See how a game created by the very Jigsaw would look like! Use the available objects, outwit tricky illusions and optical puzzles and above all, answer the question – will you dare to Play with Me?
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This review contains spoilers
Play With Me: Escape Room is a point and click puzzle game about getting into a car crash with your wife after going out to celebrate your birthday and waking up in a room chained up, and you have to go through numerous different puzzle rooms in order to escape this death trap. See, you were kidnapped by the "Illusion Killer', and you play as Robert Hawk, a reporter, who has been reporting on the killer and his traps for a long time. That's the basic gist of the story, you basically solve difficult puzzles, read clues about previous victims (who were kidnapped because they weren't persecuted for their crimes as the justice system blows donkey d i c k. You also have a poison serum thing in your veins, and you have to go through in a time limit. This is where I'm gonna go into gameplay because WOW do I have issues with this game.
The gameplay is basically a puzzle room game, you go through about twenty different rooms trying to figure out solutions to get the puzzle for the keypad to get into the next puzzle room. Certain rooms are easy enough, with puzzles telegraphed in a way that makes sense; but that's CERTAIN ROOMS. Most of them I have no fu c k ing clue what the hell I'm doing, and even the clues they give are confusing as hell. If this is what it's like being in a trap from the Jigsaw Killer, I'm f u c ked if I ever get caught because I can't solve puzzles to save my life. Now you're thinking, why give the game a bad review if you suck at puzzles? Well I do suck at puzzles, but at the very least, I'd like to feel like I have a sporting chance and that I feel dumb as hell when the solution is actually found. But I don't, because some of these things are so convoluted, I don't even understand how to get it in the first place. So, there's a prison cell room near the end of the game, in this room you have to knock out some blocks with a hammer right? Cool, behind it is a bunch of random numbers. This game is full of trial and error so what you'll end up doing is that you'll be trying numbers in all sorts of different numbers in a bunch of different combinations. Here's another issue, sometimes the graphical render is so blurry you can't understand what the hell they're saying. What I ended up doing was in certain rooms, I just decided to give up and reveal the code via spoiler so I could get out of there. Some codes they give we're kinda iffy like they'd have for example: 875Cat right? But the won't register, so it's basically an 8 you have to type. And segwaying into another thing, you'll find computers that give secret info I guess according to a guide (which I used often because what the hell?), you're supposed to break out text command prompts but I could never really understand what I'm doing because I don't do text command prompts? See a part of me feels stupid for writing this all up, but the way a friend of mine put it, the puzzles should at least should be solvable and not overly convoluted with random s h i t you can't understand unless you're using a guide. Again, I suppose the puzzles in this game would make the Jigsaw Killer proud, but by the end I was just using a guide full force because I had no clue what I was doing. Also you're doing this in a time limit, so you'll need to race against the clock, pick up syringes to get your health back, and try not to die in certain rooms (whether it's wiggling your flashlight, or clicking on certain things before you can get certain items). One mixed thing I will say is that it does some meta stuff well, like for example: one room you have to lower the music volume in the settings all the way to open a door. BUT HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW? One thing towards the end had me blow a candle out by literally blowing into the mic, the last example involves, get this, getting the secret ending by going to a hidden website hidden inside of one of the game's promotional trailers which leads to an story bit I'll discuss next. Other things I'll mention are you have to replace batteries for your phone and flashlight sometimes, puzzle solutions ARE randomized, you have to use your in game phone to take calls or texts to actually solve puzzles, and you can play goofy little games or change your ringtone (Ringtone 3 was the goofiest and gave me and my friend watching a chuckle). You can also collect teddy bears, "Signs of Illusion", and confession notes as well as newspapers and other code pages. So I may suck at puzzles, but I felt this game did it in a way that was a bit too much. Gonna go into the plot here:
The story is again about Robert Hawk, a reporter, and your wife Sara, a lawyer, going out on Robert's birthday to do stuff. You get into a crash and you wake up in chains and have to escape. You also learn about the Illusion Killer and how they target criminals who got away with their crimes which is cool, I like the SAW movies so I'm cool with this. In two separate instances you have to solve puzzles under a timer in order to save both Sara and Patrick offscreen for the best endings. Like the puzzles, there's a variation for each one living and dying as well as if you unlock the secret room in Room 10. If you unlock the secret room it's figured that you and Patrick are up to something fishy (which we kinda already guessed). Go through the rest, and you get locked in a coffin. Gonna throw some spoilers here: : If you save both Patrick and Sara, it turns out Sara is the Illusion Killer. That's right, one of THREE characters is the Illusion Killer, and what a shock we predicted it in the third room. There was also another prediction that Patrick and Robert are the killers, and if you got the secret ending, they were both trying to frame Sara for the murders so they can "continue their work" and will continue it again. What do I think of this story? About average really, and the twists are predictable because they only really introduced three characters anyways, so who else we're we supposed to think it is? So let me get this straight. If Sara was the killer, and they were trying to frame her, did they trap themselves there? Did she just decide to play killer to go along with this? Why did she dress up and do all this stuff if you were framing her? I feel like it would be more realistic for the police to just shoot her (like they do anyways in real life) and her yelling bout her innocence then give some sort of speech explaining why she was the killer when she wasn't? I don't know, maybe I'm looking too far into this but it feels like a plot hole. Basically, it's an average story which atmospherically it gels great with SAW, but without an interesting twist or at least a bonkers one. Basically, think the last Saw movie in terms of predictability and you got it.
Graphical Presentation/Atmosphere is decent, the atmosphere is really creepy and unnerving, you'll have bugs crawling across your screen and above your clicker making you think it's actually your PC when it's not which is cool. It's a dark, oppressive, and hopeless feeling which I like. Graphics are the usual hidden object artwork style which I like and think it's charming. The music is unnerving, and it works for the game as it didn't help us with our panic levels much. The one downside I could give is that you can tell that the production of the game is in a different country, with Sara and Patrick sounding completely different then Robert, who sounds like an American and is emotive; of course I understand that budget constraints and such can lead to dips in acting quality and I know whatever country these guys are from it might sound odd emoting in English, not me dissing on them it's actually of humorous; but it's noticeable.
Overall, I would only recommend this game for people with A LOT of patience, and the ability to think WAY outside the box. Otherwise skip it. The store page said: Slowly go mad thanks to a realistic system determining the mental state of your character. It worked.
From Steam Reviews: https://steamcommunity.com/id/gamemast15r/recommended/
The gameplay is basically a puzzle room game, you go through about twenty different rooms trying to figure out solutions to get the puzzle for the keypad to get into the next puzzle room. Certain rooms are easy enough, with puzzles telegraphed in a way that makes sense; but that's CERTAIN ROOMS. Most of them I have no fu c k ing clue what the hell I'm doing, and even the clues they give are confusing as hell. If this is what it's like being in a trap from the Jigsaw Killer, I'm f u c ked if I ever get caught because I can't solve puzzles to save my life. Now you're thinking, why give the game a bad review if you suck at puzzles? Well I do suck at puzzles, but at the very least, I'd like to feel like I have a sporting chance and that I feel dumb as hell when the solution is actually found. But I don't, because some of these things are so convoluted, I don't even understand how to get it in the first place. So, there's a prison cell room near the end of the game, in this room you have to knock out some blocks with a hammer right? Cool, behind it is a bunch of random numbers. This game is full of trial and error so what you'll end up doing is that you'll be trying numbers in all sorts of different numbers in a bunch of different combinations. Here's another issue, sometimes the graphical render is so blurry you can't understand what the hell they're saying. What I ended up doing was in certain rooms, I just decided to give up and reveal the code via spoiler so I could get out of there. Some codes they give we're kinda iffy like they'd have for example: 875Cat right? But the won't register, so it's basically an 8 you have to type. And segwaying into another thing, you'll find computers that give secret info I guess according to a guide (which I used often because what the hell?), you're supposed to break out text command prompts but I could never really understand what I'm doing because I don't do text command prompts? See a part of me feels stupid for writing this all up, but the way a friend of mine put it, the puzzles should at least should be solvable and not overly convoluted with random s h i t you can't understand unless you're using a guide. Again, I suppose the puzzles in this game would make the Jigsaw Killer proud, but by the end I was just using a guide full force because I had no clue what I was doing. Also you're doing this in a time limit, so you'll need to race against the clock, pick up syringes to get your health back, and try not to die in certain rooms (whether it's wiggling your flashlight, or clicking on certain things before you can get certain items). One mixed thing I will say is that it does some meta stuff well, like for example: one room you have to lower the music volume in the settings all the way to open a door. BUT HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW? One thing towards the end had me blow a candle out by literally blowing into the mic, the last example involves, get this, getting the secret ending by going to a hidden website hidden inside of one of the game's promotional trailers which leads to an story bit I'll discuss next. Other things I'll mention are you have to replace batteries for your phone and flashlight sometimes, puzzle solutions ARE randomized, you have to use your in game phone to take calls or texts to actually solve puzzles, and you can play goofy little games or change your ringtone (Ringtone 3 was the goofiest and gave me and my friend watching a chuckle). You can also collect teddy bears, "Signs of Illusion", and confession notes as well as newspapers and other code pages. So I may suck at puzzles, but I felt this game did it in a way that was a bit too much. Gonna go into the plot here:
The story is again about Robert Hawk, a reporter, and your wife Sara, a lawyer, going out on Robert's birthday to do stuff. You get into a crash and you wake up in chains and have to escape. You also learn about the Illusion Killer and how they target criminals who got away with their crimes which is cool, I like the SAW movies so I'm cool with this. In two separate instances you have to solve puzzles under a timer in order to save both Sara and Patrick offscreen for the best endings. Like the puzzles, there's a variation for each one living and dying as well as if you unlock the secret room in Room 10. If you unlock the secret room it's figured that you and Patrick are up to something fishy (which we kinda already guessed). Go through the rest, and you get locked in a coffin. Gonna throw some spoilers here: : If you save both Patrick and Sara, it turns out Sara is the Illusion Killer. That's right, one of THREE characters is the Illusion Killer, and what a shock we predicted it in the third room. There was also another prediction that Patrick and Robert are the killers, and if you got the secret ending, they were both trying to frame Sara for the murders so they can "continue their work" and will continue it again. What do I think of this story? About average really, and the twists are predictable because they only really introduced three characters anyways, so who else we're we supposed to think it is? So let me get this straight. If Sara was the killer, and they were trying to frame her, did they trap themselves there? Did she just decide to play killer to go along with this? Why did she dress up and do all this stuff if you were framing her? I feel like it would be more realistic for the police to just shoot her (like they do anyways in real life) and her yelling bout her innocence then give some sort of speech explaining why she was the killer when she wasn't? I don't know, maybe I'm looking too far into this but it feels like a plot hole. Basically, it's an average story which atmospherically it gels great with SAW, but without an interesting twist or at least a bonkers one. Basically, think the last Saw movie in terms of predictability and you got it.
Graphical Presentation/Atmosphere is decent, the atmosphere is really creepy and unnerving, you'll have bugs crawling across your screen and above your clicker making you think it's actually your PC when it's not which is cool. It's a dark, oppressive, and hopeless feeling which I like. Graphics are the usual hidden object artwork style which I like and think it's charming. The music is unnerving, and it works for the game as it didn't help us with our panic levels much. The one downside I could give is that you can tell that the production of the game is in a different country, with Sara and Patrick sounding completely different then Robert, who sounds like an American and is emotive; of course I understand that budget constraints and such can lead to dips in acting quality and I know whatever country these guys are from it might sound odd emoting in English, not me dissing on them it's actually of humorous; but it's noticeable.
Overall, I would only recommend this game for people with A LOT of patience, and the ability to think WAY outside the box. Otherwise skip it. The store page said: Slowly go mad thanks to a realistic system determining the mental state of your character. It worked.
From Steam Reviews: https://steamcommunity.com/id/gamemast15r/recommended/