Sometimes it's hard to know what makes a good escape game a good escape game. Always it's more satisfying when you can say with some certainty your freedom was well earned—that, armed with nothing but your wits and a few spare devices, you faced down your mental opponent and came out on top. But the rules should be fair, having sound reasoning and unbreakable logic behind their machinations. How well do the following three escapes stick to these rules? Each has its unique flair and style, but do they succeed?
Chocolate Mint Room - You probably recognize the sweet pastel aesthetics and upbeat chime as belonging to Yuri, who is better known around these parts for the Chick Hide and Seek series. While this particular escape is sans the adorable little peeps, the puzzle formulations and mechanics remain familiar. The most distinguishing aspect is the unique angle at which we face the room. Although the puzzles are easy enough once you've put together all the clues, finding those clues relies on a fair share of inference. After all is said and done, it feels as if its potential wasn't fully met. Maybe it's too easy, perhaps? As far as clever ways to open a door, though, this is one of the sweetest.
Escape from the Triangle Maze - There's no mistaking a Hottategoya design when in a room full of escape games. The surreal emptiness takes minimalism a step beyond ordinary. That's both an asset and a disadvantage as there are fewer means to hide clues and present puzzles. This particular escape will win no fans from the maze-hater crowd. But if I was an evil maniac bent on watching my victims attempt to escape their confines, I'd do as Hottategoya does: make full use of architectural design in my puzzle schemes. Because of the layout, some rules of navigation seem arbitrary but necessary. Was this an amusingly inventive trick? Or simply pure annoyance?
Escape from the Cat Room - Cyan Mage's stylishly retro interface is convincing enough to spark a longing, the kind that leaves you digging through closets for your old GameBoy. While the nostalgia is immensely fun, and the cats are just too charming to not elicit smiles, the design's downsides can be irksome. Of the few puzzles, most are straight-forward and the greatest challenge comes from figuring out where to click or what object to employ. Then again, those weird items and rather strange puzzles are so typical of the tiny 8-bit graphics of old, it may warm your love of that golden era of gaming history. What is it, exactly, that makes retro so appealing?
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Walkthrough Guide
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Escape from the Cat Room Walkthrough
Starting from left to right on the Front screen, there is:
A cat wearing a hat
Click on the hat. Take the key.
The sofa he is sat on
Take the needle
A pair of cats that can be moved up and down
Take the pipe
A picture with numbers.
A door, with a cat on top. The cat has something.
A cat house, who is hungry
A bin
The bin has a key symbol
Use the key, open the bin. A cat with a knife pops out.
Turning around to the Back view, we have:
A cat in bed
A snoring cat with bubble
Looks like we need to wake the cat
Maybe if we popped his bubble?
We can't use the needle directly. Maybe we have to be further away so we don't get scratched!
Investigate the pipe, then click the needle to combine them into a blowdart. Use on the cat's bubble. Take the fish.
There is also a giant toy cat who has a box.
Turn back to the Front.
We can use the fish.
Feed it to the cat house. Get the glove.
We could use the glove to move a cat?
Pull the cat above the door away from the object. You will need to click the tail. Take the "clock".
Now we can wake the cat in bed on the Back screen.
The stairs have dropped down... looks like there's a clue to a puzzle.
Black and white squares with cat faces... Where have we seen those colours?
Click the pair of cats on the Front screen, in the order of the squares from left to right.
Left, right, right, left, left, right, left.
Now we have opened something behind us, on the Back screen.
Check the box.
An egg? Maybe we should slice it?
Give it to the cat with the knife.
Now we have an egg eye... It looks like the eyes on the giant toy cat
Take the right eye
Now the eye on the poster has closed...
Use the egg eye on the giant toy cat
And use the cat eye on the poster
There is a tile puzzle. The starting set up is random, so it is impossible to write a step-by-step guide! Try to get the top left piece in first and then work diagonally across to the bottom right.
Now we have a memo for something
Those two boxes look like something we have seen before... The cat picture?
Count the fish and input them in the picture. 3 on the left, 2 on the right.
Back up to finish!
Posted by: emmamweir
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February 20, 2014 7:19 PM