Paradox Project 2: Το Βιβλιοπωλείον [The Bookstore]

After playing the mansion, we had an idea of what to expect but this room still completely blew our mind. 3h 20 with two people feels like a lot of time but it flowed along so well, that you'd never want it to end. Detailed rooms, interesting transitions, very cool ideas and the first room that actually got me sea-sick. As with the other Paradox rooms, the game starts immediately when you arrive, so there's no interaction with a game master other than via smartphone if needed (the hint system). One of the best rooms in the world I played.

6/10 Greece is renowned for their horror rooms. Project Paradox’s The Bookstore is no different. 3 and 1/2 hours of pure torture. Do yourself a favor and forgo this room. How it landed 33rd in TERPECA’s top 100 is beyond me. First, this room is OLD. It is worn and battered. Multiple puzzles were broken. Some puzzles, after solving, trigger nothing. Only after being hounded by the game master through a text on a phone (their hint system) will you know the puzzle was completed and to move on. The flow and connection between puzzles is weak at best. Speaking of puzzles, there are some major eye rollers. Your momentum is constantly interrupted by videos explaining the nonsensical storyline that after the 4th or 5th video, you couldn’t care less about. Some of the word puzzles are so difficult to understand that I thought it was just bad translation. The Greek people I played with would read the original language and be just as bewildered at the wording, if not more confused. Through this experience you will be asking questions along the lines of, “Why is it that?” “Where do we go?” “What are we supposed to do?” “When did that open?” “How were we supposed to guess that?” “How much time is left?” “Can we leave early?” “Another text!?!” “It’s still going!?!” For a room that prides itself on how long and packed full of puzzles it is, it comes no where close to the reputation that precedes it. If you have this room on your to do list, all I have to say is, Good luck, Godspeed, and bring Advil in attempting this headache of an experience. That’s the Bitter Truth.

This was my favorite of the 3 Paradox games. I did feel that we needed to be tethered to the cell phone that is used for hints much more than I find enjoyable in order to proceed through the game. However, there were some interesting twists in environments and cool ideas, even if the puzzle flow didn't always feel intuitive to me.

This is the culmination of the mansion room and directly continues it's story. The room is an incredible experience and blows away so many of our experiences in the states. This room has so many clever things but to avoid spoilers I won't mention them here. If you are an escape room fan, paradox on the whole is a must hit and this room is one of their best. My partner and I are still talking about some of the things in the room

The biggest draw of this room is the set - the designers clearly put a lot of time in to customize the house's architecture, and it also fit in with the plot. Puzzles felt like they fit in to where they were found, and there were a couple neat unexpected interactions. This was easily my favorite of the three Paradox Project games. While the creators say you should play 1 before 2 to appreciate the plot, I'm not sure it's necessary (though it may help get you into the designer's mindset towards puzzles). Some parts were a little finicky (e.g. some books in the very first room required more force to interact with than we expected, and we got a bad ending because even though we did the right thing at the very end, we couldn't find what we were looking for and assumed it wasn't there when in fact we needed to reach a bit further). There was one thing about the background music that stands out in my memory - at a point in the game about halfway through that's supposed to be creepy and disturbing, I identified the music as a Halloween-ish variant of the Sailor Moon theme song. This killed the mood for me and had me laughing instead, which I'm pretty sure wasn't the intent. We played in English with no problem.

This is a game that I will think back on for a while! After a long day of sightseeing and traveling, ending the day with a >3hr escape room was a little ambitious but experiencing this room was worth it. The halfway break(with our choice of music) was thoughtful. The puzzles were very creative and mechanical, which our group was enthusiastic about. And the amount of puzzles and rooms was impressive.

I wish my friends in Minnesota could have a chance to play this series and more then that I wish we had time to do the music room. Thank you for a great experience.

One year later and I still have dreams about this room. Absolutely incredible experiences and truly has to be one of the best rooms in the world.

Of the twenty-seven rooms we've played in Athens, this is my favorite! The room keeps you guessing with unique puzzles and surprising spaces to explore. Among more than six hundred rooms we've played across the world, this is the most unique. I really appreciate the owner for creating an incredible experience. My only complaint is that it was really hard for me to keep my energy level up for more than three hours!