The Psycho Lab escape room – the story from the beginning

In this blog post we’ll talk a little about our escape room called Psycho Lab.

The reason is very simple – the room is in its last days of operation before it is taken down for good and replaced with a new one. So it’s nice to put a fond look back at this room down in writing.

The story of Psycho Lab goes back to 2015. That was the year Psycho Lab first saw the light of day in Tartu. It was EscapeTartu’s second escape room and is currently the longest-running EscapeTartu escape room of all.

What also makes Psycho Lab special is that it was the first room where we used electronics and magnetic locks.

Considering that the standard of escape room building in Estonia was fairly basic back then, you could say that by the standards of the time this room was something revolutionary! It had secret doors, tunnels and so on. All of that had to be fitted into premises where the existing vaults and chimneys imposed a great many restrictions. Today we can admit that building this escape room cost us quite a few nerves too!

We’re probably not lying when we say that this escape room has seen a great deal over time. Five years is a long time, after all, and when hundreds of groups play one escape room, things do happen!

What are the most exciting stories that have happened there?

Two come to mind straight away.

Story 1

The only player ever to have left EscapeTartu in an ambulance.

A group came to play Psycho Lab. The game had been going for approx. 30 minutes when our staff member was told over the walkie-talkie that one member of the group had started feeling very unwell. When our staff member got to the room, that member of the group was lying on the floor with severe stomach pain and couldn’t stand up.

But what to do?

We decided to call an ambulance.

When help arrived, then after a short examination on the spot, they thought it was probably a problem with the appendix.

And so the player was carried off on a stretcher.

Story 2

EscapeTartu has always worked on the principle that if someone has a crazy idea, we’ll always try to do our bit to help make it happen.

So, with friends organising it, players have been brought into our rooms dozens of times with, for example, a bag over their head or a blindfold on, and only once they’re chained up in handcuffs do they realise where they’ve ended up.

This story was a similar one.

We got a call from someone who described how two people in a group of friends had fallen out irreparably, and the friends had the idea of locking them up together in the Psycho Lab room without either knowing about the other. Maybe they would find common ground and, by working on the puzzles together, make up.

No sooner said – than done.

Both players were brought into the escape room blindfolded and chained up in handcuffs. A letter with instructions was left for them too.

At this point it’s fair to say that you could have cut the tension in that escape room with a knife.

The two parties to the quarrel didn’t make up, but at least they talked to each other and tried to find a way out of the room.

They didn’t get out in the end, but they certainly got an interesting memory for life.

What next?

But now it’s time to replace Psycho Lab with a new room.

Why?

Because there is probably no one in Tartu whose friend, or at least a friend of a friend, hasn’t been to the Psycho Lab room. So it’s time to make space for a new room and offer all escape fans new experiences. And considering how cool the new room coming in its place is, awesome experiences in the form of the new room are definitely guaranteed!

But if you haven’t made it to the Psycho Lab room yet, you still have a little time.

Psycho Lab stays in place until 10 February and you can still go and play!!!

So make a booking on our website www.escapetartu.ee/broneerimine and take your last chance to escape from Psycho Lab.

If you don’t, you may regret it for the rest of your life 😉