Not only does it masterfully execute its brand of puzzling with aplomb, but it does so in the form of an impressively upgraded PC port at, if anything, too generous a price point. Excellent series!
That's a neat nightlight.
The Room Three is the best of all worlds. Not only does it masterfully execute its brand of puzzling with aplomb, but also does so in the form of an impressively upgraded PC port at, if anything, too generous a price point.
That 'The Room' games are mobile/tablet ports is evident to its mechanical core. Considered as they are with adapting to touchscreen limitations, they feel like they're from a time modern releases simply weren't straight ported to mobile.
BUT I open with this detail with a wholly positive slant. The Room Three feels like a yesteryear game in all the right ways and I think at least part of that can be put down to the niche it's found in the mobile market. There's simply nothing quite like it out there that achieves what it does in its genre at its quality.
The Room Three , like its predecessors, is a puzzle game concerned with exploration, object hunting and the tactile manipulation of what are often endlessly morphing, multifaceted objects and contraptions. This is where what were formerly touchscreen controls seamlessly make their transition to the mouse - allowing ease in pushing buttons, pulling levers, rotating keys, and sliding switches. Exploration too is relegated to just the mouse, with only some stiffness. You freely rotate around the environment and a double click both zooms in on specific aspects of an object (wherein you can then interact with the minutia of it) or allows movement to another room through a doorway. A right click zooms out, but thankfully and crucially, transitions seem reasonably flexible in not requiring you to rigidly zoom out before you try and interact with anything else you can see in the background. It all just works.
Perhaps a poor alternative to a roasted pig.
In an intelligent move, there are no UI elements indicating what is interactive. The world is just allowed to breathe. It might lead to some test-clicking, but it seems a fair exchange for preserving the atmosphere and mystery of the environment.
These 'escape' rooms and their puzzles often unveil linearly, and if there is one criticism to level at them, it would be that you could certainly fumble your way through their steps without sometimes needing to really stop and think. Blocks to progress usually involve needing to find an object elsewhere or missing a hidden trigger for a mechanism somewhere. Such objects are given as a random reward for smaller puzzles, but as you don't know what, for example, matching panels within a pyramid might be offering upon completion before you engage with it, it necessitates some fumbling by design. These blocks are about where to go rather than how to solve a room in its entirety. A level in this way is more a setup for many self-contained and only barely interrelated puzzles. It's perhaps a finer point and one more of personal preference. Thankfully, a timer-based hint system offers graduated hints to steer you in the right direction without outright guiding you.
What this approach does allow, however, is a well-paced, satisfying and mostly logical unveiling of a room's secrets. The most impressive trick the game performs is in how much it does with small spaces by leveraging its fascination with mechanisms. A lone box on a table can be like a labyrinth of endless secret buttons, latches and puzzles that constantly shift and reveal new secrets and structures. What's more, with the addition of the eyeglass, they take this even further to an abstract place - allowing you to enter small structures and solve puzzles inside. This allows endless flexibility in terms of puzzle design as a single room suddenly houses multiple spaces within it.
Worst projector I ever bought.
As with their previous games, their transformative work on a PC version exhibits truly impressive results. It can't be overstated how at home on PC The Room Three looks with its impressive lighting and texture work. The atmosphere contributes massively to your want to push forward and discover.
In a real show of ambition, outside of its levels, you even have a hub area that houses optional puzzles without hints that lead to multiple endings. It's a great way to add a real challenge without introducing a difficulty spike. The wider context in the form of letters from the Victorian mastermind and these endings nicely gives some antagonism to proceedings in the vein of the Zero Escape games. Nothing better than feeling you're proving yourself to a madman in the puzzling.
And madmen is perhaps what I'd call the creators of these games for the sheer detail they've put in, unparalleled port work and for constantly expanding the complexity and scope of their series. I hope they continue both to release new games and adapt them for PC as they have. This is not a series I want to end anytime soon. If you're unfamiliar with the games thus far, get a Room.
