Lockhill: Chapel & Catacombs

Anyone reading this has probably heard of Chapel & Catacombs: it’s currently the top ranked escape room in the English-speaking world, according to the illustrious TERPECA rankings. That prestige comes with a health warning: hype can kill enjoyment, and personal preferences vary wildly, so players shouldn’t let their expectations run too far out of control. That said – it’s also one hell of a game.

It’s also part four of an ongoing narrative. If you haven’t played the previous three games at Lockhill, the intro video will catch you up on the story so far, and also provide spoilers for some key plot points of the previous games. However, although in an ideal world it might be best to do them all in order, I didn’t feel there was any particular problem with playing it out of sequence.

I’ve been counting this as one of the horror games we played, but in comparison to some of the others it’s not all that scary. It’s likely to make you jump, and it might even inspire awe or dread, but probably not abject terror.

There are two distinct sections to this game, and at one point during its development it was in fact planned as two separate games. For me the Catacombs sequences were cool and entertaining, but most of my favourite moments were from the stunning Chapel. Catacombs has a more action game feel to it, with tasks involving moving around the (very large!) space and evading the creatures; Chapel has the most striking visuals and interesting puzzles, and a set that is quite literally awe-inspiring. It’s perhaps a shame that the two halves aren’t arranged in the reverse order, for maximum dramatic effect.

Whether it should have the #1 escape room ranking is a matter of taste; whether you should play it is a no-brainer. It mixes a variety of challenges and types of experience together in a single story-led game that’s properly epic in scale, and even in the escape room Mecca that is Athens, it’s in the top rank of what’s available.