The Room

Genre: First-Person Puzzle

Players: 1

.

Review:

The Room (not to be confused with the Tommy Wiseau film of the same name) is a First-Person Puzzle game released in 2012 on mobile devices, then ported to PC and Nintendo Switch in 2018. This game has players interacting with an intricate box with various hidden mechanisms, trying to discover the secret it hides inside.

I should note that almost everything I have to say about this game is similar to both my praise and criticism of The House of Da Vinci, which I reviewed in 2019. However, it bears mention that The House of Da Vinci came out nearly a half a decade after The Room’s original release, and it was clearly inspired by The Room.

In any case, it’s hard to deny the similarities here, starting with the core premise – you have been invited by an eccentric… friend? Teacher? Crazy old uncle? Well, your relationship with the researcher and inventor is unclear, but he has invited you to try to solve his puzzle box, within which hides what he claims to be a powerful secret.In this game. That’s mostly all the story you’ll be getting, apart from journal entries you’ll uncover as you solve puzzles. In any case, this doesn’t have the same focus on story as House of Da Vinci did, because the focus here is largely on the puzzle box.

As with The House of Da Vinci, the intricate mechanisms are lovingly detailed here, with really nice textures for different materials. There’s not a heck of a lot going on in The Room, but what’s here is gorgeous. These visuals are backed by a quiet, moody, atmospheric soundtrack that seems to aim to keep your focus on the puzzles, and I’d argue this largely succeeds.

Another element this game shares with House of Da Vinci is the controls. Players can control this game either using Joy-Con motion controls or the Nintendo Switch touchscreen. Both control methods work, but it definitely feels like you’re not getting the sort of precision you’d want in these controls, and sometimes this makes it a bit overly difficult to interact with parts of the puzzle box. On the bright side of things, this game includes a helpful hint feature for players who get stuck.

Okay, I know I’ve done a lot of comparing to House of Da Vinci here, but there is one place where the two games differ, and as I mentioned before, that is the focus, with this game squarely focused on just one device you’re working with, around, and inside its mechanisms, where House of Da Vinci had multiple devices connected by the story. While I appreciate the tighter focus here, I’m not so thrilled with how this affects the game’s length – you can be done with The Room in under 3 hours.

However, despite its short length and some frustrations with the controls, The Room is nevertheless an outstanding Puzzle game, and one well worth seeking out for fans of the genre. While on balance I do think I prefer the longer and more cohesive The House of Da Vinci, it’s clear to see that game chose as its inspiration a game that was already superb in its own right.

tl;dr – The Room is a First-Person Puzzle game where players interact with a mechanical puzzle box to try to gradually unlock its secrets.This is an outstanding Puzzle game (that naturally plays a lot like the game it inspired, The House of Da Vinci), though it does have some control issues and a disappointingly short length. Still, if you’re a fan of Puzzle games, this is well worth a look.

Grade: B

^{You can support eShopperReviews on Patreon! Please click HERE to become a Sponsor!}

^{This month’s sponsors are Ben, Ilya Zverev, Andy Miller, Exlene, Homer Simpin, Johannes, Francis Obst, Gabriel Coronado-Medina, Jared Wark, Kristoffer Wulff, and Seth Christenfeld. Thank you for helping to keep the reviews coming!}