A quick check-out.
Location: at home
Date Played: September 2023
Team size: 1-6; we recommend 1-4
Duration: 90 minutes
Price: $16.99
REA Reaction
Clue Escape: The Midnight Hotel is a board game/ escape game hybrid that sends players on an investigation around the titular hotel, solving puzzles, discovering clues, and eventually piecing together an overarching Clue-themed mystery. The story takes place after Mr. Black's death, in theory continuing the story of Clue: Treachery at Tudor Mansion.
Since that first installment of the Clue series of escape games, Hasbro has sanded down the edges considerably. Clue Escape: The Midnight Hotel is easier, less involved, and more linear, focusing more on narrative and less on puzzling. Despite the medium difficulty rating on the box, we found these puzzles to be very easy, best suited for younger players.
Otherwise, the hotel setting was fun, and Hasbro attempted something interesting with only paper components. But narratively, the underlying mystery wasn't as compelling as the classic Clue formula—the where and what seemed urgent enough, but the whodunnit part felt a little forced, especially considering the crime in this story was an attempted hacking.
In general I'd recommend Treachery at Tudor Mansion more broadly, but if you're looking for another game in the same vein and don't mind the low difficulty level, The Midnight Hotel has the same charming gameplay with enough content to keep youngsters or beginning puzzlers entertained for an hour and a half.
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