A Dark Room vs Escape Room
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both games, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
A Dark Room
Experience a minimalist text-based adventure where you must survive and build a community. This award-winning game offers a deep narrative and engaging gameplay without any in-app purchases or ads.
- Text-based survival gameplay
- Community building mechanics
- Minimalist interface
- VoiceOver playable
- No ads or in-app purchases
- Retro gaming feel
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awake. head throbbing. vision blurry. the voices say to survive. - One of Apple's most downloaded apps of 2014. - Ranked in the top 10 games in 70 countries, #1 app overall in 7 countries. - No ads, no loot boxes, no IAP, no tracking. - 100% playable via VoiceOver. - Relive the glory days of gaming from the era of Zork.
Escape Room
Investigate a mysterious case involving grave defilement and uncover the identity of the "Alchemist." Solve challenging puzzles and escape traps in this free adventure game with a unique, creepy graphic style and atmosphere. No network connection is required to play.
- Investigate mysterious cases
- Solve challenging puzzles
- Unique creepy graphic style
- Mysterious characters
- No network connection needed
- No hidden fees
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In Strange Case: The Alchemist you need to investigate the mysterious case about crime named “Alchemist”. He defiled a graves and nobody knows the reason. Are you a true detective? Can you catch and reveal the Alchemist's identity? Will you escape all the traps on your way? Download this free escape game, and you'll get: - unique creepy graphic style and atmosphere - original challenging puzzles - strange mysterious characters - no hidden fees, no registration, simply install, play and escape! - no network connection needed during gameplay
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Escape Room at Free against A Dark Room's $1.99. Escape Room also leads on iOS requirement (13.0 vs 15.0). A Dark Room's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 3) and ads (none vs shown). On rating, ratings volume, update cadence and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Escape Room is free to download; A Dark Room costs $1.99 up front. Escape Room sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. A Dark Room asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for A Dark Room against 4.8 for Escape Room. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 2.7K and 6.7K respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 93% of A Dark Room's written reviews are positive against 79% of Escape Room's.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on November 13, 2026 and November 12, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | A Dark Room | Escape Room |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $1.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 4.8 (2.7K ratings) | 4.8 (6.7K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 92.7% of reviews — better | 78.6% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 2.7K | 6.7K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 2 months |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Paid | Free with in-app purchases — better |
| Best chart rank | #37 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 13.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 103 MB | 293 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Amirali Rajan | LABELEDMAN LTD |
Customer experience
A Dark Room
Escape Room
Bugs and requests
A Dark Room
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Escape Room
Reported bugs
3 issues- Crashes at start of Chapter 3
- Puzzle elements not working as expected
- Inventory issues and missing items
Requested features
4 requests- More chapters/levels
- Improved hints and guidance
- Ability to reset progress
- Optimization for older devices
In-app purchases
A Dark Room
No in-app purchases
Escape Room
- Remove all ads$1.99
- Premium$3.99
- Remove all ads$6.99
