The Room Pocket

The Room, although 6 years old, is no less remarkable than it was at its inception. The best part about waiting 6 years to play is that there are more versions now available after I finished this one! I rarely play games and when I do I like to challenge my brain. ‘The Room’ does just that. Unfortunately in some of the puzzles, you have to know what the developer was thinking. After solving many of the problems inside this game a pattern emerges that you can use in the other chapters. The graphics are phenomenal. It’s like you are there inside this contraption actually moving pieces around! I’m blind in one eye and do not see in 3D (the world is all 2D to me) and a few of the puzzles I was not able to visualize even using the ‘eyepiece’. There are “hints” but they are very intentionally vague and really useless. This is a highly graphic filled game and even on my iPhone 8 Plus, I had several places where the game just froze. When you reset or have to leave and come back to the game you have to start at the beginning of that chapter. Each chapter is not too long and at the end I was wanting more. If you are totally stuck there are several resources online to help you. I highly recommend ‘The Room’!

I came on “The Room” series by accident when my attention was called to The Room Old Sins, which is actually the 4th in the series. I started with this one, The Room, because it was first, and you can try it for free for the first level to see if you like it. If you do, you can finish the rest of the game for .99. After finishing this, I immediately signed on for #2, and have now completed it. If complex puzzles, logic, gadgets, gizmos, unexpected turns and the occasional red herring are your thing, you have arrived. I say this, and not lightly; these games are FLAWLESSLY executed. They are challenging without being impossible; and hints are provided, if you want to use them, that give you an increasing degree of guidance to get you through any difficult spots. I’m a senior citizen, and I have hooked my wife, my mid-30’s daughter and my teenage grandson on The Door. Fun for all ages. The graphics are outstanding, the music totally right and the atmosphere perfect. The fee is small for several hours of enjoyment, and after the first one, a purchased game will support multiple profiles. No ads. No nonsense. Just some seriously challenging fun!

The Room is both a wonderful puzzle game and a delightfully eerie experience. First of all, the puzzles are excellent. True to its name, the game takes place inside of a single room, where the player is tasked with unlocking the secrets of a mysterious cabinet. The puzzles involve examining, deciphering and unlocking a series of increasingly intricate mechanical devices. Solving them not only provides a satisfying challenge, but it works in tandem perfectly with the second major element of The Room. That second element is design. Everything about The Room is designed. Whether it’s the puzzles, the inventory items, the notes or the atmosphere, absolutely everything was done on purpose. Every part of each device is a possible piece of the puzzle. Every item in your inventory can be examined, and many have secrets to solve themselves. The quiet ambience and pitch black background both add to the overall eeriness and focus the player’s attention solely on the device in front of them, right where it should be. It may not be long, but it does everything right, and for 99 cents you won’t find a more intriguing game.

I am now officially a “The Room” junkie. In fact, I just finished the 2nd game & am starting the 3rd game. This is really more than just a “puzzle game”. It’s kind of like if an “RPG” game and a “puzzle/logic” game had a baby; this would be their mutant offspring. The graphics and animations are unbelievable for an app on a hand held device. This is definitely comparable to a full PC game. Within a few minutes of playing I truly forgot I was playing on my hand held device. The storyline is extremely well written allowing you to easily become fully immersed in the game. The puzzles are challenging, but not overwhelming or impossibly so. I truly enjoyed the fine balance between challenging, but not ridiculously difficult. Don’t get me wrong, the puzzles are by no means simplistic. If your someone that enjoys the challenge of figuring things out and problem solving, then you will enjoy this game. Thank you to the developers for providing such a beautiful and enjoyable game with NO COMMERCIALS! This game also doesn’t constantly force you into expensive in-ap purchases just to be able to progress in the game. After you complete the first level you are given an option to end there or play the rest of the game for a one time in app purchase of $0.99. Well worth the hours of commercial free game playing.

The puzzles in this game are like cool mystery boxes. It's too bad I didn't think the story behind the boxes were all that interesting. It seemed like the only point to solving the puzzles was to get some flashy cutscenes of mystery markings and creepy sounds. That said, the puzzles themselves are very interesting. Sometimes they seem so hard to understand that the hint system is essential to completing them. Either way, it's a better challenge to try and use the hints less often. A game like this makes you wish boxes like this really existed, but could you imagine the price of building such intricate boxes only to solve them once and never use them again? That's what makes this game's 99 cent in app purchase so valuable. It's very affordable and should take 4 to 6 hours to complete the game. I recommend trying it out. It was a very unusual game that scratched an itch I couldn't get scratched anywhere else.