Paradox Project 2: Το Βιβλιοπωλείον [The Bookstore]

A wild ride. I chose Paradox as the one game we’d play in Athens. It definitely delivered. As some have mentioned it’s worn around the edges. Definitely an older game with more analog puzzles. I still marveled at the ingenuity and delighted in the immersive spaces. The quirky storyline unfolded logically, getting more and more absurd as you found yourself facing more and more challenges. It’s a bit camp, but that works for me. Personally I loved the ending. We (a jet lagged team of two) totally came to the wrong conclusion, but the game master graciously helped us find our way so we could experience the game in its entirety. As someone who has predominantly experienced the typical US escape room (briefing about rules in the lobby with a short story set up) I appreciated the immersion from start to finish.

Wow! This was our favorite room that we played from the Paradox Project. As others have mentioned, these rooms are huge and very immersive. Very challenging and novel puzzles. Being from the USA and doing lots of USA escape rooms, we are used to logical flow through rooms and needing very minimal help from the game master. That is not the case in this room, you may need quite a bit more help than you are accustomed to needing so don't be shy about asking. You really should do the Mansion first if you have the time, it is also a really great room but the Bookstore is definitely even more impressive.

Game 5 of 17 of our Athens Tour - WOW. This game takes everything that made the Mansion great and improves on it. The flow works better, the puzzles while still VERY challenging are a little more manageable, and the creativity in use of space is turned up to the max as we move throughout the various parts of the game. Incredibly well done Paradox Project.

Tons of great puzzles. Good tech. great flow

This is an absolutely fabulous room - probably the best escape room we have ever done!! It is a lengthy escape room with lots of twists and turns, imaginative puzzles - phenomenal rooms.

Let me say up front: we did not escape this room…even without a time limit 😭 We started around 6pm and we had to call it quits around 10:30pm (4.5 hours into the game…my wife’s pregnant and she needed to take some time sensitive meds) I want to be clear that we quit the game however, and they didn’t quit on us. As usual, the game masters are excellent and encouraging and continue to guide you well through the games. Our game master for this room was nice enough to walk us through the end (we were close) and closing sequence. But all that to say- we’ve never done a game so massive, far reaching and time intensive. 😮‍💨 There’s countless rooms, themes, genres, plot lines, you name it-explored. Some reviewers commented that many of these rooms could have been standalone escape rooms (I think that’s a stretch) but you get the point. The most fun way I could describe this game is that it felt like being in an amusement park for escape room enthusiasts. It was that gargantuan an experience and immersive. The biggest and longest room we’ve done by far. The puzzles ranged from medium to very difficult- I don’t think there were any logical leaps, but just some very intricate and time intensive puzzles that demand your focus and attention. You’ll be absolutely drained by the end. With that said, the story comes to a satisfying conclusion from part 1, and you do really come away with having an experience that was truly special. This room remains the crown jewel of PP, and for good reason. And it was a joy for us to commemorate Room #100 for us with this room! Rating: 8.4/10

Second Solo Room!!

One of the best escape rooms I’ve been to by far. The entire building is used as a single escape room and the puzzles are very unique but not impossible to solve. There are a lot of different rooms and settings to take you through the story and is extremely immersive.

This is the pinnacle of escape rooms. Given its size, it’s more of an escape house rather than an escape room. Immersive storytelling, great ambience, and a massive variety of puzzles. Each individual puzzle of medium to hard difficulty, but because there are so many of them and they are all quite different from each other, it made the escape house extremely difficult without several hints. I went in with a group of 2 but I STRONGLY recommend going in with at least 3. You could tell the GM is extremely passionate about the game which made it all the more enjoyable. One of the best escape games I have ever played. It is not scary (ie no jump scares) but it does have creepy elements. Be prepared for an incredible (and long) journey, as this is meant for escape room veterans looking for bigger experiences.

The bookstore is the sequel of the Mansion but the feeling and atmosphere are very different. I still enjoyed both of them. Puzzles are quite creative. We ran out of the time but were allowed to finish the game. The only thing I wished to have was a couch like in the Mansion where some of us could take a rest. There were "stools" in the Bookstore but not very comfortable ones.