Review: Rusty Lake Paradise
Confusion: that feeling is synonymous with puzzles. There is no better way to show this than the Rusty Lake series. Take Rusty Lake Paradise. The story of Paradise is hard to explain without bringing in a lot of other games from this series. I do not fully understand what I had played. However, I think that was the point. This game is not supposed to give you all of the answers.
The Plagues of Paradise
The game is as follows: you play as the eldest, Jakob Eilander, returning to Paradise after the death of his mother. The game covers 10 days, with each focusing on a different plague. Yes, the 10 plagues of Egypt. And if you know what the last plague is, you already have an idea of how the ending will go. The entire game takes place on a single island: as the levels progress, you get access to more parts of the island. This paired with the changes each plague brings to the island makes each level feel different and exciting: none of the puzzles feel stale.
One of my favorite plagues is the plague of frogs: you have to gather four frogs to make soup. Each frog is given by a different puzzle. My personal favorite is at the front of the island. It is a series of levels where you guide a frog from one rock to the other using every lily pad. The frog cannot move diagonally. It requires the player to plan ahead and strategize the correct path to take.
The Cost of Sacrifice
This does not mean that the game is perfect. If you do not decipher the gimmick of a puzzle quickly, there is a good chance you are going to need a walkthrough, especially as the puzzles have very few hints. in the plague of frogs there is a matching game. Each item differs only by slight variations, so I had to resort to a walkthrough to find out what the puzzle even was. This happened more than once. Adding on to this fact is that I found a glitch while on the plague of boils. There is a segment where you lend a doctor several vials. I got an object named “???” with my vial of blood by spamming the pickup button.
The glitch I encountered was not game breaking when compared to poor quality escape rooms, so I assumed the solution is pretty linear. for my other critique, it would be nice if each puzzle was more explicit. In the frog one, matching puzzles could more variations between each pair. It’s just hard to make suggestions when Rusty Lake is known for strange solutions and minimal hints.
All in all, paradise is a lovely game for someone who wants to get into a puzzle series filled with lore. the game reveals a lot with little dialogue, allowing players to fill in the gaps. Each puzzle feels unique while being in a familiar setting. There is also some horror in the game, too, if that interests anyone.
Get the game on steam, or check out their Official Website
Recent Comments