Paradox Project 2: Το Βιβλιοπωλείον [The Bookstore]

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.

There is a surreal hype about these rooms from paradox project which I find incomprehensible. The room is tediously long, both riddles and tasks make you want to escape fast. I can barely think of any wow moment. Also the story and setting feel random and unconnected. I really appreciate the work put in, but on our trip it was rated among the lowest by all of our group.

We have never had a tougher time rating a room. We can’t even put it on our normal scale because this is something so completely different than anything else out there. This review does not contain blatant spoilers, but provides some thoughts on things we would have liked to know going in. First of all, Terpeca lists this as a “not scary at all room.” ☀️ While not scary by our standards, the teens with us were a bit freaked out. More accurate to call this passive 🔦 These guys are seeking to build the master level of escape rooms. They have a vision and we respect the hell out of what they are doing. They are escape room purists, and believe in traditional locks (used in new ways), difficult puzzles and elaborate stories. They felt that one hour is simply not enough for a room (we agree) and have gone for a whopping three + hours, which *may* be a bit too much for many. We were absolutely brain dead by the end. We have our own opinions about how hard a room should be throughout, but they believe in a wave. For the Bookstore, you absolutely need to do the Mansion first. We couldn’t make it work with scheduling and something was definitely lost by not doing the first part. It would be ideal if they could shape it accordingly to whether someone has done the Mansion or not, because scheduling doesn’t always work out when you’re on vacation. Finally, the construction of this place is damn impressive. Mad respect for these guys. We have been wanting “expert level” rooms, they delivered. We just wish we had known that going in, so we could have framed ourselves accordingly. 😂 Escape Couple rating: 🤯🧐🤓 (we use a 1-6🗝️ rating scale, but this room defies normal ranking) In short, it absolutely delivers on what it set out to accomplish.

If you enjoyed the first Paradox Project game then this is more of the same but better!  Less space is used in some amazingly creative ways, some great transitions and a stronger sense of the unfolding story.  This fixes all of the criticisms I had of the first one but I would urge caution taking a large group, I would recommend 3-4 to get the most enjoyment out, very much worth your time.