The Room Two Review

A year after the runaway success of the original The Room, we find ourselves with a new set of puzzles in the appropriately titled The Room Two. Can it stand up to the exceptional quality of the original, though? Well, yes. It does exactly that.

It's required that I write more than that of course, but fans of the original should stop here and immediately start downloading The Room Two. It's everything one could hope for from a good sequel; building upon what worked so well for the original.

Of course, The Room Two isn't as much of a surprise as its predecessor but that's pretty much all that it - arguably - lacks. This time around, rather than having to tackle individual layers of the same box The Room Two offers multiple boxes to unlock and crack. It adds to the flexibility that this game offers, feeling less claustrophobic but remaining atmospheric.

The layering effect is still there anyhow, with many of the puzzles turning into puzzles within puzzles. No one box requires a straightforward solution; instead needing one to take multiple different approaches. It's a concept that's eased in gently with a rewarding sequence early on involving piecing together a model ship.

While The Room Two feels like a relatively sedate and cerebral affair, that doesn't stop it from containing puzzles involving firing crossbows or lasers - but the less said about the sheer depth of the puzzles the better. It's a title best approached cold, rather than knowing what's around every corner.

As before, The Room Two treads the tightrope between excessively easy puzzles and frustrating head-scratchers. A number of hints that unlock after a time help pave the way for the most inexperienced of puzzle gamers while remaining unobtrusive for those who want to go it alone.

That's the beauty of The Room Two: it's all pitched so well. It's the kind of game that gets into the player's brain, leaving them thinking about how to solve something even when not playing. That's a sign of a classy game, which this most definitely is.