My feet are very sore. Many parts of my body feel bruised. But I had a very fun day. Just one escape today: Dark Park’s Stay in the Dark!

But first!

Canadian Bumpkin Moments

We went to Rotterdam and saw a windmill! We pointed at it and called it cute. We are such tourists.

I didn’t mention this yet because I remember it from my last visit, but don’t bother trying to order tap water at restaurants in Europe. That is not a thing.

Some houses have hooks on the top! I have learned this was and is to move large furniture to upper floors! So cool!

The transit system in the Netherlands is bonkers. I think Google maps is trying to get us on every possible public vehicle just to experience it. So far trains, trams, buses, and subway/metros have all been experienced. There were…a lot of transfers to get to where we needed to go today. Thank goodness for Margaux, who is our primary navigator this trip. We had one delay and I realized with despair that if this were Toronto, we would have had at least 10 delays in the first two days.

Frizz Status

Today’s tactic was oodles of hair spray. It sort of worked! Although volume was still sadly lacking. I did not take a picture cause I didn’t trust my camera anymore.

The Escapes!

So. Stay in the Dark…it is a game worth experiencing to say the least. We were joined again by Thomas, and thank goodness because he was our braver player for sure.

Okay, I should preface this by saying that this is not a typical or classic escape room. It’s more of a…horror gaming experience. There are tasks and puzzles to solve but the focus is more on the horror experience and experiencing a complete narrative than it is on puzzle solving.

Stay in the Dark is located in an old industrial warehouse. Yes…the whole warehouse. I will admit we were dubious about how it would be used and if it would just be us running amok trying not to trip on things.

I was nervous for this game. For three days straight any time we mentioned to a host or owner that we were playing Stay in the Dark, the response was usually a sharp intake of breath followed by “good luck”, “I cried”, or “are you easily scared?”.

I love horror but am also a big scaredy cat, often relying on my partner to complete horror games for me because, in my opinion, horror games usually have some interesting stories. When it comes to horror escape rooms I am often reduced to a useless, whimpering mess. And now I was about to play a 2 hour horror experience where the title very much implied that a nice, brightly lit space was not in our future.

And I was correct. Don’t worry, I am not going to spoil the plot or the wow moments, but yes, this is a dark, creepy warehouse you are going to. You are met in the parking lot by a character and the pre-game begins from there. I love love love getting exposition this way and enjoyed chatting with the actor who was in character at the time.

Then the actual game began.

Remember how I said last post how games in the Netherlands don’t have waivers? This one sure did. And they were absolutely necessary. This game is VERY physical. Like…VEEEEERY physical. They advise you on the website to wear old clothes and comfortable runners and you definitely should. There will be climbing, there will be running, there will be diving for safety. I believe there are some work arounds for those less physically able, but still…be prepared.

Stay in the Dark is…quite frankly, a whole lot of scary fun. But more important than that: it is an excellent example of players as the main characters of their story, and an even better example of narrative flow for a horror.

I ended up not being nearly as scared as I thought I would be. This was partly because when there is more than one person in my group who is more scared than me, I tend to turn up the bravery, and partly because the game did a good job demonstrating the mechanics so I was more aware of when tense moments would come.

And tense they were! While I may not have been as scared, I was still very much tensing up and holding my breath for a lot of the game. When I wasn’t doing that, I was darting around like a maniac. But luckily the game is very linear and it was clear after a bit we were being guided from area to area. That’s the video gamer in me recognizing patterns, though. It will absolutely still be terrifying to players as it was for a couple of our group.

Here is what I think some designers of horror experiences get wrong. They introduce a horrific element to their game/story, and keep ramping up the danger, never letting the audience/players get a break. And sometimes? Sure, that is done in occasional circumstances to great effect. But here’s the thing…for a horror or really any narrative to typically work, you need a build in tension, followed by a release. You have to give your players a break. Otherwise, not only does the tension have nowhere to go after a while, but people stop enjoying the game.

Stay in the Dark did this beautifully. Was it scary? You betcha! But there were moments in the game when it was clear we were safe, at least for a moment. The tension would inevitably build again when new problems/dangers arose and the process would start all over again. Having those brief breaks were great, because it meant we could build it again from a natural place. Not only did the tension flow well, but the different parts of the game had enough variety that we never felt repetitive.

Other things Stay in the Dark does well that I won’t spoil:

Acting: our actor, Ruud, was fantastic. He deserves all the praise for his way too convincing performance. Also, big shout-out as well to Zahra, Renee, and Mavis, who we were told after was our behind the scenes crew. It was a well oiled machine!

Music: I cannot stress enough how effective the music was in this. It tied to the gameplay and was timed to big moments in the narrative, WHICH I HAVE BEEN DYING TO SEE IN ACTION. Ruud told us afterward how it was achieved, but again, spoilers.

Sign posting: yes, like the title implies, this is a dark game, but the designers did a good job making it clear where we should go and where we eventually would need to go. The game can also use the actors to subtly guide the players to a task.

Wow moments: I think I said “wow” twice in the experience despite my fear. Let me be clear: there are moments in this experience I cannot see happening in North America. I think having a big warehouse to design these moments in played a big factor in having some insane moments.

Cinematic feel and player agency: this honestly felt like my own movie. I have felt like this in a few escape rooms now, where I can get immersed enough in the experience that I feel like a character in a story rather than just a player in a game. The narrative designer in me could feel my emotions being manipulated to the natural arc of the story, but Manda the player was happy to go along for the ride. The “cinematic” sequences were just stellar, with the lighting guiding our eyes to look at the cool thing that was about to happen right before we too were plunged into the sequence as players.

There were some elements that didn’t quite work for us. The puzzles generally didn’t always make sense to the narrative, or at least not immediately so. There were a couple of points we got ground to a halt and momentum kind of died for a few minutes. We did learn afterward there were ways to get hints to us but we were doing well enough for timing that the game hosts were able to let us figure it out for ourselves. And as per usual there were moments where the lighting was dim enough that our older eyes had difficulty making out messages or images we needed to read.

If you like horror, you really should check out Stay in the Dark. If you aren’t a fan of horror but would like great examples of game flow…try it out. Surround yourself with brave players if you know this type of experience may be too much for you to be useful. If you really, really, really hate horror, especially the genre of horror this game is, you might want to think about skipping it. The game hosts will help out to move you along and will even stop the experience if it appears to be too much, though.

Tomorrow is our last escape! Gosh it’s been a whirlwind…