It's been a while since you've escaped the Playroom, and it seems the little girl who masterminded it has set up yet another difficult escape for you. In Playroom 2, the rather aptly named sequel by Kayzerfish, you've got a new room full of colorful toys and knickknacks to solve your way out of. At least this one has an open-air balcony and a nicer bed.
Control is as before: click around to look left and right, zoom in and out, and interact with or pick up stuff. Your inventory is distributed between the two black bars on the left and right of the screen; mouse over something and click on it to use it, or on the magnifying glass to examine it. It's going to take a lot of thinking and careful analysis with a dash of trial-and-error to break out of this room, but you've got a changing cursor and a save button to help you out.
What Kayzerfish has produced in this colorful little sequel is an excellent package of puzzles with a certain charm. The sound effects and graphics are nothing to write home about, but the minimalistic effect they produce really works here. The only real issue is the effects of turning and zooming, which have left at least one member of our review team in need of a barf bag. As for the puzzles, they're excellently designed, albeit a little airy at times. When I got out the first time I was confused at a few clues I hadn't used, only to realize later that they were hints for things I'd been able to solve anyways. As a general rule, if it looks like you're supposed to do something with an object but you can't, take a good look at what you're trying to use.
If you're looking for a charming yet challenging escape that taxes your skills just enough to be entertaining, go play in Playroom 2.
Walkthrough Guide
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A Playful Walkthrough
You'll start facing a window above a table. Zoom in on the candle to the right of the windowsill and turn up the radiator dial below it. Back up, then zoom in on the statue to the left of the windowsill. Take the key and note the symbol.
The key unlocks the door by the window, which leads to a balcony. Zoom in on the plant. The top of that bamboo stick looks weird; it's actually a screwdriver, so nab it. Also note the symbol on the flag of that alien statue on the stool to the left.
Back up and reenter the room, then turn right to face some shelving. Take a good look at those pictures on the left and right; it looks kind of like they were the same drawing torn apart, wouldn't you say?
Looks like... someone jumping over a railing via a set of stairs on wheels, past a bridge. Or some nonsense like that. Never mind it for now, take that yellow colored object on the left.
Open the left cabinet on the bottom and plug in the cord, then close it. Open the right cabinet and take the green object. Oh, and note the symbols on the eight and flower. Are you beginning to notice a pattern?
You can't reach the cabinets at the top yet, so turn right again. Move the jar of brushes aside and grab the bottle behind them, then the red object they were sitting on. Zoom in on the easel now.
Take the cat pipe from the easel, then click the black knob twice to loosen the pallet from the easel. Then click the blue pallet to move it aside and reveal a green pallet... then zoom in on the green pallet and move IT aside.
That's all for the easel. Zoom out all the way and take a good look at that porthole on the door. Unscrew all the screws with the screwdriver, then remove the glass and get the photo. There's something on the back, but you can't make sense of it yet.
One more thing to do here. Zoom in on that abstract picture on the right, the one that looks like it would be at home at Letters in Boxes. It's actually a map of the balcony floor; that black circle is the plant pot, and the gray squares are... well, you'll see.
Zoom out and turn right to face the bed. Yank the canopy where you can see something sticking out until it falls, then take the dog pipe. Then get the rollerskate from under the bed (you can just see it behind the red sheet there).
Examine the rollerskate in your inventory and use your screwdriver on the wheels multiple times to disassemble it until you've just got the wheels and axles. That'll be useful later, but for now let's work on the scene.
Unfold that box to the left of the bed and get another colored cube and the sheep pipe. That's all you can do here, so turn right... oh, I almost forgot! There's something behind the curtains in the window view.
Get the orange object from behind the curtain to the left, and the bear pipe from behind the curtain to the right. One more cube and two more pipes to go. Let's go out and search the balcony again.
Remember the picture? Let's zoom in on where those gray tiles were. There should be three total; the changing cursor should help. Pry them up with the screwdriver to find a memory card, a key, and a purple colored object. You've got all six!
Examine the six assembled colored cubes in your inventory. Open the hatch on the side of the purple one to get the pig pipe. Now, as for those depressions on the bottom... how about the wheels from the roller skates?
They fit perfectly! Now stick them in the grooves in front of the shelves. You can wheel them back and forth by clicking on the spot where you want them to go, and you can use them to reach the top shelves.
Now's as good a time as any to explain something. Remember those symbols you've seen all around the room with dark and light squares? They're on the cubes, too, but different. They're actually binary.
The squares on the statues were clues to what was what. Upper left is 1, upper right is 2, lower left is 4, lower right is 8. Dark is 0, light is 1. For example, that symbol on the flower? Dark-light-light-dark = 1001 = 9. And the flower has nine petals.
Let's try that on the white-and-black centers of the cubes: the green one on top is 2, then 4 and 1, then 5, 6, and 3. And now that I think about it, don't those light and dark colored areas look sort of like letters?
We got the numbers 1 through 6, let's try the letters in that order. U-I-O-L-C-T? Maybe it's V-I-O-L-C-T... hang on, I got it! V-I-O-L-E-T! Turn right and look at that picture on the left above the easel; it's a guide to color words, and VIOLET is right there.
...Now that I think about it, what's that panel by the door near the easel? There are three black symbols: stairs, a sun, and vertical bars. The stairs remind me of the six cubes, so let's set that one to violet and leave the others for now.
Now let's really use those cubes. Get them to the middle position if they aren't there already, then use the copper key to unlock that padlock. Inside is a projector; turn it on with that green button on the left.
Move the cubes and open the cabinet on the upper left to find the cow pipe. Don't bother with the upper right cabinet, it's empty. Turn around and look at the picture being projected... hm, kind of low-quality.
Check the projector again (don't forget to move the cubes below it). Turn the lens to fix the focus, and the gear on the side to fix the projection size. Then look again; the image is sharp and fits the corners, but... it's kind of blank.
Hang on. Have you been following those cables? Zoom in on the digital camera on the shelf below the projector. You can turn it sideways, so do so. Plug in that cable and snap the memory card into the appropriate slot.
Now turn the camera completely around (click its left edge). Flip the switch to turn on the camera, then click the screen. It's time to take some pictures! What to take, what to take...
Note that you're aiming at the screen with the door. What about those weird drawings on and near the easel? Mouse around to center each one and the auto-tracking will do the rest.
When you see "SEQUENCE COMPLETE!" you're done taking pictures. Back off completely and turn around. The bear is pointing at the letter S... uh, maybe it's part of a sequence?
The arrow buttons on the camera cycle through the six pictures on the camera, three of which came with the camera and three of which you just took. Each one points out a letter, and together they spell S-I-L-V-E-R.
Go to the panel by the door again. I think the sun's supposed to represent the projector, so set that button to silver. (Gray.) As for the last one... hmm... oh, I just remembered something!
Turn back to face the window. The candle's completely melted; take the wind-up key that was inside it, then the plate that contained it. Examine the plate and clean it out with a click.
Zoom in on the piano on the table. Snap the wind-up key into the side, then put the six pipes into it. You have to use trial and error to figure out the sequence the pipes belong in; set each pipe, then turn the crank once and play the corresponding key.
If an animal noise plays and a letter appears, the pipe's right; if a different noise plays, it's wrong; if no noise plays, you forgot to crank the piano. The pipes are set up short-long-short-long-short-long, so use that for help.
Eventually you should puzzle out the correct order: pig-cat-dog-bear-sheep-cow. And the letters... "RAGONE"? Wait, they're jumbled again! There are more dark and light squares, and there are more dark and light squares on the pipes.
Get your binary on and figure out the six-letter code for reals with the help of the binary sequence: O-R-A-N-G-E. The piano looks sort of like the vertical bars on that last button on the panel by the door, so turn that panel orange.
Door open! ...And there's just a brick wall behind it?! Wow, this girl means business. But grab the other half of that photo down below, and take a good look at them both.
"Make Enzo" - and the "E" potion is dripping three drops into a basin on a square grid. Weird. Turn around in... hey, those patterned spots weren't on the table before, were they? What could this possibly... aha!
Stick the plate on the orange grid spot, then pour three drops from the potion bottle onto it. (You may need to uncork it first.) If the potion evaporates, start over; it needs to be on the spot before you start filling it.
When you're done, a ghost will appear and give you a key. Back out and use the key to unlock the bottom middle cabinet in the shelves, revealing a bridge... and I think I have the perfect use for it.
Facing the window, stick the bridge in the bottom of the doorframe, then face the shelves and push the cubes as far left as you can. Lastly, face the window again and push the cubes across the bridge.
Now, go onto the balcony after the cubes, climb them, and leap to freedom!
...And don't ask why the protagonist couldn't have just placed the cubes on the balcony in the first place instead of having to use a bridge to get them there. I don't know either.
Posted by: SonicLover | December 21, 2011 6:04 PM