Exit19: The Abandoned Hotel (Wroclaw)

  Two to check-in, please

Sinwood, England, 1954. As plenty of women go missing in both the town and its surroundings, frightened locals start to suspect that these events are somehow related to an old, abandoned hotel on a hill by the forest. According to folk tales about the area, the spot where the Victorian boarding house was built has been possessed by evil for centuries. Due to that, no citizen of Sinwood has ever come near the place… Finally, you arrive at the front gate. The porch, in the dim light of a dusty lantern, makes you feel overwhelmed by a whirl of conflicting emotions as you’re both curious and… suddenly anxious. Still, you decide to set foot in the building and face the evil lurking inside. However, before you even touch the old brass door knocker, you suddenly hear a voice of a woman calling you from within the hotel walls…

Are you ready for 101 minutes of an unforgettable experience? Will you be able to solve the mystery that petrifies the residents of Sinwood? The Abandoned Hotel, the newest room of Exit19.pl, is where the distinction between facts and fiction becomes especially blurred…

If you speak to an escape room enthusiast and they say they’re going to Poland to play escape rooms, there’s a very good chance that one of the games, and possibly the main game, they’ll be playing is Abandoned Hotel by Exit19 in Wroclaw – it was certainly one of the main motivators of our three-city trip.

Abandoned Hotel has been holding its own in the TERPECAs since it first debuted in 2023 at position six. Even now, over three years (and two award cycles) later, it is holding its own at position 26. Holding strong in these awards for that long is testament to the quality and reputation that this game has.

On our Polish trip we had already played some quality games over three cities; Bydgoszcz, Poznan, and now Wroclaw. Exit19 is clearly the largest escape room company in Wroclaw, which was fortunate as we didn’t actually find any other English language games to play. It’s worth pointing out that Exit19 have more than one venue in the city, and Abandoned Hotel is not in the same location as many of their other games.

Abandoned Hotel was one of the key games we had planned this trip for, so naturally we saved it to be the last game we played in Poland – hopefully ending on a high. We arrived at the venue on time, and were buzzed into the building. We climbed the stairs and were greeted by our host who escorted us through to the little waiting room.

After not too long of a wait, and having had time to use the facilities and lock our personal items away in the lockers, our GM returned (we didn’t catch his name) and he then showed us into the game where we first got to meet a curious resident of the Abandoned Hotel.

IMMERSION/ROOM DESIGN

The Abandoned Hotel didn’t start how we were expecting, no friendly welcome or check-in here, instead we were locked in individual cells where we received more background about the hotel, and what we were doing there. We were also blindfolded to start, but once the music changed, we were allowed to remove them and our time started.

I guess you could and probably would class this game as a horror experience, but it’s certainly on the tamer side. Yes, there is a live actor, but they’re not there to scare or chase you, they’re actually more of a helpful presence (more on that later). Ambient sounds, spooky noises, jump scares, darkness, theatrical lighting, everything works together to immerse you in what is really a rather impressive, and expansive set.

I have no idea how big this set actually was, or really where we went in it, but it was designed in such a clever way that it felt absolutely massive. I can’t comment on how accessible this game would be for those with limited mobility, but getting between spaces wasn’t always exclusively walking or climbing, there were other more ‘fun’ methods too.

If I had one gripe with this game, it would be that some of the spaces felt like they were wasted. I clearly remember entering one space, solving one rather simple puzzle and then being out of it within a couple of minutes. I would have loved to have had more puzzles crammed in, but that’s just me. This is a game that I would assume is designed for all skills levels, so it’s a balancing act to get it right, and it probably is correct for the majority of teams who play.

PUZZLES

Sometimes rooms that have the scale and theatrics like this one had, puzzles become secondary to everything else going on. Other than wanting a few more puzzles crammed in, I think Exit19 did a great job with the puzzles. Considering many people will be on edge and scared for their lives, the puzzles felt like they weren’t overly challenging, but probably correct considering everything else going on.

I was looking at our notes that we took for this game, and the notes we had for the puzzle section were actually longer than this whole review, so that is quite telling. It’ll be no surprise to hear that with this being a split start game, you’ll need to ensure your communication and teamwork is on top form, along with; searching, observation, listening, directions, logic, wordplay, and perhaps a little roleplaying.

Wow, just reading my notes again has reminded me of the quality of the puzzles in Abandoned Hotel. Being a hotel there were lots of keys and subsequently a lot of locks, but the puzzles went much further than that. Yes, there were some padlocks here and there, but some of the input devices were really cool and utilised tech in a very clever way.

One word of warning though, for the most part I would say the puzzles themselves are accessible, (although some rely heavily on audio), but later in the game there is one section that relies heavily on colour recognition. Our resident colour-blindian (me) managed ok though, so they didn’t rely heavily on those stupid made up colours like violet, or teal.

As with many horror and actor led experiences, this game played out in a mostly linear fashion, with one puzzle leading onto another and getting us to a point where there was a character interaction. There were times when we could work on things independently though, as Liz and I both managed to solve, or at least work on puzzles simultaneously.

GM/CLUE SYSTEM

An actor-led experience is only as strong as the actor, and our actor was Sofia, who played her role to perfection. As I mentioned earlier, the actor in the Abandoned Hotel wasn’t here to scare you, although inevitably that did happen at times, but instead they were there more like a friendly housekeeper. It took us a little while to understand this, but when we did, we very much appreciated the help that was given.

There were technically two ways to get help in this game, walkie-talkies (never our favourite) and by the live actor. I don’t want to say too much about how the live-actor aspect worked, but it’s amazing how much help one can receive without really realising they’re getting help. Subtle hinting as its finest. Actually, perhaps three ways to get help? Lightning also became another system to gently guide our attention in a certain direction, and it was beautifully done.

ANYTHING ELSE

I can see why this game has been holding its own in the TERPECAs for a number of years, it is visually striking and the seamless gameplay is sure to make it an instant favourite for anyone that plays it. Horror? Yes. But don’t let that put you off, it’s a horror-lite experience and one that we would wholeheartedly recommend everyone plays, even if you jump at the sound of a mouse farting.

Success/Failed

Final Rating:

Team: 2 Players

Address:Wrocław, ul. Pawła Włodkowica 21/2

Website: https://exit19.pl/en/