For this Critical Play, I played Cube Escape: Paradox on my macOS after downloading it from Steam. This is a single player game developed by the indie game developer Rusty Lake. I would argue its target audience is anyone who enjoys escape rooms, puzzle games, and psychological horror. However, it’s important to note that since it is a single player game, it is much less social than your typical escape room experience.
I would argue that narrative is somewhat woven into the mystery of this game, but at times it felt that the puzzles I was solving were disconnected from the story. Despite this, the mechanics allowed me to focus more on the narrative in this game compared with other games I’ve played. Overall, I felt that it was an enjoyable game even considering the slight disconnect between puzzle and story.
To begin with, the mechanics are extremely simple. The only instructions provided are to navigate from room to room and click on and drag objects. You can see these instructions in the image below. My main argument with regards to the simplicity of mechanics is that they allowed me to feel more immersed in the game. Rather than being distracted by complicated rules and the role of each button, this led to a dynamic of me just clicking around and exploring. Overall, this resulted in an aesthetic that was engaging and immersing.
A screenshot of the instructions to the game which are very intuitive
Since this is an example of an embedded narrative, the environment itself contributed to the narrative and sense of mystery. It’s clear that something is off rather immediately due to the abundance of locked doors and drawers and the presence of creepy clues (see the creepy photograph you have to piece together below). This environment not only hints at the overarching storyline, it also creates a mood and a sense that something is definitely wrong in this room. The fact that the main door is locked immediately gives you a feeling of being trapped. This setup alone creates a creepy atmosphere, but this is highlighted even more by the nicely spaced out jumpscares that are added in. One example of this occurs when you look into the keyhole and see a figure appear out of the fog, as shown below.
An example of one of the earliest jumpscares that appears in the game
Another aspect of the architecture that I like is that nearly everything is clickable. This means that there is tons to explore, and not every player will catch every little detail. Each player will go through the environment in their own way and make the game their own. This makes every detail you do catch that much more exciting and fulfilling.
As for the puzzles themselves, I felt that they did not contribute as much as they could have to the mystery. They were well paced for the game, meaning that I felt that I could keep unlocking the next clue with each puzzle I solved, and I didn’t get bored at any point in the game. I could continue accomplishing tasks after a little bit of poking around, which is an important balance to create in an escape room specifically. However, at times the puzzles felt a bit distanced from the narrative of the game. Some tasks felt a bit convoluted and not strongly motivated. For example, at one point in the game the player has to light their own cigar, but it doesn’t feel connected to the story at all. There is no reason the person setting up the escape room would anticipate you wanting to light a cigar really badly. You can see the aforementioned cigar in the image below. I also felt that the general premise of the game felt a little too convenient. For example, it’s explained that you’ve been placed in this room beforehand and all the clues have been set up for you. However, that didn’t feel extremely satisfying to me while playing. It’s important to note that this feeling is likely strongly influenced by the fact that I only played through about 2 hours of this game, and had I played it to completion I may have felt that the narrative arc was more satisfying.
A screenshot from Rusty Lake’s YouTube playthrough of the game, showing the cigar you light
Overall, this was a well designed escape room that successfully used architectural elements including locked doors and mysterious trinkets to drive the player’s interest and keep the plot moving forward. I would recommend this game to anyone who enjoys
One accessibility barrier that I noticed in the game is that while it is translated into various languages, those translations are only text based, meaning that all audio in the game remains in English. However, I appreciate that the game was translated into so many languages. I will also note that nearly every puzzle and clue revolved around visual input, so this game is not very friendly to anyone with a visual impairment. I did appreciate that all text was both audible and subtitled though. With regards to my own accessibility needs, I felt much more comfortable working through this game than I would with a normal escape room. I can’t comfortably stay standing long enough to complete an escape room, and have actually had to sit on the floor of an escape room before to avoid falling over. However, I could complete this game sitting down and with my legs up and could start and stop at any time, so two thumbs up on my end!
