Professor Puzzle | Escape from Grand Hotel | Puzzle | Ages 12+ | 2+ Players

Product Information

Your experience of this game is very similar to ours, but we found the game far too easy, until we got to the coded fax. This puzzle made absolutely no sense – even after reading the supposed answer. Any chance you can explain it to us? The Grand Hotel was once the place for the rich and famous to visit. After decades of disrepair, the mysterious and wealthy Blossom family had restored the hotel to its former glory. Kurt Blossom and his beautiful wife, Lauren had invited us to the hotel’s grand reopening. We were ready for a night to remember – little did we suspect it would be for all the wrong reasons! There are some interesting ideas and a lot of great execution in Escape from the Grand Hotel. If you really enjoy tabletop escape games, this one had a lot to offer. However, there were too many little flaws and gaps that got amplified by the limited hint system for me to comfortably recommend this to a tabletop escape game newbie. Who is this for? When their glamorous, rich and influential guests arrive for the grand re-opening, they’re ready for a night to remember – little do they suspect it will be for all the wrong reasons!

The first puzzle worked well for onboarding players. It wasn’t too challenging. Through it we understood how Escape from the Grand Hotel wanted us to play it. This matchbox game is filled with difficult puzzles, brain-teasers, challenges and exercises for you to work your way out of a seemingly cursed hotel. What haunting secrets will you uncover in finding your way out of the Grand Hotel's history?

Owned by the wealthy but mysterious Blossom family, this once magnificent hotel was in danger of being closed for good until the sudden return of the Blossom son, Kurt, and his beautiful wife, Lauren. They want to restore the hotel to its former glory but something isn’t quite right. When their glamorous, rich and influential guests arrive for the grand re-opening, they’re ready for a night to remember – but as it turns out, it’s memorable for all the wrong reasons! Also, I’ve seen videos where they indicate they change puzzles and a different version 2 or version 3 of the game is released. Sadly I felt a little let down by this room and I can't put my finger on why. It could have been that the final stage tech wasn't as smooth as the rest or maybe just that our expectations were too high after enjoying their other rooms.

Professor Puzzle provided duplicate copies of one of the more tedious puzzles so that more players could participate. It’s the big re-opening of the Grand Hotel but nothing is quite what it seems in this immersive escape room game! The gameplay took some clear inspiration from the ThinkFun tabletop escape games, using location envelopes and paper components to tell a puzzle-driven narrative. Their approach to answer verification was clever. Escape from the Grand Hotel was Professor Puzzle’s first foray into tabletop escape games… and they got a lot right.

To make a larger event around this game, mail out the enclosed invitations and have your guests arrive in character and in costume. Note, the character roles are entirely for fun and are not relevant to the gameplay. Escape from the Grand Hotel”arrived in a beautifully designed box with quality printed material. Bigger than most escape-room-in-a-box we have played (except Mystery At the Stargazers Manor) we were expecting great things. The end of the game just stops without a big final puzzle/reveal. There was no ‘ah-ha’ moment. A bit of a disappointment really.

The trails themselves require very little puzzle-solving and a bit more of a challenge would be very welcome but the object here is to immerse yourself in this steam punk world and go on a few adventures along the way. It's a totally unique experience.We enjoyed the structure of Escape from the Grand Hotel. Each puzzle led us to another room in the hotel. It was fun to explore the hotel in this way. On the plus side, the game can be played again as you do not destroy any of the components. We took photos of each room so we could reset it, but there are reset instructions given in the Puzzle Solutions guide. Cannot really recommend this escape game as although it looks beautiful, the puzzles are not great.