Time to pair up two more games that aren’t really similar at all! Though, I suppose, they actually are this time, since both of them have Lovecraftian themes. And they’re both good.
Sanguine Sanctum is a new (and first commercial) project by Modus Interactive, a developer focused on creating short surreal minimalist exploration titles with very distinct approach to visuals, rather effectively emulating the looks of a Playstation 1 game. Also, their projects tend to have pretty great understanding of good sound design which sells the tone of their games. While not every project they’ve made so far was great, most of them are good and I’d suggest checking them as well, especially if you’d want a teaser of what Sanguine Sanctum is about. Though, a better option would be to just try the game demo, as the developer provides it as well.
In general, Sanguine Sanctum is a relatively simple game where you walk around bizarre locations, sometimes solving very basic puzzles, but mostly just enjoying the creepy uneasy and often delving into horror atmosphere. There’ve been a lot projects made in similar vein (no blood pun intended), and the game seems somewhat reminiscent of the PS1 first person games like LSD: Dream Emulator or Hellnight/Dark Messiah or even the exploration bits of titles like King’s Field or the original PS1 version of Baroque. But Sanguine Sanctum and other titles by the developer, are clearly trying to make something of their own with the looks and feel.
There are things to improve, of course. Some visual and sound effects are more annoying and jarring in a negative way, rather than in a way that enhances the mood, with some sound effects being too loud or too grating, which is especially easy to notices since most of the sound work is done really well. There are little quality of life things that might be missing, though mostly the game is usually pretty smart about how to hint you at what you must do, how and where. The game does still feel like “not really a commercial product” kind of deal and it’s more of a “I’m very much okay with supporting the developer” kind of purchase, rather than something you can easily recommend as a purchase to other people. And if I start nitpicking, I can say that the look of the game is sometimes less of a pure PS1 title, and more of a bizarre mix of the original Quake engine and the looks of an early PS1 game. But I was glad to play this game and hope that the developer goes on to hone their style further and make an even better title in the future.
The Room Three is a third entry (duh) in the series of puzzle/escape the room games that take the somewhat Myst-like approach to adventure games, but with more focus on emulating the feeling of playing the complex physical box puzzles. Which, I’m sure, feels especially great on mobile devices where the games always land first before being heavily upgraded visually and controls-wise for the desktop release several years later. I don’t play on the phone, so I’ve only experienced the series on the PC where it always looked amazing.
Third entry is the biggest so far (I’m not sure if the newer mobile-only entry is bigger, though), taking me more than twice as long to complete and feeling more like a proper adventure title and less of a cool puzzle toy like the first game was. At the same time, the complexity and focus on the plot do not make the game more boring like it happened with the second entry, even if the story, especially when viewed across three games, is weak and follows a rather basic Lovecraftian story template. But puzzles are fun, with only few sections feeling frustrating due to the element you need being completely not obvious and somewhere near the edges of the screen you operate in and while the game does get a bit tedious by the end, it ends very quickly past that, never becoming truly boring. Glad to see the evolution in the series, yet can’t help but wish that developers someday remake this whole thing into a cohesive complete game, as it still feels a bit like a segment of a whole and not a complete product. Maybe someday. But for now, it’s definitely worth playing if you like puzzles.