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Cube Escape/Rusty Lake/etc.
Feb. 6th, 2021 11:52 pmOver the past week or so, I played through all the games (and watched the movie) in the Cube Escape/Rusty Lake series. I'll just list them all here. Some of them are free, but some of them cost a bit.
The above is the order in which I played the games. I'm not sure that's the "optimal" order, if there is such a thing, and it certainly isn't the chronological order as far as the timeline for the games is concerned, and it isn't release order either (i.e. Cube Escape: Paradox actually came out after Rusty Lake Paradise), but it worked plenty well enough for me, all the same. If I'd change that order at all, I'd say maybe wait and play Samsara Room after Rusty Lake: Roots, but it's still okay as is.
So, yeah. The genre of the series, especially in the earlier games, is room escape. This is mixed with some pretty surreal weirdness and mindfuckery (as well as a few cheap jump scares). I won't say anything about the overarching story because A) spoilers, and B) it's so abstract and mindfucky that it wouldn't really help to explain it anyway.
In any case, I definitely recommend the series, at least if you like this style of puzzle/point-and-click games. The entire series (or, at least, the non-free stuff) is available as a bundle here on Steam for less than $20 USD.
- Cube Escape Collection (This is a collection of the nine original games, all of which used to be available online for free before Flash died. I played them all years ago, but decided to buy the collection and play them again.)
- Cube Escape: Paradox (Continues the story from the previous games. First chapter is free, but second chapter is DLC and costs a bit.)
- Paradox: A Rusty Lake Film (A companion short film, about 20 minutes long, for the Paradox game. I'm not sure it matters, but I watched it before playing either chapter of the game. Well, I mean, I guess it matters if you care about getting all the achievements, but I just cheated and used a guide for that after beating the game once normally [as I did for all the other games, as well, so I guess I technically played through the entire series twice in the past week or so]. The short movie is still pretty good for what it is, all the same.)
- Samsara Room (This is actually a remake of the first game this developer ever made, but changed a bit to tie into the Cube Escape/Rusty Lake series. I never played the original version, though.)
- Rusty Lake Hotel (The first of the commercial games, and longer than any of the previously mentioned games, aside from maybe Paradox. Probably my least favorite of the bunch.)
- Rusty Lake: Roots (Probably my favorite, if not tied with Paradise for that spot.)
- Rusty Lake Paradise (Again, maybe my favorite, or at least tied with Roots. It contains one of my newest favorite pieces of music from a video game, that's for sure. [I apparently never got around to making a "game music thing" post about ice/snow music in games yet, though I did make one about underwater stuff. Well, if I ever do make an ice/snow music post of that nature, the "Hail" music would definitely be included.])
- The White Door (This is the one I just finished a few minutes before starting this post. As of right now, this is the most recently released of the series. There is another game coming presumably sometime this year, though.)
The above is the order in which I played the games. I'm not sure that's the "optimal" order, if there is such a thing, and it certainly isn't the chronological order as far as the timeline for the games is concerned, and it isn't release order either (i.e. Cube Escape: Paradox actually came out after Rusty Lake Paradise), but it worked plenty well enough for me, all the same. If I'd change that order at all, I'd say maybe wait and play Samsara Room after Rusty Lake: Roots, but it's still okay as is.
So, yeah. The genre of the series, especially in the earlier games, is room escape. This is mixed with some pretty surreal weirdness and mindfuckery (as well as a few cheap jump scares). I won't say anything about the overarching story because A) spoilers, and B) it's so abstract and mindfucky that it wouldn't really help to explain it anyway.
In any case, I definitely recommend the series, at least if you like this style of puzzle/point-and-click games. The entire series (or, at least, the non-free stuff) is available as a bundle here on Steam for less than $20 USD.
