The One: The Grand Hotel de Paris (Paris)

Is this The One?

You are about to book a night in the sumptuous Grand Hôtel De Paris, a historic and iconic place in the capital which opens its doors to you for an unforgettable night.

All our staff is honored to welcome you and will be happy to make your stay unique, because this has always been the only objective of our founding fathers.

Just a few years after its opening, The Grand Hôtel de Paris has become a real reference, an institution, which has seen many souls pass through its doors. Movie stars, politicians, and other celebrities all met here during our establishment’s golden age.

This very special establishment owes its fame to a historic object that it houses, one of the very first hydraulic elevators ever designed. A true infallible technological innovation in its time, it still works today and is waiting for you.

Several decades have passed but the Grand Hôtel de Paris is still there and it opens its doors to you today. Are you ready to spend the night there?

We found a decent deal on Eurostar tickets and decided it would be a great idea to rush over to Paris, pre-Christmas (and pre-TERPECAs) to play some of the games that we’d been hearing a lot about. We didn’t have a huge amount of time on this trip so we had to be selective. Lined up were: The Taxidermist, The Full Experience, Galactic Mission, and The Grand Hotel de Paris – yes, just four games although The Full Experience was basically two games back-to-back.

Having played The Taxidermist first thing, we had a leisurely stroll down to ‘The One’ where we were to play The Grand Hotel de Paris. We arrived at our allotted time and were shown into the very fancy looking lobby, more corporate office than escape room (or hotel). The receptionist asked us about our hotel reservation and then after using the facilities we were escorted down the stairs to the entrance of the Grand Hotel de Paris.

Once in the lobby of the hotel we met our host/GM, Cunégonde. Cunégonde was extremely enthusiastic and gave us a perfect in character mission and health and safety briefing – she’d obviously practiced and rehearsed this many times before! With our room keys in hand, we stashed our personal possessions in a trunk and then proceeded to make our way down the darkened hallway to the elevator.

IMMERSION/ROOM DESIGN

If there was one element where I would say that The Grand Hotel de Paris really stood out, it would be on the set design. Ok it was dark so that covers a lot of sins, but what we could see looked great and it certainly had all the feels of a hotel that you probably wouldn’t want to stay in (yet we did anyway…).

For a game that was set in a hotel, you would be forgiven for thinking that you only perhaps encounter a simple bedroom or two, but you would be wrong. This game sent us on quite a journey where we never knew what, or who, was around the next corner.

Filled with theatrics and clever set design, the room felt much bigger than it perhaps was. In this hotel even a simple corridor becomes a challenge as twists and turns keep you second guessing where you want to go and where you need to go.

Of course with escape rooms the story is never as straight forward as you expect it to be, and the finale had us questioning what had actually happened. The ending possibly could have been tweaked slightly to bring everything full circle, but it still worked and when you start piecing everything together, it does work.

PUZZLES

Despite being a story-heavy game, with a live actor trying to terrorise us, there were still puzzles that we had to complete. Ok, perhaps not the most puzzles we’ve encountered, nor the most challenging, but they were still enjoyable and it’s known that when one is feeling a bit of pressure from imminent evil forces, it’s much trickier to solve even the most simple of puzzles.

The puzzles that were present in the game were clever and felt like they belonged in the hotel environment that we were experiencing. Some of the puzzles were more like simple tasks we had to complete, perhaps you could class them as a bravery trail? But outside of that, teamwork, logic, observation, and a little searching were the main puzzles.

Signposting was generally good, although there were a couple of occasions where it felt lacking for where to go next, fortunately when this happened, our GM was quick to point us in the right direction.

GM/CLUE SYSTEM

Our host was fabulous and played her character to perfection. Couple that with a fun (I probably shouldn’t say fun) live actor in the room at various points, and we had a great team looking after us. It was lovely that at the end of our game, Cunégonde broke character and we were able to speak to her as an employee of The One, and not as an employee of The Grand Hotel de Paris.

If and when help was required in the hotel, I don’t recall ever having to ask. Our host was clearly paying attention, and during that moment (or moments, I can’t remember) where signposting was a little weaker, she didn’t let us struggle for too long before chiming in with a clue to get us back on track. This help generally came by a noise coming from the right place, perhaps a change in lighting, or a ghostly voice in the air.

ANYTHING ELSE

The Grand Hotel de Paris was a fun horror game that had some really fun moments and great live actor interactions. Is this a must play in Paris? Yes, yes it probably is. We’ve played horror games in Athens which is known for its live actor horror games, and I think that although it’s perhaps a little lighter on scares and puzzles, it could hold its own against those games.

Thinking about the game now, there was one design choice that I never worked out what it meant or any symbolism behind it, I really should have asked!

Success/Failed

Final Rating:

Team: 4 Players

Address: 39 Rue de Palestro, 75002 Paris, France

Website: https://theoneescape.com/en