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| Rooms
- The Main Building
Publisher: Halycon Game language: German USK: no age restriction
A review by Jehane June, 26th 2009
You get used to a lot when playing computer games – strange things keep happening to your main character, most of the time you are trying to save the world, in short: Many games keep you on the edge and can stress you out. Not so "Rooms: The Main Building", developed at Sung Kyun University in Seoul and published in Germany by Halycon Media: The game promises more relaxed and still exciting gameplay, and to top it off, the game is supposed to mix slider puzzles and adventure. This and the fact that the game has won the first prize in the category "Student Showcase" at 2007’s Independent Game Festival is reason enough to be curious about the game, and so I tried to find out what it’s all about.
Story Well. What can I say about the game’s story: A young, nameless guy receives a strange present from a stranger via mail, gets catapulted to an even stranger world and has to find a way out of a huge building by beating puzzle level after puzzle level. On the side, he has to find four jigsaw pieces which can help him in finding his way home – and that’s basically all that is to the adventure part of the game. The subplot revolving around the four jigsaw pieces is confined to Rooms Street and its adjacent buildings; it’s quite clear that the developers tried in earnest to generate some kind of adventure feeling here – nice effort, but to no avail. The only thing this game really is about are the slider puzzles that keep your brain going; you’d better not expect an interesting story or well-developed characters. Even though there’s practically no story as such, you’ll meet some bizarre characters on the way, such as Mr Book, a talking book, butler of the mansion and always there if you need a helping hand; also, he tends to utter a nervous laugh now and then. Then there’s a hysterical mirror that falls into a screaming fit whenever it sees spiders and/or dust; last but not least, you’ll meet a talking trunk that’s sleeping most of the time and loves to eat wooden chips. I really enjoyed these cranky characters even though they are of no real importance to the game – most of them make only a short entry, they serve a certain purpose and then disappear from the game, never to be seen again. It’s a shame, really. Those bizarre characters, alongside with the rudimentary subplot, brought a sense of diversion to the game. However, I must admit that even without screaming mirrors and the search for missing jigsaw parts, "Rooms" would still have been a delightful game.
Tech Stuff, Installation, Appearance You’ll have to wait a couple of minutes before the installation starts – setup.exe is not the fastest. However, as soon as the installation has started, it is done very quickly – not a surprise, really, because the game only takes up 200 MB on your harddrive, a fact that, in times of monster games like "The Witcher" (13 GB taken up on the harddrive), is almost cute. As far as tech stuff goes, there’s absolutely nothing to moan about; the game runs smoothly without crashing, without any jerks – perfect. Ok, on the other hand, what would you expect with such low system requirements... The game’s cd is housed in a plain DVD box, an extensive manual – in bleak black and white - included. The manual contains bascially all the information you need; only handling the game is explained by using tiny pictures that would require you to use a magnifying glass. However, handling the game is so easy and intuitive, you won’t need the manual at all to explain it to you.
Handling and Inventory There’s possibly no easier way to handle a game: You got one cursor (a hand) that lets you pick up stuff, move rooms, manipulate things or move the main character around. Arrows attached to the rooms indicate in which directions you can move a room – just click on them. If you can pick up an item, it will show off a nice glowing outline when you move the cursor over it. Same with objects you can manipulate or use, such as phones, the metro or cupboards. When in a puzzle level, items you found are used automatically when needed (exception: cell phones for teleporting and a fishbowl for breathing under water). When in a building adjacent to Rooms Street, you need to activate the inventory by clicking on the main character, then select the item you want to use – a reminiscence to classical adventure games. Space in the inventory is strictly limited – you have four slots when in an puzzle level, six slots when on Rooms Street. In puzzle levels, one slot is taken up by Mr Book who can be summoned anytime you need help; later on, you’ll find a cellphone for teleporting – just click on the cellphone, then on the icon for the destination you want to be teleported to. On Rooms Street, the character can carry as much as six items. He’ll find these items when having concluded a number of puzzle levels (see below) or in one of the buildings on Rooms Street. Items you cannot stuff into your inventory because it’s full go into the trashcan, also on Rooms Street; you can pick them up anytime you need them. Some items you’ll have to earn: When having concluded another puzzle level successfully, a treasure chest can be openend on the map that pops up every time you beat another level – just click on the chest and then on the item to move it to your inventory. These items can only be used on Rooms Street resp. its buildings, not in the mansion itself. If you want to use an item, click on the character to open the inventory, then choose the item you want to use, then choose the option "use" (tool icon; other icons include "close inventory" and "trashcan"), then click on the object you want to use the item on.
The Interface Depending on where the main character is situated and in cutscenes, the screen will change its appearance. Durin cutscenes, the screen will be split up into various parts where the cutscene takes place, the scene moving from section to section, e.g. in order to zoom in on an item. In puzzle levels, you’ll notice four buttons on the left: The upper button indicates the time left for finishing the level or the room you’re in – the latter you’ll only see when playing in "challenge mode"; also, you can deactivate the time limit before starting the game. Below that button, there’s another button opening in-game help. Button number 3 allows you to take a look at the background picture of the current puzzle, another means of guiding you through the game – the individual rooms form a picture when placed correctly. When you click on button number 3, you’ll see immediately which rooms you’ve already moved to their correct places – they stay visible while the rest of them becomes invisible. Instead, you’ll see a question mark surrounded by dotted lines. Button number 4 takes you to the main menu where you can do virtually everything except saving and loading your game – the game is saved automatically after a level has been beaten, and you’ll continue the game after the last solved level. So no need to save and load at all. On the right, you’ll find two more buttons; one takes you to the map, the second one enables you to restart a level (and you’ll do that quite often, believe me). In the screen’s center, there’s a black rectangle, also called "platform". Here, square tiles (the rooms) need to be moved about just as you would do in a slider puzzle; the number of rooms and the size of the platform differ from level to level. The screen changes again whenever the character moves on to Rooms Street – either automatically after finding another item or sent there by you, the player, via the menu. The screen then changes to a classical adventure screen in which you can move around a bit; the same is true for the buildings on Rooms Street that the character can enter. Last but not least there’s a map of the four mansions; you’ll see at once which rooms you’ve already beaten, which rooms are still locked (they’ll open up once you finished all levels in all four mansions), where the treasure chests wait to be opened and where you’re currently at. Also, you can replay cutscenes here and move back and forth between the four mansions. The mansions are unlocked every time you find another jigsaw piece on Rooms Street.
Graphics The game is in 2D, and let’s just say that the graphics are not quite state of the art. But you won’t expect that from a game that focuses on slider puzzles, right? Graphics in such a game serve a purpose; they don’t have to look stunning. However, I must admit I really loved the game’s look nevertheless – warm colours (mostly browns and gold) dominate the scenery, and in designing the rooms resp. background pictures, the developers took great care to provide a broad variety. Also, you cannot say that the game is completely static, quite on the contrary: When in puzzle levels, something is always moving – be it the gears surrounding the buttons; water being pumped into another room using a hydrant; subways that enable the character to move to another room without moving a tile, or explosions after you’ve blown up another obstacle. I also liked the effect when teleporting via phone or cellphone, even though that one was clearly stolen from "The Matrix": The main character all of a sudden consists only of green running numbers on a black surface. By the way: The main character is a real guy, read: an actor which, of course, explains the smooth, natural movements. There’s not much to do for him, however: moving to the left/the right, leave a room via the exit, climb up or down a ladder. Here, usefulness reigns again, and you probably won’t expect more from this kind of game anyway.
Sound "Rooms" is one of the few games featuring such an irritating music that I had to turn it off. Each mansion features it’s own theme – in case of the Paris mansion, that’s annoying accordions for you that get on your nerves very, very quickly – but these themes are somewhat monotonous. I could do well without them. The background noises were much better – explosions, the noise of moving rooms, of teleporting, of pumping water. It’s quite a relief that there are at least some noises that create something like a lively situation because there’s no talk at all (you have to read all dialogues) – from time to time, you’ll get a hysterical laugh from Mr Book and occasionally, the main character will utter a strange squeal whenever he cannot or does not want to do something but that’s about it. Sound plays only a minor role in this game because this game is about something else – slider puzzles.
Slider puzzles There are two versions of puzzles in "Rooms": slider puzzles and "Find that item and use it somewhere else"-puzzles that are reminiscent of classical adventures. They are, however, of such simplicity that even an absolute beginner won’t feel challenged at all, especially since there’s an in-game help and helpful Mr Book to turn to. These tasks are, therefore, not difficult at all whereas the degree of difficulty for the dominating slider puzzles ranges from easy to really complicated. That’s a good thing; otherwise you’d get bored pretty quickly. Because all you do during 80 levels is moving rooms about in order to help the main character get to the exit and in order to recreate the background picture. In doing so, you’re allowed to move only the room the character is in at the moment. Sounds easy, eh? It is – well, at first glance, anyway. You move rooms by clicking on the arrows attached to them right, left, up and below; when playing the first levels, this is really easy and doesn’t require much thinking. The more levels you play, the more difficult things become and the more tactics and strategy are needed. You’ll receive items that will help you beat a level, such as phones/cellphones for teleporting, subways, keys, ladders, hydrants, cupboards, explosives, candles, clocks or the aforementioned fishbowl. Other things like wooden or/and golden walls or mirrors are obstacles on your way out. If, for example, the character is in a room with a mirror and you move that room, the counterpart of that room (also with a mirror in it) will move in the opposite direction. So you see, all the time you’ll have to think about what to do next, about where to move the room you’re in, about how to use the items at your disposal (a cellphone, for example, can only be used once; rooms with a clock in it can be spun around only for a certain number of times). It easily happens that you end up in a dead end; all you can do then is restart the level. There’s also a chance you’ll meet a game over in this game, e.g. when you forget to seek shelter after you have lit up an explosive’s fuse or when you remain in a room that you have just decided to pump full of water. That’s the bad news. The good news is: You can restart a level as often as you like. If you want to feel more pressure from the beginning, you can choose to play with a clock ticking away, giving you only limited time to complete the level – I decided I could well do without that extra pressure and deactivated the clock before starting up the game. The "challenge mode" offers a different form of difficulty: Instead of a clock, there’s a limit as to how often you can move the rooms – you won’t get infinite tries on a level. Additionally, the exit is closed and barred; it will only open once you’ve placed all rooms correctly. So you need extra strategic thinking when playing in challenge mode; you’ll be rewarded with an extra trophy in the end – you gain trophies by performing special tasks, by the way.
Do it yourself – the level editor If you still haven’t had enough of "Rooms", you can start up the level editor and create your own "Rooms" levels. These you can publish on the game’s website where you can also download levels created by other players. Designing your own level is really easy: In the screen’s center, you have the platform; you can alter its size according to your liking. On the right, you have all items that can be put in a room as well as the rooms (top right) that you need to give a background in order to be able to create a full background picture in the end. You add items to a room via drag & drop; same with the character. Before uploading a level designed by yourself, you can run a test. The level editor gives you a lot of long-term motivation even though you can also have a lot of fun by just playing the game over and over again.
Summary "Rooms" is not an adventure, as far as I am concerned; the adventure part simply isn’t big and elaborate enough for that. Mixing slider puzzles with adventure is not working entirely even though I must acknowledge the developer’s effort to design a story around the slider puzzles. Even though adventure atmosphere is not really there, this game is a lot of fun – the puzzle levels are of broad variety, various degrees of difficulty make sure you won’t get bored. The level editor provides long-term motivation alongside the various modes of playing. It’s difficult to determine how many hours you will spend on this game; I certainly cannot say for sure how long it took me to beat all 80 levels because I simply got hooked on the game. And I’m quite sure my skills in solving slider puzzles have improved significantly. If you want an entertaining yet challenging game, "Rooms" might be perfect for you; the price is ok as well, and I’m really excited to see what Handmade Games will come up with in the future.
Rating: 79%
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Copyright © jehane for Adventure-Archiv, June, 26th 2009
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