izigame.me

8/10
If David Lynch ever made an escape room puzzle game, this would be it.
What is it: A surreal/horror escape room full of riddles, but technically it’s not an escape room, nor horror. You’re invited to a strangely empty hotel, and your goal is not to get out, but to get in. Almost all the doors are locked, and you must find the right key or code to open it. To help you with that, there are lots of things for you to inspect, letters, books, posters, strange writings on the walls, maps, and other things. Remember everything you see, therein lie the solutions to all riddles. Luckily, you don’t have to remember the actual words you see, since you have “perfect memory”, the ability to look at every relevant item you encountered, but you should remember that you saw “an invitation letter”, or “a book about locks”. After unlocking the first few doors, you start meeting the other inhabitants of the hotel: the strange host who invited you, the old woman with shining eyes in your bed, the dead girl, the magician from the past… From a simple “let’s unlock perfectly normal doors”, things take a turn for the surreal. Is this real, or are you hallucinating? Which year is it? What does it all mean? Who are you and what is your purpose in this game?
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3411197606
The riddles are very varied, from simple math problems, spotting the hidden meaning in letters, figuring out what the movie posters mean, and many others. An added level of difficulty comes from figuring out how to use a lock, from the simple number dial locks you get buttons in strange configurations, lights, clocks… And from having one clue right next to the door it opens, you have to figure out clues from one place helping you in another one, then back and forth. Figure out which document you’ve seen is relevant for solving the current problem, which item you’ve collected can fit in the object in front of you. Then the game goes beyond basic riddles and opening locks: mazes, memory and observation tests, in-game games you can play, figuring out which phone number to call, collecting and using objects in the right place, and other things to do that keep this game fresh for a long time. Although the game says you need some real-world knowledge, that isn’t true. There are puzzles involving roman numerals, for example, but you don’t really need to know how they work, there’s no roman numeral math to do, everything you need is contained in the game.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3411197532
The presentation is strange too, with a black and white (and red) theme that is both realistic and sketchy at the same time, sparse music and sounds, creepy before the creepy stuff starts showing up. It may be a bit too scary for children, but not really scary. At some point the puzzles do get deadly, though, so save often.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3411198924
There are a few things that aren't very good though. First is that progress needs to be manually saved at computers you can find throughout the hotel, which aren't too far apart, but still would be nice to have some kind of autosave, or at least allow saving when having to quit the game without the need to find the nearest computer. Second, the controls use just one button (other than directional keys) for everything, so opening a map requires a lot of clicks, and then closing the map and going back to playing requires just as many clicks, since there is no close or back button, just X (close) items in menus. Combined with the fact that you have to go through each list item by item, and there are frequently more than 10 items, that means 20+ button pushes just to go and look at what year a movie was made. The directional keys aren't frictionless either, there is at least one in-game game that I found terrible to control, and in the regular world since the environment is 3D but with invisible walls, I would often snag a corner and stop moving. One other thing that I would change is that some parts can be deadly, one wrong answer and you have to go back to the last manual save, and there’s no undo or autosave right before you had to answer the question. But these are minor shortcomings of an otherwise excellent game.
This has often been included in top 10 from 2024 lists, and rightfully so. It’s a great puzzle game full of interesting riddles, in a unique presentation, and with a story that’s strange but intriguing.
One piece of advice, try to finish it in one go, since most of the game requires remembering what you saw and read.
How hard is it: It starts easy, but gets very challenging. While many individual puzzles are trivial, completing the overall game and getting all the achievements is very hard. Although some basic math skills are required, there's also a lot of in-game help with descriptions of roman numerals, the greek alphabet, quasi-hints disguised as books. There are no real hints though, and no level skipping since there’s no actual levels, just a free roaming world.
How long is it: A big hotel to explore plus many other virtual worlds, the total time depends on how good you are at solving riddles, but probably more than 20 hours.
Puzzle design: Good. The puzzles are diverse, as well as the different activities you have to do. Personally I found that too many are too trivial.
Quality: Good, but some design decisions lead to frustration. Great variety of things to do, good riddles. Unique presentation. A take on the escape room genre that stands out from the rest. Interesting story and atmosphere. Manual saving at specific locations required, unsaved progress will be lost. 1-button control scheme is both easy to use, and really frustrating when you need tens of button pushes just to open a document. Multiple save slots. A few settings. The game is very dark, with flashes of light, and wavering text, which isn’t very accessible. Cloud saving, very hard achievements.
Worth the price: Yes.
Most positive aspect for me: Good variety of things to do.
Most negative aspect for me: Awkward menu navigation.
What would make it better: Improved controls. Autosave. Improved accessibility settings. A hint system.
Also consider:
The Room Collection, great escape room/puzzle box games with a dark atmosphere and story.
Myst and Riven, great puzzle games.
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