Death Row by No Exit is special in that it was the first room on our first trip to Athens and the first room I ever played in Athens.
Accordingly, the anticipation was very high.
It’s not a horror experience, which in itself is rather the exception for Athens.
It’s a classic escape scenario in which we have to escape from death row.
Doesn’t sound that exciting at first.
But what we experienced there was anything but boring.

In many reviews from Athens, I start by pointing out that there is no lobby.
The story often starts straight away.
No Exit is different.
There is the classic escape room lounge and a game master who gave us a friendly welcome.
Although I’m not 100% sure whether she ran our games or just greeted us in the lobby.
In any case, we were surprised that we were able to talk to her in German.
After the usual visit to the toilet, we were ready to go.
We were picked up by an actor, who we were to see again briefly later.
He took us to our new home, death row.
Here we were first isolated, as is so often the case in such scenarios.
To make matters worse for us, it was Ozzy and I’s first room in Athens and our teammates were newcomers.
Not good conditions for a quick escape.
We first had to get our bearings and then realized that there wasn’t that much we could interact with.
The start is a little different to what we are used to in Athens.
It’s more like the typical escaperooms in Germany or the Netherlands.
Nevertheless (because I like it when things get going straight away), I found everything to be coherent.

In a breakout scenario, as is the case with Death Row, it’s always hard to adequately judge the quality of the scenery.
There’s no great sense of wonder or overwhelming environments.
Everything is somewhat sparse and sparsely furnished.
But that’s exactly how it should be.
And judging by the immersion and realism, Death Row definitely scores highly here.
Everything felt right and much more real than in many other breakout adventures.
It starts with the fact that it feels like a real escape from start to finish, not an escape room with a lobby waiting behind the next door.

The experience is not meant to be scary, so you can’t expect a high scare factor.
There are 1-2 smaller jumpscares, but nothing more.
The intensity is on a medium level.
Not as high as in horror rooms or similar, but certainly not comparable to a relaxed puzzle room.
I also found the whole thing a little more stressful than other escape scenarios.

In a nutshell: There was a short acting interlude both at the beginning and in between, but that is too little to be able to make an application here.

What excited us about Death Row were the puzzles.
Maybe it was because we weren’t familiar with the concept of puzzles in Athens or because we’d never played together as a group before, but we were often stumped.
And not because the puzzles were too difficult, but because they were very creatively integrated and we often had to think outside the box.
All in all, very nice tasks that always felt right.

The story is neither imaginative nor creative.
We just have to break out.
The scenario is the typical escape room scenario and even if the room is much better than most other escape adventures, the story remains the same.
We were surprised in many places, but not by the story.

We have no direct contact with the operators of No Exit, so the rating here is based on our contact with employees, gamemasters and everyone we had contact with that evening.
And we noticed a totally friendly atmosphere throughout, with an accommodating attitude and a willingness to talk about one thing or another.
All in all, it was a great evening (we played all three rooms in a row) and we always felt welcome at No Exit.

Death Row is a room that is suitable for almost all players.
The story is easy to understand, there are no scary moments and the puzzles are difficult but doable.
Unfortunately, the room is not barrier-free.
However, this has to do with the fact that the story does not allow for this.
If you want to escape from death row, you have to be able to crawl and climb.
One thing that international players should bear in mind is that the concept of the puzzles is different to that in Germany, for example.
This is true of most experiences in Athens, but I noticed it most here.
It’s more about perception than logical thinking.
Rely on your senses, not just your mind.
There is no recommendation for the number of players.
I think the room works well with any size of group.
The minimum number of players is stated here as 3 and I think that this will be needed for some of the puzzles.

Death Row is a very good room.
Of course, you have to like escape scenarios, but if you do, then this is definitely one of the best of its kind. The puzzles are creative and a lot of fun.
There is an authentic setting with the odd surprise.
No Exit has created something very good here, away from the typical horror experiences in Athens.
Highly recommended overall!