Room Escape Artist

Yes. It’s a real castle.

Location:  Malešov, Czech Republic (which is about an hour from Prague)

Date Played: May 21, 2026

Team Size: 30 people play the game, and we recommend playing as a group of 5-6

Duration: 3.5 hours

Price: ranging from 1990 CZK ($95) per player

Ticketing: Public

Accessibility Consideration: There are a lot of steps in this game, and you will go up and down a lot. You’ll also walk across uneven surfaces in and around the medieval fortress.

Emergency Exit Rating: [A+] No Lock

Physical Restraints: [A+] No Physical Restraints

REA Reaction

We arrived in Malešov in front of a medieval fortress. It was beautifully preserved and maintained. And I’ll remind our European readers… we don’t have stuff like this in North America, it’s so damn enchanting.

The game itself was a licensed immersive interpretation of the Kingdom Come: Deliverance video games, which are made by Warhorse Studios, a Czech video game developer. I knew of this series, not nothing more.

Outside of the walls we were given hobbit-esque cloaks (as promised), split up into small teams of 6, and sent back in time. The game’s structure was split into two sets of puzzles and challenges on the grounds of the fortress. We had a finite amount of time to complete each challenge before a bell rang triggering us to rotate to the next challenge. Along the way we met a variety of characters who all had wants, needs, and occasionally plots. In between the sets of gameplay, we came together as a full group to experience more elaborate scenes that further developed the story. It all built up to an interactive finale. Throughout each section, the Kingdom Come: Experience offered a lot of freedom to play.

The character interactions made the game. Each character was distinctive, and fun to engage with. We needed to pull critical information out of each interaction in order to fully understand the story and see the game through to its conclusion.

A personal highlight for me was the archery challenge that allowed me to dust off my old archery instructor skills and surprise the character by driving bullseyes from increasingly longer distances. Admittedly, this is a me thing. There was a few different types of skill checks built into this experience, but note that it’s not particularly puzzley in the conventional sense.

One key note is that the castle was lit by candle light. And while I am generally opposed to fire in my escape games, it’s difficult feel unsafe in a stone castle that has been candlelit since 1303 without burning down.

While the performers were fantastic in English, I’ve also been told that a lot of the historical references will be lost on foreigners, and that there are jokes that they make in Czech that just won’t work in English… but none of that impacted the joy and delight that we felt while playing the Kingdom Come: Experience. While knowledge of Czech history and the video game would likely deoth add to the experience, neither was required.

It’s a pretty big commitment to go play Kingdom Come: Experience. It’s about an hour from Prague, and it’s a 3.5 hour game. It is offered in English about half a dozen times per year. We played in conjunction with the Prague Escaping Summit, which arranged bus transportation and overnight accommodations in Malešov. These aren’t always a part of the experience. Players need to plan ahead, and hope for great weather (we had perfect weather.) For a player like me, it’s worth it to get to experience gameplay and history come together in this unique way.

Who is this for?

• Adventure seekers
• Story seekers
• Scenery snobs
• History fans
• Character interacters
• Any experience level

Why play?

• It’s in an actual, factual castle
• To experience a large-format, no tech game that works
• The character-based interactions and performances were impressive

Story

A time rift occurred at the Medieval Malešov Fortress. What was a historic site outside of Prague had suddenly become inhabited by people from the 1400s. It was unclear how they got here, but we could not resist the opportunity to investigate the world of Kingdom Come: Deliverance.

Setting

From a set standpoint, it’s tough to beat an actual, factual castle from the 14th century. The Malešov Fortress was beautiful, functional, and shockingly well-maintained. The Chamber made extensive use of the structure as well as the grounds. The game opened outside of the walls, and in each segment we had the opportunity to explore a new part of the property.

The physical space was further augmented by the performers and their costumes… both of which were compelling, even considering that the actors were performing in their second language.

To top it all off, we were given our own light costumes in the form of cloaks. We all looked like hobbits adventuring on the castle’s grounds.

Gameplay

The Chamber’s Kingdom Come Experience was a large-format escape room in an unusual setting.

We had to interact with the characters, get information from them, and understand what has transpired in this place. We filled in an answer sheet. Playing in English, the biggest challenge was the Czech names, which were spoken, and we had no idea how to write them on our sheet!

In addition to character interaction and narrative deduction, we solved some skill-check puzzles built into and around larger props.

Analysis

➕ The historic setting was impressive and we loved how the gameplay forced us to explore different parts of the castle and its grounds. The Chamber used the setting well to spread out the groups, develop the characters, and show off the space. Furthermore, we were secluded enough from the outside world that it felt like we had gone back in time.

➕ The characters were distinctive. As we understand it, they were rooted in Czech history and accurately represented the video game characters (although we have not played the video game of the same name.) The actors were impressive. They completely embodied these unusual characters with specific motives and ideas. We especially connected with the sincere herbalist and the hilarious drunken guard.

➕ We had the cloaks to help us get in character (and protect us from sun or cold), but we didn’t have characters to play. We were ourselves, dropped into this world and its stories. There was no pre-reading or prep. In this way, the gameplay was approachable.

➕ The gameplay had depth. We needed to investigate, probe, and at times finagle, trick, or win our way to information. The actors would “yes and” our ideas, within reason. There was a lot of room to play.

➖ The in-game currency felt like an unfinished game mechanic. Earning coins was often at odds with the social deduction-style gameplay and disincentivized thinking outside the box. While we occasionally needed the coins to further a plot point, they were so easy to earn that there was never a resource management component to the gameplay.

➕ There were some rarely seen and very fun skill checks of all sorts sprinkled through the experience.

➖ A large prop didn’t work, which was frustrating. This especially confused us because it was the first scene we experienced, when we were unsure how much the game relied on skill checks versus character interaction. Another interaction fit nicely into the narrative, but we weren’t given appropriate supplies, so it didn’t work. It also added an unnecessary hazard in this wooden castle.

➕ Logically, the gameplay was well choreographed so that each group had time with each character and each challenge. In between the acts, so to speak, there were group scenes where plot points came together. We didn’t encounter bottlenecks. The gameplay was balanced so that there was no optimal order to learn different information, and no matter how a given group was tracked, we had equal opportunity to figure everything out.

➖ After the finale, the staff graded our answer sheets, tallied our coins, and announced a winner. The competition didn’t add anything to Kingdom Come Experience.

❓/➖ One character was creepy in a way that made some players uncomfortable, and one interaction with this character was a bit much (although it was “opt in.”) We suggest a safe word.

Tips For Visiting

• The game is located about a hour by car outside of Prague: Žižkovo nám. 54, 285 41  Malešov, Czechia
• This game is sometimes offered in Czech and sometimes offered in English. Take note of which dates are in which language.
• Dress appropriately for the weather. Large portions of the experience are outside, and even inside, the temperature isn’t controlled.

Book your hour with The Chamber’s Kingdom Come Experience, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.

Disclosure: The Chamber included this game with our speaker tickets to the Prague Escaping Summit.