Cramped Room of Death

Genre: Puzzle

Players: 1

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Review:

Cramped Room of Death, released on PC and Nintendo Switch in 2023, is a character-based Puzzle game with elements of a Dungeon Crawler where players take the role of an adventurer venturing into a dungeon to reclaim his stolen gear and treasure. Unfortunately for him, the only weapon left in his possession is a spear, which proves to be difficult to use in the cramped corridors of the dungeon.

It is with this setup that the game presents you with each room as a puzzle: how do you move through this area in a way that doesn’t leave you vulnerable to enemies, allows you to get your spear through, and gives you the space to take out all of the enemies in the room to unlock the door and move on?

This is a tile-based game where nothing happens until you make a move, with your character and enemies each taking up a tile of space, and your spear taking up a whole other space as well. In each turn you can move in one of four directions, you can rotate to face a different cardinal direction, or you can stand in place as you thrust your spear ahead into an enemy two spaces away. If your movement is blocked by the terrain (or even by enemies when you’re not thrusting), then you’re blocked from making the move and have to do something else.

It presents an interesting puzzle, and one the game expands on by adding new enemies and trap types as you continue through the game. You’re constantly challenged to think about both your positioning and, after a short while, your timing as traps and enemies activate after a specific number of turns. It presents a fairly unique challenge, yet the basics are simple enough as the only controls are for movement and spinning.

The thing is, while it’s a clever mechanic and fairly straightforward, I never really felt like this translated much for me into “fun”. It always felt to me more like frustrating work to get this character to do something that would be straightforward to the point of being second nature in other games, but is an ordeal here. Even just walking on a linear path from point A to point B becomes an ordeal of trying to find space to turn, to the point where you might have to walk a path around the entire room just so you can get your spear into a position to take out an enemy you were standing right next to when you started.

At the very least, the presentation is good, featuring some nice pixel art visuals with a lot of personality, backed by a decent synthesized soundtrack that works well enough for the game’s tone. There’s nothing truly standout here, but it all works.

“It all works” seems to be an overall theme in Cramped Room of Death. Yes, this is a good idea, well-executed, with a decent presentation, making for a straightforward but original Puzzle game. So why can’t I be more enthusiastic about it? In the end, it comes down to the issue that what is well-executed just feels like so much busywork to do things we all take for granted in other games, making this experience feel exhausting more than exhilarating. Puzzle and Dungeon Crawler fans may still find something to like here, but that appeal is lost on me.

tl;dr – Cramped Room of Death is a Puzzle game with Dungeon Crawler elements where players venture into a dungeon with their spear, which requires careful maneuvering to use in the claustrophobic corridors and rooms. It’s a clever idea done well, but unfortunately it all feels like a lot of work just to do things we do without thinking in other games. For me, the result just didn’t seem fun, though others might still appreciate this game’s ingenuity.

Grade: C+

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