitly did not give consent to be dragged, taped, and handcuffed, often in very uncomfortable positions, sometimes for long periods of time. We did not give consent for this game to light me on fire. It turned out, they didn’t misunderstand. They ignored our wishes… which also makes us think that without the physical contact, there isn’t enough of a game here and they know it.

❌ /➕ While we emphatically disagree with Freaky Minds’ approach to in-game fire and their approach to “without physical contact” bookings (an explicit booking option), we were happy to see fire extinguishers, emergency exit signs, emergency exit buttons, and smoke detectors throughout the experience. If something was especially dangerous, an additional staff member would enter the room. They were deliberately playing with fire, but they had taken substantial safety precautions.

➕ Freaky Minds gave us a reason to stumble into their serial killer-themed room: we were journalism students stopping at a diner along Route 66. We totally bought into the unusual staging, especially when we saw the rest area and the diner, which looked great. We were in a place with some history and character.

➕/➖ When The Sculptor transitioned into “escape the menace,” it refocused on the serial killer and gave the menace a bit of depth and motivation, largely through cut scenes. Unfortunately, it lost our story arc and the more intriguing set, and it became a standard style escape-from-the-home-of-the-serial-killer game.

➕ The Sculptor flowed well. We would watch a cut scene in a new space and later gain access to that space. We were separated from these cut scenes, and we usually had sufficient visibility from our vantage point. The tension ebbed and flowed, with scenes where the killer entered the space and scenes where we solved puzzles.

➖ We often struggled with the game mechanics a bit because it was hard to see and hear. Sometimes we were not sure where they were directing us. The speakers were terrible. We couldn’t understand what was being said. The music was also very loud. It was clear that they were raising the volume to make communication hard or impossible.

➖ Additionally, The Sculptor did not have sufficient spotlighting. Our gamemaster told us to use the flashlight on the walkie-talkie to put codes into locks in dim places, which was frustrating.

➕ The puzzles solved cleanly, and they were built into the props and set. The difficulty curve worked well, with the puzzles ramping up in difficulty as the game progressed and as we felt more comfortable with the space.

➖ The payoff for the danger and disrespect just was unimpressive.

Tips For Visiting

• There was probably street parking.
• For more about fire safety, please read Fire – Forbidden Escape Room Elements and An Open Letter to the Escape Room Owners of Athens Regarding Fire Safety in Your Games