The Room and The Room Two are both obviously similar games,
as one if the sequel, but both are very special. The general concept is that
you are a nameless character who has been placed in a room that usually,
especially in the first game anyway, has a table in the centre, as in the
second game there are multiple areas in one room. Each chapter of the game is a
good challenge to complete and is all about getting, usually, a box open that
is in the centre and it can be locked in multiple ways. The puzzles are complex
and there is usually some things hiding in the table that the box is sat on and
there can be small differences in the hinges of one side of the box which would
mean that this could do something, but it is your job to try and get this open
to advance to the next level.
Throughout the game these puzzles do become more complex and
require multiple things to open them in one level and it can be difficult to
figure out especially if the last thing you need if hidden in the bottom of a
table leg that you didn’t even think about looking at. But that is the
challenge of this game and you get a sense of fulfilment when you do eventually
find out how to do a section and that then moves to you figuring out another
section and another, and another before you’ve eventually figured everything
out and then given another puzzle completely. But it really is nice to play and
has so much going for it, as it really does feel very smooth to play.
The game level itself is set using a free move camera but it
can only orbit the puzzle box and is almost confined to this, but this isn’t a
problem as you do not need to look at anything else in the room, mainly because
the spot light that is used only illuminates the box and blacks out the rest of
scene in most cases. Its only in The Room Two where we start to see more
features in the room, but still in this case the room is very dark in places
that it doesn’t want you to see, only to make sure that when it does turn a
light on for you to see an area, you shouldn’t have been able to see it before
that point, making it appear to come from the shadows or darkness in the scene.
The overall level design works very well and the design,
especially in the first game, is minimalistic but this works well in this kind
of game as you do not want to be distracted by areas on the box that you do not
need to do anything to. The detail is what you need to look at most and this is
where is can highlight areas that you can potentially interact with and you
need to look for the things that are maybe missing or look different from other
things in the scene. This level design works particularly well with the
lighting chosen. It is quite a dark game, but uses this effect to make you feel
slightly trapped in this room which does work well because as you process you
find out snippets about ‘The Rooms’ and why they are so important; a technique
that works well in conjunction with the mood atmosphere and low level lighting
and darker tones of colour.
Overall this game is definitely worth getting, this is again
another little game for iPad’s and Android but I believe can be bought on PC as
well but for more money, the first game only being about 99p on the App Store,
so definitely worth the money and the couple of hours gameplay you can get from
it and the second game as well, which I believe is only £1.99 from the App
Store. So definitely worth the money and worth the challenge as some puzzles
are not easy and occasionally you do need to use the help option to get you
through the game to help you figure out that last little stage of the puzzle.
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