Room 208

Deceptive Games Ltd. is an indie gaming company that I've become familiar with over the years. Alone? (2016) and Silent Descent (2018), two of their previous releases, were given positive reviews in my curation, and while they passed me a code for another game called The Initiate, I just never got around to playing it. The company are known for their horror puzzle titles, and their most recent endeavour, Room 208, is no exception to this so-far-established rule. In Room 208, you play as a psychic medium named Victor Rockford, who has been asked to come and investigate the mysterious room in a hotel in Fleetwood Vale. Poltergeist activity has been observed in the room by previous occupants, so it's up to Victor to figure out exactly who, or what, is causing the mysterious haunting. To do that, he'll have to solve an array of puzzles and visit different versions of the room by travelling interdimensionally via crystal balls. Each version of the room has unique enigmas to resolve, and upon resolution will give Victor pieces to the puzzles of other room versions. There is a sanity meter in effect, which depletes the more that you witness paranormal events and stay in the dark. You c…

Way too glitchy, very frustrating.... it's too bad because looks like it would be fun

This game is completely broken and unplayable. I should have listened to the other reviewers, but I've enjoyed Deceptive Games' other titles and was too tempted. I feel like a sucker. I'm sad because this game could have been amazing if it wasn't so broken. But I'm angry because this is so amazingly broken that it should not be sold. Deceptive Games, please do the right thing and remove this from Steam. Stop ripping off other innocent fans. Because, as it stands, you are living up to your name. And, by the way, the most infuriating breakage here is not due to bugs, but due to an incredibly awful design decision! The whole game is essentially on a timer. When the timer runs out you are left in the dark and the only way forward is to start a new game. So, I guess the expectation is that players would fail at some point, then restart and race to do everything quickly to get to what stumped them the last time. Rinse and repeat. It's hard for me to think of a worse way to play a puzzle game. To add insult to injury, the description says "Full 4K support with volumetric lighting". Ahem, no, the game tops at 1440p, not 4K. Because if you're already deceptive, why not go all the way?

Mostly Negative? I loved this game! Total recommend if you play with anyone watching, it creates a lot of speculation. I played it on my channel and it got a good response from fans too! What to Play Next

Edit: revised review. It's still a thumbs down because of several issues, but it's not a 0 out of 10 anymore. Room 208 is about some medium who's able to walk in 'the other world' and talk to ghosts, seemingly to help people out. No further background is given. You're asked to investigate Room 208 in some luxery hotel because strange things are happening there. The game looks very good though faces, ghost and demon are low budget. There's a lot to discover and just like the games The Inittiate 1 & 2 you'll need to gather clues from different rooms to progress. Some puzzles are quite easy, others did cost me a lot of time. Overal, I think the puzzles were fine. Mood is tense. A bit too much. Reason: lighter fluid (or the lack thereof) and a sanity meter, requiring you to get back to a light source as quickly as possible. And this happens way too many times. You´ve hardly any chance to explore or think about puzzles because both the lighter and sanity are going down FAST. And there isn´t enough lighter fluid in the game to keep strolling around. In fact, I had to start over two times. The first time to investigate everything as far as I could, then run out of lighter fluid, effect…

Although there are a few issues with the game play, I'm working my way through it and enjoying it thoroughly. The graphics are superb and I'm having a lot of fun with the puzzles which I think are very cleverly thought out. Keeping the lighter fuelled long enough to do a complete search of the various areas in the game is a real challenge and has had me starting a new game on several occasions each time avoiding having to search unrewarding areas. All in all great fun though and I'd highly recommend this game.