‘The Room Two’ for iPad game review

Last year we reviewed the brilliant The Room for iPad. The game features clever puzzles built-into intricately designed 3D objects with stunning visuals and a mysterious story that sucked you in and didn’t let go right until you finished the game.

Now the developers are back as promised with a sequel that feature more puzzles that are even more elaborate than before and even better visuals. Let’s take a closer look.

Note: The Room Two will eventually be available on iPhone, Android and Amazon Kindle Fire.

Gameplay

At its core, The Room Two is a puzzle game. As with the first game, the puzzles are placed within objects in the game. Whereas the first game mostly had a single large object in every room, The Room Two features multiple objects strewn about, which are interconnected.

The level of complexity on display here is quite astounding. Each object in every chapter has multiple hidden panels that provide a key piece (often an actual key) or a clue to unlock the next step of the puzzle, which could be placed on any of the other objects in the room. In the initial levels, you start off with a few objects in the room and more are revealed as you progress but you may still have to go back to some of the previous objects to gather a part of the puzzle that was previous unavailable.

The first few chapters didn’t feel particularly challenging, especially having played the original game and generally knowing how the game works. But the difficulty level ramps up gently in the later levels where things don’t seem so obvious anymore. Finding a piece of puzzle is one thing, knowing what to do with it is another. Hunting around the entire room knowing where exactly that piece fits is where the challenge lies. Of course, it’s not impossible and if you’re observant of your surroundings you’ll know immediately where a piece fits when you find it but some of them do require digging around a bit.

As with the previous game, The Room Two makes use of a special lens that you find in the beginning of the game to uncover hidden messages and objects in the world that are invisible directly. Again, at times it’s obvious when you have to use the lens (some objects have the telltale chromatic sheen) whereas for others you have to go with your instincts.

The Room Two also has some sort of a story. I say some sort of because unlike the one in the previous game, the story here is a much smaller part of the game to the point where it’s almost non-existent. It is told through the letters that you find within the game but is extremely vague most of the time and not something that demands too much of your attention. This is not such a bad thing, especially for someone like me who didn’t care much about the story in the previous game either and just wanted to go from one puzzle to another as quickly as possible and The Room Two makes that easy by not making the story a big part of the game.

The brevity was one of the issues I had with the first game. The Room Two, in comparison, feels bit longer, with approximately five to six hours of play time. It is still not a very long game but doesn’t feel as inadequate as its predecessor and the amount of content here feels satisfactory. Besides, you are likely to play the game again a few times for sure so there is some amount of replay value as well.

Graphics and Sound

I remember writing about how good The Room looked back when it released, particularly the 3D boxes that almost had a photorealistic look to them. The Room Two ups the ante with even sharper and more detailed levels, not to mention bigger and more complex. Wood and metal objects have a stunning amount of detail on them even when you zoom right into them. Viewed on a Retina display, The Room Two is a real treat for the eyes. Oh, and there’s also this nice detail where a timepiece on the main menu screen actually shows the time set on your iPad, complete with a moving second hand.

Sound-wise, the game maintains a mostly silent, ominous theme, with almost complete lack of background music most of the time, punctuated by dramatic sounds of machinery operating every time you turn a lever or push a button. The eerie nature of the sound sits well with the general creepy vibe of the game and the lack of music also helps focus on the puzzles at hand without being a distraction.

Verdict

Fireproof Games has followed last year’s The Room with a superb sequel. The Room Two improves on nearly every aspect, with larger and even more elaborate puzzles and stunning visuals. There is really not much here to complain about. If you enjoy solving puzzles and have an iPad, The Room Two should be on top of your gaming list.

Rating: 9/10
Pros: Intricate, engrossing puzzles, superb visuals
Cons: Nothing in particular

Download: App Store

The Room Two was reviewed on an iPad Air.