Chapel & Catacombs by Lockhill was my highlight on our first trip to Athens right from the start.
When a space has been so highly rated and praised by everyone since it opened, you naturally have correspondingly high expectations.
My anticipation was definitely immense as we stood in front of the huge Lockhill building, which is located in a rather remote industrial area.
And the next 150 minutes proved that this anticipation was worth it.
Update: we played the room again on our second trip to Athens.
However, I won’t adapt the review here, as the first impression is the important one.

We had to wait quite a while outside the front door as the group in front of us hadn’t finished yet. We were totally jittery and looked at the various posters hanging there. Until it finally started. What we saw then took our breath away. Not only were we greeted by an actor and the story started straight away. No, we were also suddenly in a small village. And not just a painted one or a few facades. It was a real village with houses that you could walk into and from which someone was already watching us. After the short tour of the village, we started in a small hut and everything organizational was embedded in the story. Then we started our first task, which took us back to the village before we finally made our way to the church or chapel. To summarize, the whole start of Chapel Catacombs can be described as very impressive and perfect.

Let’s get this out of the way first: We could hardly stop being amazed at Chapel Catacombs. It started with the village at the beginning, which was bigger and of higher quality than the whole experience with other companies. And that’s just the first 15 minutes of the game. In my opinion, the church is the most beautiful setting. The atmosphere there is simply gigantic. It starts with the backdrop, but doesn’t stop there. The sound and lighting effects are also spot on. The next WOW effect comes with the transition to the catacombs. The catacombs, on the other hand, were almost a little boring, but still an absolute highlight.

Although it is an immersive experience that also places a large focus on theater-based acting, Chapel Catacombs is definitely a horror experience that comes with no small scare factor. There were one or two jump scares, but for the most part the scare factor is driven up by the dark and frightening atmosphere. There is still very little direct acting interaction in the church, but even more so in the catacombs. There are also one or two moments of isolation, which can be quite exhausting for the people involved. Overall, I would describe the scare factor as very high, if not maximum. The intensity is very changeable, which is a good thing as it is a very long experience. There are phases in which you are relatively safe, phases in which you watch passively, but also phases in which you are hunted or similar. For the players who are isolated, the intensity is naturally correspondingly high. To summarize, I would say that Chapel Catacombs has an above-average intensity.

The acting in Chapel Catacombs was amazing. There were scenes ripe for the theater, especially in the church, which could have gone on even longer. But the interactions with the actors before, during and after the play were also totally convincing. And the scare factor was also kept high, especially by the actors. There are some very creepy moments in the catacombs. In any case, I can say with a clear conscience that it couldn’t have been done any better.

If you think about what Chapel Catacombs offers you for 150 minutes, then you can expect that the puzzles will not be the focus. There were always interesting tasks and puzzles, but ultimately the creativity and complexity were limited. The tasks were also not always related to the story in a meaningful way, so there is definitely still room for improvement here. The puzzles weren’t all that convincing overall, but that’s easy to cope with.

The story in Capel & Catacombs ties in with Lockhil ‘s previous experiences.
You can still play the room completely independently and won’t miss anything if you don’t know the previous rooms.
Overall, the story doesn’t knock your socks off, even if it’s not bad.
It’s a typical “find something” story, which then lives from the atmosphere, the actors and the setting, but not from the suspense of the story itself.
I wouldn’t give the story a bad rating now, but there are certainly some rooms that are better positioned there.

The actors, who were also the gamemasters, took a lot of time to talk to us about everything. During the play, they were very responsive to our group and we had a really good time there. Lockhill also deserves a special mention, as they always accommodated us with many bookings and made slots possible for us that would otherwise not have been bookable. This also applies to our next trip to Athens, where we will be playing Chapel Catacombs again.

Chapel Catacombs is suitable for anyone who likes grandiose scenery and acting. It is, of course, a horror experience and I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who is afraid of darkness, jumpscares or scary apparitions. Basically, the experience can be played very well with limited physical ability, except for one part, as there are few places where you have to climb or crawl. There are moments where you are forced to split up. There should be other players in the group who are prepared to solve tasks alone. It is very important in Chapel Catacoms that you play along. You interact with lots of actors and should also stick to the rules and the story, otherwise you will miss out on a lot. Four of us played the room and it was a pretty perfect size. With two players it gets trickier at one point or another, but it’s also doable. I wouldn’t recommend playing the room with more than 4, maximum 5 players, as the atmosphere could suffer.

Chapel & Catacombs by Lockhill is rightly one of the best-rated experiences in the world.
There are few escape rooms in the world that can compete with this setting and atmosphere.
If you want to experience something unique and impressive, you can’t go past Chapel & Catacombs.
Of course, not everything is perfect and, as is so often the case, it depends on the actors used, but I rarely find it so easy to classify an experience as an absolute “must-play”.
If you’re in Athens, definitely play this room.
It’s even worth using this room as a hook for a trip to Athens.