The Room Three

The Room Three is a 2015 puzzle video game developed by Fireproof Games. It was released for mobile platforms in November 2015.^[1][2]

Gameplay

The Room Three, as its predecessor, is three-dimensional and splits each stage into a large room. Different from the previous series however, after the completion of a room the player is required to return to a central "hub" to collect the items required to enter the next room. Gameplay is largely unchanged, utilizing swipescreen gestures to complete actions such as turning keys, flipping switches, etc. The player is also granted a special eyepiece to see special messages and enter the so-called "miniature areas" made from "Null", the central mystical material.

Plot

The game opens with the player-character sitting on a train with his belongings, and the game's tutorials begin here. A journal indicates that his acquaintance, A.S., has been found dead and the player-character is influenced by the Null, and is on his way to an unnamed island to investigate. The train then passes into a tunnel, during which a strange wooden box appears on the table. The player-character then uses his eyepiece to see through the Null-tampered surface, revealing its keyhole, and uses a key found earlier to open it, finding a strange pyramid engraved with a strange pattern inside. Tendrils suddenly enter the room as the train passes into another tunnel shortly before transferring the player-character into a cell, who uses mechanisms hidden inside to open the door, while finding a strange letter by "the Craftsman". Prior to doing so, he finds a bald man on the other side of the cell, manipulating something before leaving for an unknown location. After opening the door, he finds the table containing a strange metallic fluid with a round dark platform in the middle engraved with the same pattern as found on the pyramid, with a lighter-colored triangle meant for placing it. Doing so, the pyramid flips onto its side before standing on one point, rotating by itself and moving to a circle engraved on the table which shortly illuminates itself, and a smaller platform with a seal emerges from the liquid. The player-character completes the puzzle found on the wall and is granted access to a small room. Entering it, the player-character activates a power generator, flips a switch, turning on lights in the distance. He then activates a small box linked to an oscilloscope, which in turn activates a beam emitter in the box, revealing the passage way to the first "room".

Upon completing each "room", the player must return to the table to place the pyramid to get access to the next room in which the passageway to the next "room" is hidden. As the story progresses, the brutality of the Craftsman as well as his encouragement to the player-character to keep up is revealed through letters placed on certain locations. Completing the final "room", the player-character is given a doorway to atop a tower, and places "the Craftsman's key" combined from the 5 pyramids he collected earlier on a mechanism. Completing the entire beam mechanism, the passageway back to his train cabin is seen, and he goes through it, now with a letter wrote by the Craftsman lying on the table.

The letter indicates that the player-character is instead betrayed by the Craftsman as he stated that the character is "far from the last", and gives the player a final question of how to differentiate a Maze from a Labyrinth, but not without mocking the player-character of not being able to tell a Room from a Prison soon later. While reading this, the train enters yet another tunnel, after which the player-character finds the train taking him to the center of a massive maze, and that the Craftsman intends to imprison him there for his eternity. The story ends with train seen rushing on a bridge over the maze, the entire scene contained in a glass mirror, which is subsequently sealed by the mechanisms in the wooden box the player-character is encountered with in the beginning, with the bald man carefully leaving it on the central platform of the table, staring at it before shielding his eyes from the light shed by a tendril-lined doorway that suddenly appears in front of him.

Upon completing for the first time, the player is granted the chance to change the ending by acquiring additional items for use in the final "exit" room by using tools placed in rooms of the central hub. A total of 3 hidden endings are available.

Reception

The Room Three gained critical acclaim, with Metacritic giving a Metascore of 90 based on 14 critics,^[3] and a reviewer from Hardcore Gamer giving a score of 4 out of 5.^[4]

References

1. ↑ "Fireproof Games on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 2017-03-05. 
2. ↑ Totilo, Stephen. "Nine Minutes Of The Room 3, An Excellent New Puzzle Game That's Best Unspoiled". Kotaku. Retrieved 2017-03-05. 
3. ↑ "The Room Three". Metacritic. Retrieved 2017-03-05. 
4. ↑ "Review: The Room Three | Hardcore Gamer". Retrieved 2017-03-05.