Grudge Hospital [醫怨]

Kuaitaoa Workshop - Taipei Qingguang Store [塊陶阿工作室 - 台北晴光店] (Taipei, Taiwan)

Time limit: 90 minutes

Age limit: Under 12 requires adult

Player limit: 4-8

Difficulty: 4/5

Fear Factor: 4/5

Date visited: April 2026

Immediately after the incredible Cursed Rain, we headed to Kuaitaoa (塊陶阿) — a Mandarin homophone for “Get out of here!" — to play the horror game 醫怨, which I have roughly translated to Grudge Hospital.

[醫怨 in Mandarin is pronounced "Yi Yuan", which sounds the same as the word for "hospital" (醫院). While the character for "Yi" is the same, the character for "Yuan" means "grudge" (like in the horror film The Grudge).]

Why did we want to play this game? First of all, we love horror games (and this one has live actors!). Secondly, it's one of the only true horror games in Taipei that doesn't have an 18+ restriction (and to be frank, I can't believe this one isn't 18+). And finally, the game was imported from China (Shenzhen), and we hear the games in China are on a whole other level. So how was it?

• Grudge Hospital was legitimately bonkers. Intruders, one of my favourite games in Sydney, is also set in an abandoned hospital, but these two games are very different. Grudge Hospital was like Intruders steroids — and probably some other mind-altering substances too. While it was not as slick and polished as Intruders, just about every aspect of the game was dialled up to 11.

• For starters, this game had a lot of safety concerns. Real safety concerns. I'm not just talking about bumps and bruises. People have apparently broken bones and even teeth from freaking out in this room and running into walls and furniture. It is no wonder that they offer all players knee and elbow pads.

• The extent of the horror could be slightly modified in that players may request different levels of physical contact. E and J asked for the actors not to touch them at all, while Z and I opted for "light" physical contact (which turned out to include being nudged, grabbed, and choked — all gently, of course). Full contact supposedly included being dragged by the feet, etc. I was impressed that they could apply different levels of contact to different players in the same team, which is more work for the actors.

• However, this is not the kind of game where you can choose to have no actors or jump scares, which are integral to the experience. The scariest part of the game — the solo missions — cannot be avoided either. If your team has 6 players of less, everyone is given a specific role (you get a name tag) and needs to go on at least one solo mission. And one of you (in our case it was Z) has to go in before everyone else...

• The story for this game was pretty stereotypical: The hospital is haunted, you go in to find out what happened, and help the ghosts resolve their grudge.

• The theming was solid, but because it was so dark most of the time, it was difficult to ascertain the quality of the props and appreciate the finer details. I did, however, notice that some of the ceilings did not reach all the way to the top, which was a bit of a shame.

• The game itself was huge and felt like it because of all the various spaces and corridors, the latter of which we had to walk and run down multiple times. According to the website, the game space is around 130 square metres.

• The lighting, make-up, costumes, special effects, and tech were all excellent. Not super polished in every respect, but professional and more than adequate. There was one particular claustrophobic moving mechanism that was really cool.

• The actors were incredible, not just in the way they dedicated themselves to delivering the scares, but also their demanding physical performances during the "cut scenes" (where we had to stand in place and simply watch), of which there were several. The climactic finale, in particular, was especially cinematic and visually stunning.

• I was surprised by the number of puzzles we had to solve too. Intruders had hardly any, but this one gave us multiple things to figure out in every new space we entered. Some were simply hunt and seek, retrieving an item, or process puzzles that involved following specific sequences and instructions, but there were also a few genuine brain teasers that required deciphering clues and logical deduction.

• So, how scary was it? Well, that's subjective, but judging from the reported injuries and the video footage we saw in the lobby of how other players reacted, I would say it's pretty terrifying for most people. Personally, I found it scary in the sense that you were in the dark and you knew that actors in ghost makeup were going to suddenly pop out of nowhere and scream in your face.

• But to be honest, the scare tactics were fairly standard and predictable — mostly jump scares and chases. And it was more or less the same thing all the way through, with not a lot of variety or creativity. While it was still terrifyingly fun, I would liken it to a horror movie that's scary because of a lot of cheap jump scares as opposed to anything that is genuinely psychological or traumatising.

Escape time: N/A

Theming	Atmosphere	Puzzles	Creativity	Fun
B+	A	B+	B+	A-

Verdict: While not as polished or artistic as some of the best horror games, this is one heck of a thrill ride that dials the scares and danger up to the max while still not forgetting about the puzzles.

OVERALL RANK:

H	E	Z	J
A-	A	A	B+