by DarkPark Vlaardingen (website)
Olivier van Noortlaan, 3133 AT Vlaardingen
2-6 players
Languages: EN, NL
selected dates only150 mins
Your breathing stalls as you suddenly hear footsteps on the stairs you’re hidden beneath. You see him descend slowly, turn around, and walk towards your hiding place. He reaches in the dark, his gripping hands barely missing you and his face getting ever closer to yours. His hollow eyes see right through you. As you bite your tongue trying not to make a sound, the same words keep running through your head: “Why on earth did I go in here?”
With Stay in the Dark, DarkPark is going down a whole new avenue by trying to combine the best of escape rooms and immersive theater in a brand new, terrifying experience with a surface area of no less than 4000 m2, spread out over multiple floors.
In an abandoned building next to an old fire station on a forgotten terrain near Rotterdam, we’re taking you with us to an unforgettable journey that’s bound to make your hair stand on end. Nerves of steel won’t do this time around, during this experience you’ll have to face your biggest fears.
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We’re an experienced team that has played a good number of the highest rated horror games in the world, having taken a trip to Athens to terrify ourselves with the big hitters last year, so we weren’t expecting much we hadn’t seen before, but Stay In The Dark genuinely surprised us. With a stupidly vast space, and multiple styles of game to proceed through, the game surprises and immerses from the start with an actor greeting you in character, as they guide you from the meeting point in a car park to where you’re meant to be.
You’ll have moments of quiet tension, run for your life (literally) panic and even an exciting finale that I can only describe as a boss battle. It’s a combination that works in different ways to keep things interesting, and not overwhelm you with a constant horror. My favourite section came when we felt like we knew the ‘rules’ of the experience, and had a clear objective on what we were up to, mainly revolving around the titular action of staying in the dark. It’s effective and unique, only possible with such a large venue, and when you feel like you’re starting to understand it.
The best parts of it would be spoiled if I went into too much detail, but despite some real fear throughout, I absolutely loved it. There weren’t many ‘puzzles’, a necessity of the type of game it is (getting your brain working while you’re nervous of the slightest sound coming from around the corner is always a tough ask), but enough to be satisfying, and the story develops in a remarkably clear and effective way. Any lack of production quality was effectively hidden by the darkness, and the scale of the game giving us a great experience overall, and making this game a must play on our list.
This is an experience I will never forget. Not an escape room as such, more of an immersive horror adventure. Please throw yourself in and play the part. It will really help you get the most out of it. Clever use of an actor.
I’ve never been so scared in an experience like this. Fun and scary at the same time.
They only have the lease for the building six months at a time so could go at any point.
Note that if you struggle to crawl or climb, there may be a few obstacles you will find difficult to traverse.
Reviews by escape room review sites
DarkPark is a synonym of quality games in the Netherlands and with The End they left the comfort zone of what was more frequently found in this country and created a quite different concept. With Stay in the Dark they went one step (actually many steps) further and created an unforgettable experience in a completely different direction.
I would like at this point to put the stress on the word experience, as calling it an escape room, might not be the best description. Not only due to its size and length, but also due to the very nature of the game, which has very few activities that can be considered to be puzzles. If something can be objected this is the only point, I can personally find.
For anyone who doesn’t know, Stay in the Dark is probably one of the scariest escape rooms out there. It certainly has the reputation for being so. It’s also won a lot of awards and one of those “you absolutely must not miss” rooms, and so there was no chance we weren’t going to do it. In fact, we planned our whole trip around securing a booking for Stay in the Dark. So there you go.
DarkPark could definitely convince us with the latest project Stay in the Dark. The use of the industrial backdrop with the high-quality produced use of sound and light was unique for us so far. All in all, Stay in the Dark is an elaborately staged and immersive experience that mixes elements of theater, escape room and horror maze. If you are looking for a puzzle room, you are definitely in the wrong place. Contrary to the announcement, the scare factor is in the upper, but still moderate range for us, so that Stay in the Dark is also bearable for non-horror fans.
Wir waren von Anfang an gepackt von der Location und der Szenerie, welche uns dargestellt wurde. Bereits am Anfang waren wir schon voller Adrenalin, was sich von Minute zu Minute gesteigert hat.