![]() ![]() ![]() They feel like games only this specific group of people could make. The Rusty Lake series has that quality though. Even fewer studios manage to convey that vision, game after game. Rusty Lake is as bizarre as it is brilliant, and while Paradise is probably my least favorite of the three paid entries, it’s still unique enough to earn a wholehearted recommendation from me. The situation’s a lot better this time, with only a few finicky moments (mostly moving between screens) to detract from the overall more polished state of this release. Previous Rusty Lake games very much felt like mobile titles ported to PC. I’ll say this though: At least they fixed the controls to an extent. I’m hoping the next Rusty Lake entry, whenever it appears, can strike a better balance. If ever there were a series I wanted to stop and savor, it’s Rusty Lake, and yet in Paradise I found myself blitzing through the early hours of the game. The moments where you spot a veiled reference, where a mask or a throwaway line or a puzzle callback suddenly speaks volumes about a character-those moments are special because you realize there is an internal consistency underlying the gore and the absurdist humor.īut while there’s something to be said for a puzzle game that doesn’t nudge the player towards looking up solutions, one that’s too easy can screw up the pacing equally as much. Surface level weirdness disguises a strict internal logic, a purposefulness that’s apparent whether one, three, or a dozen games in. Or you can drill deep on the lore, turn it over in your mind, try to draw those connections. Your brother turns into a fly and you think “Wow, that’s weird/gross/creepy” and move on. It’s a unique tone piece, and like most tone pieces it’s often helpful to sit back and let it wash over you, to take in the imagery with an open mind. That’s I guess what makes Rusty Lake stand out. If anything, I feel less certain what’s going on after every new iteration. If the “real puzzle” of Rusty Lake is figuring out that overarching narrative, I’m still a long ways off from a solution. Not that any of it makes sense, or at least not to me. But Paradise is probably the most overtly Biblical, an interesting addition when filtered through Rusty Lake’s surreal horror tendencies. Roots had references to Cain and Abel, for instance. This isn’t the first Rusty Lake game to dabble in Biblical allegory. It’s a grandiose undertaking for what started as a simple escape room series.
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