If you’ve ever managed to put together a piece of flat-pack furniture without resorting to superglue or the internet, you’ll understand the pleasure of The Room Two. Fireproof Games’ sequel sees more puzzles laid upon puzzles and players drawn into a dark and mysterious world.
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British-based Fireproof Studios was formed in 2008 when six ex-lead artists from Criterion Games’ Burnout franchise decided to form their own team to provide artwork to other developers. With the advent of the mobile gaming market, they opted to develop their own titles and Fireproof Games was born in January 2012. Following the success of the original The Room in September 2012, the team went on to release the much-anticipated second instalment late the following year.
I’d first heard about The Room whilst writing an article on BAFTA’s 2013 British Academy Games Awards and further research revealed that it had received a lot of praise from both gamers and critics alike. I played the game and it ended up being one of the best puzzlers I’ve ever had the opportunity to experience; so The Room Two has been high on my list of titles to get my hands on. I have to say I wasn’t disappointed… but sadly it feels as if something is missing.
The plot continues from the original game and is once again a little difficult to explain. It draws heavily on Cthulhu mythos, with a Lovecraftian story about a scientist driven mad after being propelled to discover fascinating and terrifying things about the world: in this case, the Null element. The environment is littered with documents and notes that highlight pieces of the backstory but it can be difficult to piece them all together. While I wished they gave the game more context, what I will say is that they helped to create an extremely unnerving atmosphere – one of the best things about this game.
As with The Room, Fireproof Games’ sequel is yet another fine example of the escape-the-room type of puzzler. You’re given ornate boxes and bizarre contraptions to handle, and it’s your job to dig further into them and the secrets they hold. Handling objects is a tactile experience that simulates real-life actions to great effect: keys need to be turned, dials twisted and switches flipped. It’s a clever way of drawing players in, allowing them to fiddle with and pull at objects as they try to figure out what they need to do next.
The game is a tactile experience that will draw you in.
Where The Room Two differs is in its scale. In the original title you were in a fixed room, presented with a single box which became a rabbit-hole of connected puzzles. Not any more: this time you’re given multiple larger locations that each feature several interactive areas, and challenges are intertwined between them. For example, the first level after the tutorial places you in the bowels of a ship, and you must move between a locked chest and a mechanical model galleon as you work towards a solution.
This has a number of positives and negatives. On the former side, it gives the player a greater sense of freedom; if you get stuck with a particular box or contraption, checking for a clue or starting a new puzzle in a different area can ease any frustration and bring some clarity to the situation. In addition, being thrown into several different locations – from the ship to a crypt to a Victorian room set up for a séance – and then trying to figure out the connection to why you’re there adds to the whole atmosphere of the game.
Why on earth am I stuck inside a crypt?
But what The Room Two loses is the sense of intimacy that ran throughout the original. There are still puzzles layered upon further puzzles, where the breakthrough comes from spotting a tiny shape that doesn’t quite fit in with its surroundings. But with your attention now divided between several areas within a location you no longer get that kind of obsessive feeling – that fixation with a single object and its details, poring over every one of its surfaces until the solution materialises before your eyes. The wonder of watching a single box reshape into various new guises is missing.
The game also seems a little easier. The reason I say this is that I got a lot further in before coming up against a wall and having to resort to the hint button! It’s hard to quantify however because it could be that, after playing through The Room, I’ve become wise to the developer’s way of thinking and now know what to expect from a puzzle. But it felt as if there were more sequences this time around where I immediately knew what to do with items I’d picked up, rather than thinking ‘Where the hell does that go?’
It seems a little easier than the original, but maybe I knew what to expect.
As with the original instalment, the graphics are once again no less than stunning. Halfway through you’ll start believing you can actually smell the world around you – the aged wood, faded varnish, scuffed velvet and dust undisturbed for decades. I mentioned a Victorian room above; full of spirit cabinets and automatic writing, your nerves will be on end as you expect a ghostly hand to tap you on the shoulder. Another level takes you to a sinister laboratory that looks somewhere between scientific reality and the gothic fantasy of Mary Shelley, and you’re almost waiting for the storm to break outside.
There wasn’t a lot of sound in The Room but what was there heightened the sense of atmosphere. The same is true again but this time, with the added locations, the sound department had a lot more to work with. The audio design reinforces the tactile feel of the title with small touches like the sounds of wood clacking, metal latches springing, and clockwork mechanisms shifting; and the creaking of the bow that can be heard whilst you’re the ship will almost have you feeling as if you’re really at sea.
It’s as if a ghostly hand will tap you on the shoulder at any minute…
It only took me a couple of hours to finish The Room Two and unfortunately there isn’t a lot of replayability value; solutions remain the same after completion and once you know how to get into a box or fix a contraption, some of the thrill dissolves. And that’s kind of the problem with the game as a whole. Players will be most likely to pick up The Room before its sequel and once you do that, part of the mystery is gone. I’m not sure there’s anything Fireproof Games could do about this as it would be almost impossible to recapture that amazing feeling of starting the series anew.
But that’s not to say this isn’t a game you should pick up: The Room Two is a window into a dark world full of danger and it keep me enthralled all the way through. Each puzzle solved asks more questions, each button pressed or lever pulled reveals another secret, and it’s impossible to ignore. You won’t quite know where your search is taking you but the journey is a fantastic one.
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