Room Escape Artist

Welcome to my world…

Location: Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain

Date Played: June 23, 2026

Team Size: 2-8; we recommend 3-4

Duration: 120 minutes

Price: €45-80 per player depending on team size

Ticketing: Private

Accessibility Consideration: All players must climb and crawl

Emergency Exit Rating: Push to Exit for most of the game, but unknown exits during certain transitions

Physical Restraints: [B] Mechanical Release – one player was restrained but could have wiggled out if necessary

REA Reaction

Horror Asylum elevated the classic asylum escape room theme to an impressive new extreme. For starters, Horror Asylum was not just a padded room with some scribbles on the walls; it was a full-scale facility. The set design was expansive and detailed, and it was all too easy to get lost in the world they’d constructed. As the experience unfolded, we encountered increasingly strange scenes, including some genuinely jaw-dropping reveals.

At its best, the gameplay in Horror Asylum got us to interact with the environment, with characters, and with each other in interesting and unexpected ways. It was dynamic, varied, and consistently well fitted to the space.

Horror Asylum also pulled off a remarkably moving effect that I was delighted to finally encounter in an escape room.

Where Horror Asylum showed room for improvement was in its pacing, most notably its relentless intensity. It started at a ten, and it didn’t really let up on the gas for the full two hours. There was something exhilarating about this nonstop high energy and constant scares, and we had fun the entire time. Yet, it ironically had the opposite of its intended effect. It desensitized us to jump scares fairly early on, and didn’t leave itself any room to crescendo.

This extended to the story as well. There was relatively little narrative presented through the first few acts of the game. A unique transition briefly hinted at a more metaphorical mode of storytelling, but ultimately leaned too heavily into continued scares over character development. Then, a heavy lore drop at the game’s emotional climax was diminished by an unnatural AI video. By the finale, our actions had lost some sense of purpose. There was a missed opportunity to wrap up the story with more emotional nuance without undercutting the game’s intensity. The story was rarely an active negative, yet I could see the potential for a more mature and impactful narrative that wasn’t quite there yet.

Nevertheless, Horror Asylum is a new must-play escape room in Spain, especially for horror fans. The set, the effects, and so much of the acting was unforgettable, and executed with a passion that was truly admirable. Even for someone like me who typically hates asylum games, Horror Asylum had me hooked.

Who is this for?

• Horror fans
• Adventure seekers
• Scenery snobs
• Any experience level

Why play?

• An expansive set
• Multiple “holy shit” effects and reveals
• A horror experience that goes hard the whole time

Story

We’d been called to the McArthur Asylum to accept an inheritance from our distant relative Arthur, who was in poor health. Showing up to a creepy old mental institution with the promise of some money and a long-lost secret… surely nothing questionable about that, right?

Setting

Horror Asylum took place at a full-scale, multi-level asylum. The set design was bold and massive, offering creative ways of moving through space and exploring our surroundings.

Gameplay

Arenaxcape’s Horror Asylum was an actively scary horror escape room with a moderate level of difficulty.

Core gameplay revolved around solving puzzles, making connections, communicating, and avoiding various menaces.

Analysis

➕ Moments of impressive stillness contrasted with the crazed chaos that was to follow.

➕/➖ Horror Asylum was an intense experience that stayed on high the entire time. On one hand, this was an impressive feat, and it was quite exhilarating to experience such an intense energy for such a long duration. On the other hand, a near-constant undercurrent of jump scares and chasing sometimes covered up the more unique and creative scenes that this game also featured. By showing too much too soon, we became desensitized to these jump scares quite quickly, and there ended up not being much space to continue growing by the later acts.

➕/➖ Like many horror escape rooms, Horror Asylum presented us with the classic “follow the light” rule upfront. When there was darkness, we move toward light, and we don’t move in the darkness. Overall, this experience used lighting effectively to guide us and accentuate a range of impressive reveals. However, it also broke its own rules fairly early on — in a cool way, yet nonetheless leading us to question these rules.

➕ A grand reveal was visually striking. Horror Asylum teased us for some time before unveiling its full, incredibly impressive scope.

❓ There was a moderate-to-high amount of physical contact with actors, which was forceful but respectful. Be prepared to be touched and grabbed multiple times throughout the experience, and don’t resist when engaged in these scenes. Apart from a few scratches, I felt quite safe and maintained a high level of trust in the actors throughout.

➖ There were opportunities for improved fit and finish throughout much of the set. The quality of the physical build wasn’t always matched by the painting and textures. We also encountered some exposed pointy bits, which made us sometimes hesitant when exploring in low lighting.

➕/❓ An unusual and thematic input naturally flowed from the environment. While it was physically satisfying to operate, it required a bit more force than typical, and we wish there had been stronger cluing to indicate the appropriate interaction.

➕/❓ A staggeringly impressive transformation will inevitably become a large part of what Horror Asylum is known for. I knew this effect was possible… but I didn’t know it was possible in this form in an escape room. While I never felt actively unsafe through this transition, I am also unsure of the safety of this effect if something were to malfunction.

➕ A standout scene simultaneously featured interactions with the environment and with a character. It felt like a real-life video game level. We would have loved to have seen more actor-driven gameplay like this.

➕ Horror Asylum took full advantage of its height to impress, delight, and terrify us. In one scene, a memorable reveal also offered an effective tonal shift, though this scene could have been even more impactful with a few more players to fill the space.

➖ Although Horror Asylum was not primarily a story-centric game, it hinted at a level of narrative depth that it never quite delivered on… and because there was the potential for something more moving, it made me all the sadder when the game was mostly just about crazy killers. The experience’s emotional climax, from its most dramatic vantage point, was dampened by an artificial AI video. This scene could have been more effectively delivered with live actors, projections, or even something more artful like shadow puppetry. Sometimes less is more. A key solo moment offered a welcome moment of softness, yet didn’t need to be a solo moment. A secret reveal offered the potential for touching emotional resolution, but instead effectively just screamed in our faces.

➕ The finale offered all players a chance to be brave, with one final adrenaline rush to cap off the experience.

Tips For Visiting

• Horror Asylum is built and run by Arenaxcape, and designed in partnership with Mad Mansion.
• There is a moderate to high level of physical contact in Horror Asylum. In addition to extensive jump scares and chasing, actors may touch and grab you, potentially including your throat. The actors may touch players, but players may not touch the actors back and should not resist when they are touched or moved. The type of physical contact we experienced was consistently respectful yet at times intense. If this does not sound fun, this may not be the game for you.
• This game is available in Spanish and English.

Book your session with Horror Asylum, and tell them that the Room Escape Artist sent you.