Ever since the incredible success of The Room in the casual space, there have been a number of potential competitors popping out of the woodwork. One such alternative has been the Mystery Box series, which it seems as subsequent versions have come out they’ve tried to change up, not so much the core of the gameplay as the goal. In this case, you’ll be completing each puzzle box in order to move on to the next room, which also then still has another puzzle box, but I suppose it’s just something to differentiate. On the whole, though, the puzzles themselves remain mostly familiar and, at times, a bit baffling.

Your goal is to approach each new box with a keen eye and an open mind, with the first task typically being to find a starting point. Though it varies with each box the first step doesn’t tend to be terribly difficult, it could be as simple as pressing a button, which will then begin unlocking new clues and challenges. It isn’t unusual to need to frequently move between sides, with either clues or triggers for one side located on another, and you’ll always want to keep an eye out for smaller and more subtle details that tend to be hidden in the periphery that can be essential to your success. Mixing different means of representing things like numbers is also pretty common, whether normally, in Roman numerals, or however. In general, patience and perseverance will tend to rule the day.

Well, expect when they don’t seem to. What’s a bit irksome about these titles has been a tendency to have some puzzles make logical sense and for others to begin to feel more random in their nature and in their solutions. This is enough of a problem on its own, occasionally making you simply take wild stabs at an answer, sometimes stumbling on a solution even though you really don’t understand it. Of more concern though, is how this tendency can also get you stuck. I found that for particularly perplexing puzzles that not even the in-game hint system would tend to be any help at all, pretty much eliminating the utility of it. Rather than following the method some contemporaries have adopted, allowing you to see a series of more and more revealing clues, this is a more bare bones affair and it can be even more aggravating when you feel stuck.

In the end, I wouldn’t say Escape the Room is a bad game, but it’s hard not to see it as a letdown overall. The problem is that it’s obviously targeting the success of The Room and its sequels, but it simply doesn’t reach that same level of care in puzzle design, craft in the way the cubes look and work, and just in the overall presentation as well. If you’ve burned through all of those titles and are still in need of a fix, this may be an option, but I’d say the likelihood is that you’ll find it a pretty big step down in overall quality.