One thing my family loves at the moment is this spate of reality TV-style gameshows that seems to be popping up at the moment. Think Traitors, Genius Game, Destination X and the one this game is based on, the Fortune Hotel.
Fortune Hotel, along with the Traitors, may be my favourite. I am not a fan of reality TV but when it’s a gameshow/challenge style thing, it definitely gets my attention.
The Fortune Hotel
If you have not seen it, Fortune Hotel pits pairs against each other playing various games and swapping cases. These cases come in 3 varieties: the Fortune Holders case, which has £200,000 in it, the Unfortunates, whose case has an ‘early’ checkout card in and the Fortune Hunters, which makes up everyone else, whose case is empty.
What makes this game special is the lying, deceiving and swapping cases, mostly without truly knowing who has what, to try and end up with the money. The players who end up with the early checkout card, exit the game. At the end of each day, the players swap cases, or choose to keep the case they have, depending on where they finish the day’s main challenge. There’s so much tension, so much back-stabbing and players can really pull off some clever plays during the show’s many twists and turns.
When I saw that Big Potato Games were making a board game based on the show, I knew my family would love it. While it does not exactly follow the show, it does just enough to create tension and get everyone around the table lying about what’s in their case and competing in challenges.
The Setup
The main thing to do in the setup for Fortune Hotel is to set up the cases. Each case must be set up with three little cards. The Fortune Holders case has 3 cards that show high point values, with the last card being a multiply by 2. The Fortune Hunters cases have middling values in and the Unfortunates case has 0’s in them, with the last card being a divide by 2 card.
After sorting the cases, set up a few decks of cards, put all the challenge props to one side and lay out the room keys. Setup is quite quick, especially if when putting the game away, you return the cases back to their original state. All that’s left is to randomly select a case, be lucky and hopefully get a good one!
Differences from the Show
The main difference from the show is the composition of the cases, which I fully understand. The Early Checkout card is gone, which means players don’t get eliminated, which I think is a good thing. Instead, at the end of each day, each player removes the top card from their case. So the Fortune Holder gets the most points, the Unfortunates, nothing and everyone else, a few points. This is magnified on day three as the Fortune Holder gets their score doubled and the Unfortunate gets their score halved. Unlucky.
Game Flow
The Fortune Hotel board game is split into 3 days, with each day having 3 parts. You have the Decision, the Challenge, then the Lady Luck Bar. The decision is a small group-based quiz, which has players voting on various things. At the end, it gives a player or players chances to peek into each other’s cases or swap cases without looking. This certainty fits the smaller hotel-based games in the TV show and mixes up where cases are before the big swap later.
The second section, the challenge matches the main challenges of the TV show and set the order for the case swaps in the Lady Luck Bar later. These challenges use various props in the game and range from word-based games, timed games, dexterity games and team games. None of them are too hard, none of them require too much space and they are all games anyone can get into.
This section was definitely the weakest part of the whole package but don’t get me wrong, they still did the job they set out to achieve, which is setting the order for the big swap.
At the Lady Luck Bar, starting with the player who finished last in the challenge, each player must swap cases. The player who finished last MUST swap, while all other players can choose to keep their case. This creates all sorts of bluffing, lying and deduction. With the winner of the challenge going last and having a massive amount of power.
This is repeated three times, with players trying to track where the good and bad cases are, completing challenges and taking part in votes to get a leg up on where the good case is. This is where the game feels like the TV show and this is where I enjoy it most, tring to work out where the FOrtune Holders case is, trying to hold onto it and reading players to win the game, it’s implemented quit well.
Components
Everything in Fotune Hotel The Board Game is of the standard I expect from Big Potato Games. White not being of the ‘highest’ quality, it’s of a very good quality for family and party games. Everything is well made, even if it is mostly quite thin cardboard. By no means is it bad, it is made to keep the game cheap enough to buy for families and I appreciate that. It fits who it’s for perfectly, it’s a family game and is designed in that manner.
Final Thoughts
My family loves The Fortune Hotel TV show and they loved this game. It gives just enough of the gameshow’s strengths while keeping it a family friendly, easy to play board game.
The challenges are easy enough, if a little simple and the component are standard family-weight fare. Where this board game shines is the bluffing, lying and trying to end up with the right case. This part of the game perfectly replicates the TV show and I really enjoy that aspect. Trying to track cases and trying to get rid of the Unfortunates case never gets old and it a lot of fun. Reading people and manipulation is key and in the setting of this board game, it’s great fun for all the family.
