Thoughts From a Clicker
by Tiny Ruisch
There is at least one good thing about being stuck at home to avoid COVID‑19. I’m getting a chance to replay my all time favorite Android games. Fireproof Games has released four installments of their popular “The Room” series. It all started in September 2012 with the release of The Room, a physical puzzler, wrapped in a mystery game, inside a beautifully tactile 3D world. It was followed with a sequel, The Room Two, in February 2014. January 2016 gave us the release of The Room Three. The Room: Old Sins was released in April 2018. They have also created a Room VR which is a virtual reality game. I wish I could afford the gear.
Fireproof Games describe themselves as “a team of 18 based in Guildford, UK and since 2012 we’ve been creating our own games.” Many game companies churn out a lot of games that are mostly the same old thing with in‑app purchases to try and get your money. Fireproof has a slightly higher price but delivers a quality game with no further cost. The games are also available for Apple and Windows. This mini‑review is for the Android environment.
In The Room, your task is to open a safe. The safe is really a big box that changes as you solve the many puzzles, riddles, games and other baffling conundrums. In the course of the game, you find a story unfolding about locating a strange machine. I estimate that it took me about 20 hours to complete the game the first time. I replayed it last year and got through a lot faster, even though I couldn’t remember a lot of the game play.
The Room Two picks up where the original game left off. You have to recreate the steps of the scientist and complete a strange machine. The first thing you notice is that the room is a lot larger and has several boxes. There are a lot more puzzles and many of them are much more difficult. I don’t think any of them were repeats from the first game.
The Room Three is more diabolical that the first two. One of biggest differences is that the game “world” is much larger. Instead of a single room, the game starts on a train. As you start solving puzzles, you soon find a secret entrance to a room. Once again, you find many puzzles, riddles, mazes, etc. The difficultly level has increased again. The machine you discovered in the previous games has put you in another world and you need to solve the game to return.
The Room: Old Sins takes place in the attic of Waldegrave Manor. You find an old doll house, which is a replica of the manor. You have to find a missing engineer and his wife who are lost in the doll house. There are many puzzles you have to solve to unlock the rooms in the dollhouse.
The games all have spectacular graphics, perplexing puzzles, eerie music and are very playable on a touch enabled tablet or phone. If you have a device with a larger screen, they are even more playable. I originally paid full price ($5.99) for each game. Over the years, the price has been reduced:
The Room is $0.99, The Room Two is $1.99, The Room Three is $3.99 and The Room: Old Sins costs $4.99. I can enthusiastically recommend all them.
Thanks for reading.