Rusty Lake Hotel

Owned on Steam. Rusty Lake, and it's companion series Cube Escape, is series of surreal adventure and room escape games out of Scandinavia that wear it's Lynchian influances on it's dapper, well pressed sleaves. At it's lowest, Rusty Lake falls back on jump scares and gross outs (more the latter than the former in Hotel, especially in, well, spoilers). But at it's best, Rusty Lake relies on sly humor, creative situations, and an almost unbearable sense of dread. This is one of those games where the horror comes from telling the player to do questionable things with uncertain outcomes for unclear reasons. I don't think the point is to make some kind of commentary on video games as a whole or anything, but to leave you with a sort of horrified helplessness as you go through the increasingly omious steps. Not knowing what you're working toward, but knowing it can't be good. Rusty Lake Hotel was my introduction to the series, and I think it may be the best. All the Rusty Lake games have a strong sense of place and character. But Hotel also let's you in of the dark twist early, setting the ironic primness of an exclusive hotel/retreat against it's dark secrets. Plus it's two bucks full price. One of the best deals in gaming if you ask me.

Twin Peaks fans should like this one. Simple 2D animation, nothing that fancy, but excellent artwork. Clever puzzles mixed with spooky backstory. At the current offering price here on GOG, I couldn't resist buying all three Rusty Lake puzzlers at once and I recommend you do the same. They do not appear to interact, but if you get stuck in one you can give it a rest and go to one of the others and they are all closely related, plot-wise. I'll be looking forward to more Rusty Lake product in the future.

I really enjoyed the game. Smooth gameplay with tons of puzzles that were neither too easy nor too challenging, with background music that's both horror-y and calming at the same time. I've no clue how to get full stars so the game's going to require at least a second playthrough -- but I have no problem with that. I like it when games don't reveal all of their secrets right away; it really adds replay value. Like someone else already commented, there is no pixel hunt element in this game, at least to an extent where it would begin to be frustrating. Which is always a plus when it comes to point-and-click games. All in all, highly recommend the game!

For the $1 I paid for this, I would say I'm happy with that. I'd rate this more at 2.5 stars, but it's a neat little game, short and over before it overstays its welcome (perhaps a metaphor for the guests?). The puzzles are quite easy, but never too straightforward. The charm in the game lies in its art-style and bizzare (surrealist?) dark humour. The story never really comes together, but that was never really the point, perhaps I'll see where the sequels take it since I got the trilogy altogether. All in all, I'm interested in playing the next ones, but don't think this is a title I'd see myself replaying in the future.