The Room Two

The Room Two, developed by Fireproof Games, is a single player digital adaptation of your classic escape room experience. It’s full of cryptic puzzles and eerie settings and pushes the player to think outside the box and onto the next room. It’s the sequel to the first release of The Room and one in a series of four games (at the time of writing), focussed around puzzle solving and code breaking with you, the player, trying to leave “The Room”.

At A Glance

Scores
Visuals	7 /10
Sound	6 /10
Gameplay	7 /10
Overall	7 /10
Positives	+ Fantastic cryptic puzzle solving + Very immersive eerie atmosphere + The puzzles have a lot of variety
Negatives	– Slightly clunky to control in docked mode – It’s very short
Price (When Reviewed)	£6.99
Our Playtime	2 hours 35 mins
Available On	Nintendo Switch, PC, Android, Apple Arcade, IOS

The Room Two plays in a first person view with you set on several fixed viewpoints where you can interact with various objects in The Room. The game has a creepy, dark overtone backed by the minimalistic use of sound to further enhance the isolated atmosphere – I’d liken the feel of tingling down the spine it gives you to games like early Resident Evil (just minus the zombies and the action). There is almost no explanation as to who you are or how you have found yourself in The Room; it seems the explanation is something that I missed from the ending of the first game, as this entry is a direct continuation of the first . Coming into the second game cold, the only information I could gather is by reading the various notes strewn through the different rooms which builds a small sense of story but there is not much depth to it. 

The game is purely focused on the puzzle solving element and this is where it shines. After the tutorial level you work your way through various themed rooms with puzzles centred around one or two focal points linked to the theme. The puzzles are each very distinct and range from simple things that take seconds, to a few which leave you scratching your head for a good five minutes or more. As someone who grew up on point and click adventures and who loves to take part in real life escape rooms with friends, The Room Two hits all the right notes with my puzzle solving cravings. A favourite room of mine was the ship room; having to pull apart a model version of the ship you are on is very inception-y and thoroughly immersive. 

Looking at the gameplay overall, it is clear that this game was designed for mobile and has been adapted to console. I played the game with both handheld and docked modes on the Nintendo Switch and found that although handheld was straightforward, the docked mode made for a more clunky experience, with me wanting to have more freedom to move and look around simply because I had joysticks in my hands. However that’s not to say I wouldn’t recommend playing it on a larger screen as the visuals are really well done. There is nothing to shout from the hills about necessarily but each item and object is well made and really fits in the in game universe. The transition scenes from room to room also benefit from being on a larger screen and it overall enhances the games conservative approach to visuals. 

The developers have cleverly used sound effects to further enhance the sense of being on your own and having nowhere to turn for comfort or support. They use grating echoey effects when moving objects and breathy sounds to further make those hairs on your arm stand on end; I really enjoyed the sound design in the game and knew that without this  attention to details it could well have been just another generic puzzle solver game.

One of the things I was disappointed with however was the game’s run time. I found myself completing chapters in minutes and getting increasingly worried that, although I was enjoying solving the puzzles, I seemed to be flying through things a little fast. Ultimately it took me a little over two and a half hours to complete which, whilst fun, was a little underwhelming. The price point makes this much more palatable but I still think it is something that needs to be mentioned. 

Overall I can say that I really enjoyed The Room Two. It is the perfect puzzle solver with enough atmosphere and immersion to make it stand out from the crowd. The puzzles have a lot of variety and you won’t find yourself thinking “I’ve already done this one”. Despite the short run time I think that anyone with an affinity to puzzlers and creepy games will have a blast, and I definitely will be getting on to the other three games in the series.

In the interest of full disclosure, VGamingNews was provided with a copy of the game in order to conduct this review.