By Fireproof Games. One of the first (two) games in which I found that mobile devices really can be gaming platforms.
The Room and its sequel The Room Two are as a game a strange breed: it's a detective story meets puzzles meets Alone in the Dark (the first survival horror, not the idiotic sequels).
You get invited to a mansion in which you are faced with a strange box which you have to open, using all the hidden locks and compartiments, following some notes left by the original owner of the box (who seems to be your uncle or something). One of the first items you find and assemble is some kind of monocle or eyepiece through which you can see "the unseen".
The diffent levels seem like a slide into insanity: there's the box in the room, which contains another kind of box, which contains... well... another room with some boxes, which leads you to a planetarium, a pirate ship, a mausoleum, a room in London... without ever leaving the room you started from. Each level brings you closer to the Great Discovery, the knowledge your uncle first unearthed. The two games connect beautifully to each other, and the final scene brings you full circle to the beginning.
If the kind of story feels familiar, the setting will only reinforce that familiarity: this is obviously a Lovecraft story and setting: some scientist from the not-too-distant-past, let's say the twenties or thirties, leaves parts of his investigation for others to continue. He hints constantly to the fact that this investigation will turn everything we know about reality upside-down, but that the results will not and cannot be accepted by the scientific community in particular, or by humanity at large.
The atmosphere, the background sound and music is your typical survival horror setting: silence, only some omineous creaking in the back, some quiet piano music, darkness with only your investigation object fully lighted but the rest of the room clad in shadows. Each passing between levels getting a bit more weird and scary, and each of the two "endings" giving you the full Lovecraft "shit-that-was-scary-even-if-I-don't-understand-what-the-hell-happened" treatment.
The puzzle-like gameplay is very well done, although a bit too linear for my taste. The game requires you to think, think hard, think that hard it will even feed you hints; yet the replayability is not existant: you get item A and use it in slot X, after which you get item B and use it in mini-puzzle Y. Remembering the puzzle means boringly sliding through the levels. But it's challenging and surprisingly entertaining the first time round, at least!
But, Tim, where's the link to Alone in the Dark, you ask? Well, obviously the starting position in both games is the top room in the mansion. Also (without spoiling much) the ending position in both games is going out of the big front doors of the mansion. Just like AitD, you end up in the sunny front lawn wondering what the fuck you just saw and experienced. The feelings you leave with, the typical Lovecraftian 'damned if this is the real reality we're thoroughly screwed', are completely similar.
A very recommended game, support this gamestudio... please!
(and... OMG THE THIRD PART IS COMING OUT THIS SUMMERRRRR)
