The Room Two Review

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If The Room was a good proof-of-concept for what a premium game should look like on mobile, The Room Two took that concept and perfected it. Nearly everything about it improves on the foundation that the original laid down. In a lot of ways it reminds me of my impressions of the first two Assassin's Creed games. We had never seen anything quite like the original, and I finished thinking it was a pretty good game; then the second comes along and suddenly I realized that it was the game the original should have been all along.

As in its predecessor, The Room Two tasks you with solving physical puzzles. The original was limited to opening various types of safes, but The Room Two takes it several steps farther. Most of the rooms you find yourself in contain several different objects to interact with. Each provides pieces that are required to solve different parts of the others. That addition alone makes the game five times more interesting. It also means that most chapters are longer than the chapters in the original. There are also several more chapters, so all told it takes about twice as long to complete.

The visuals are also vastly improved. Not only are the textures all high enough resolution to not be distracting, they added little touches like motion blur when zooming from one part of a room to another and little particle effects. I thought the particle effects were a little much, but they never got in the way of being able to solve the puzzles.

Speaking of puzzles, I thought they were better designed this time around. There were several times in The Room where I got so stuck that I had to read all of the hints to understand what was expected of me. It may have been the result of already being in the correct mindset, but I only ever had to read the first clue this time around. There were times when I struggled for a while, but otherwise it would have been too easy.

I mentioned the creepy vibe I felt in the original. In The Room Two they took that vague sense of unease and did the best they could to turn it into a horror game. There is only so much they could do given that the player only has the ability to look around a room (don't expect any chase scenes). But they did an excellent job creating creepy environments and using jump scares to keep me on my toes. There were even a few times I thought I saw something out of the corner of my eye, but when I looked nothing was there.

I think they have it out for Doctor Who fans.

I got sucked in so much that I sat down yesterday and just plowed through half of the game, which is rare these days. I highly recommend it, and I feel comfortable saying that it is worth $5, though of course it is being sold for less. Go play it on Android, iOS, or Kindle.

The Room Review

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Out of all the mobile games I have played so far, The Room is by far the one that feels the most like a premium experience. If there is a AAA category on mobile, this is a prime example of how to do it right. Ironically an independent studio made it, which just shows you how nontraditional this space is.

From the title you might expect The Room to be a game where you are stuck in a room that you have to escape from. In fact it turns out to be the opposite. You are in a room with a safe that you have to figure out how to get into. Being a puzzle game, you find everything you need to get in somewhere on the safe itself. The game is divided into chapters: each time you open the container you find another inside that you must open. You start each chapter by inspecting the container to identify the points that you can interact with it. Many of these points will do nothing until you obtain some object (a key, a cog, a crank, etc) from another part of the container. All your interactions are intentionally tactile, making good use of the touch screen.

The puzzles tend to do a good job of walking the fine line between being too hard and too easy. I was concerned at the beginning when it insisted on continuously giving me hints. It soon stopped and I realized that I was sorely unprepared for what I had gotten myself into. Most of the levels were quite enjoyable, giving just enough challenge to result in a satisfying "Aha!" moment. Even when if you get completely stuck, the game gives optional hints. There are usually a set of hints for a particular puzzle. They start general and vague and progress to being so specific that I never had to look online for an answer.

The story is told through a series of notes left by the previous owner of the safe. They had been researching what they call the Null element, and the game soon takes on a creepy old-world mysticism vibe. In a lot of ways it reminds me of Amnesia: the Dark Descent, though of course it is not a horror game. The story tropes, the tactile interactions with the world, and even the visuals all contribute to this feeling. The game was lauded when it came out for its visuals, and they still hold up for the most part. There were a few textures that I would have liked to be higher resolution, and a couple of times I was distracted by jagged edges on objects, but it wasn't a chronic problem. Also if you get the PC edition this should be less of a problem as they touched up many of the textures.

One of the important things in a mobile game is being able to pick it up for quick sessions and put it down at will. The Room manages this by saving after every action, so you are free to leave and come back as often as you need to. I did not find it difficult to remember what I was in the middle of doing when returning to the game.

If you have a choice of different devices to play on, go with the one with the largest screen. I played on my Nexus 5, and there were a few times I felt cramped and had to lean in close to inspect objects. The game is also quite dark, so you will have a hard time playing anywhere near sunlight.

There are five chapters in the game (four at launch and an epilogue that was added to lead into the sequel). It was not an especially long game (took me a weekend of moderate playtime) but it was not nearly as short as Monument Valley. I would say that it is worth a good $3-4, and fortunately because it is a relatively old game you will find it for a lot less. Check it out on Android, iOS, Kindle, or PC.

Duet Review

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Duet is the best mobile game I have played since Super Hexagon, which is saying a lot. They both do everything a mobile game should do: simple controls, easy to pick up and put down quickly, and minimal graphics that still manage to be beautiful. Duet does a few more things to make it worthwhile to continue playing, and because of that I believe it is a better game.

In Duet you control the rotation of two spheres: holding down on the right rotates them clockwise, holding down on the left rotates them counterclockwise. The only task the game gives you is to avoid the white obstacles as they fall from the top of the screen. It is much easier to understand if you see it in action, so here is their trailer.

Unlike Super Hexagon, which procedurally generates its obstacles from a set of patterns, each level level in Duet is the same each time you play it. If you hit an obstacle, the sphere that hit bursts and splatters on the obstacle. The game then rewinds to the beginning of the level, and you try again. The splatter stays there, reminding you of your past failure. Once you have completed a level there is a brief pause and the next level begins.

The levels are grouped into chapters, each with a title named after a stage of grief. The beginning of each level has a short quote pertaining to the chapter you are in, and it paints a strange story as you play. Each chapter is based around a new type of challenge. They start off simple and then start combining what you learned in past chapters with what you know now. The pace at which they introduce new elements is challenging, but reasonable. I would sometimes hit a level that seemed insurmountable, but determination and perseverance have won out in the end every time.

The game rewards you with achievements for each chapter you complete. More challenging achievements exist for things like completing a chapter without hitting a single obstacle. You can also comprehensively compare how well you have done to how well your friends have done.

If the story mode were all there was to the game, it would be short. But there is also an epilogue, several challenge levels, an endless mode, and a daily challenge. I have beaten just over half of the static levels in the game. Even after I have mastered all them the endless mode and the daily challenges will keep me coming back for a long time yet. I would be ten times as motivated to push myself if some of my friends on Android picked up the game and gave me some scores to beat.

The premium version of the game costs $3, but you can play the game for free with ads I believe. I got the premium version in a Humble Bundle, so I never played the free version. I certainly think that it is worth a few dollars, but feel free to check it out for yourself before putting your money on the table. It is available on Android, iOS, and soon it will be on Steam so I will be able to crush all my PC friends on the leaderboards.

Luleå 2014: Orientation Week

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Apparently I had to go all the way to Sweden to finally start doing normal adult things like grocery shopping, cooking for myself, and using public transportation. I got away with not making my own food for the last three years by living on campus and getting the meal plan that let me eat at the dining hall whenever I wanted to. And now my first experience with them has been done without knowing the language that everything is written in, so I'd say I'm going to be a pro at this adulthood thing by the time I get back to the States. A few of my more amusing mishaps have included buying cream cheese before realizing that bagels aren't a thing in Sweden. I'm also not certain that the stuff I've been washing my hair with is shampoo.

During the week of orientation, the Luleå University Reception Committee (LURC) had tons of events planned for us. Some of them were really simple, like a couple of barbecues where we talked to other exchange students and got to know one another. They introduced us to games like Viking Chess, which involves throwing sticks at blocks while avoiding knocking down the king in the middle.

Once one team has eliminated all of the other team's blocks they can start trying to knock over the king, but they must throw backwards and between their legs.

More important were the tours that they had of the university campus, the shopping area, and downtown Luleå. The tour of the town in particular gave me the opportunity to take a bunch of pictures. City hall has a great view from the roof!

They also had a few events to introduce us to things specific to Swedish culture. Fika is a midday coffee break with pastries, much like fellowship time that most churches I've been to have after service. We also walked up to a nearby ski hill to try out their sauna and hot tubs. It was way hotter than any sauna I have been in before.

One of my highlights of the week was the trip to Storforsen, one of the biggest rapids in Europe. The power displayed in the water was awe-inspiring to say the least. It was a nice day of walking around and looking at nature. There weren't any animals around, not even any birds. I suspect they were scared away by the size of our group because some of the informational signs talked about the wildlife.

The only event that I consciously decided not to go to were the nightly parties at STUK, the nightclub on campus. I have smelled their main hall during the day, and I can tell you that I don't want to be there at night. 

Class schedules here are a little weird. I got confused during orientation week, not realizing that the Swedish Language for International Students course started before September. I missed two days of class, but the professor told me that I can just sign up for the session that starts on September 9th. Apparently it isn't a big deal. My Swedish History course seems to fill up the quarter more like a normal class, but every class period has a second one scheduled immediately afterwords. At first I thought that might mean that they taught the same material twice in a day and I could choose which time I wanted to go to, but the professor seemed as confused as we were when we brought it up yesterday. That's another thing that I got to do for the first time in my life: going to class on Labor Day!

The Walking Dead 2 Episode 5 Review

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I was hoping that I would be able to make it through a season finale of The Walking Dead without making any decisions I immediately regretted or crying. I failed. It was a fool's hope anyway.

Much like the finale of season one, there were very few times where they give the player the opportunity to take a break and look around. It was mostly a constant push towards the end of the episode. They did give the characters a break at one point, which also let me become more attached to them. This was no doubt part of their grand plan to break my heart, but those are not things that you realize while playing.

There was one situation that I saw coming from a mile away because the writers focused on it so much for the last couple of episodes. On the other hand there was another closely related situation that I did not see coming at all.

As a whole I enjoyed the second season of Telltale's The Walking Dead, though not as much as the first season. I would say that the main factor was the faster turnover of characters. I did not get enough time to get attached to most of the characters before they died or were otherwise removed from the group. I cannot remember many of their names, or how they died. In contrast I remember almost all of the characters from season one.

Telltale knows how to frame a shot.

I am not sure if Telltale will make a third season, and frankly I am not sure how wise it would be for them to try. It is easy for the player to become jaded to the loss they are constantly subjected to in this series. The second season also had much less of a cultural impact; out of my Steam friends, the number of people who have played the second season is less than half that of the first. I would certainly play a third if they made it though.

A Clash of Kings Review

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As the sequel to A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings had big shoes to fill, and I believe it more than accomplished that goal. Due partially to certain gaps forming in the cast and partially to significant events now happening away from any of the previous main characters, Martin had to introduce a couple of new characters whose perspective we would see the world through. One was a new character who had a down-to-earth attitude I really liked, and the other was a character we had already seen in the first book who I thought I liked, but he turned out to be a terrible person.

A Clash of Kings had a strong start, with the political situation in Westeros quickly deteriorating and war breaking out on several fronts. It was exciting! Things were happening! My team was winning! Then the book hit a big lull and my attention started waning. Martin tried to keep my attention by slowly teasing more magical powers that were becoming stronger in the world, but it wasn't enough for me. I started thinking that after I was done with the book I would read something else for a while before picking up A Storm of Swords.

Luckily the book picked up again just in time for me to go on several long flights. I got a bunch of reading done, and was quite engaged. War happened! Unexpected attacks! Characters started dying again! Magic started to make a difference in the direction things were going! I am happy to say that I am once again on board for continuing the series without interruptions.

Looking back, I think that the majority of A Game of Thrones was as slow as the middle of A Clash of Kings, so I believe Clash was the better of the two. Here's hoping Martin can continue improving with the next book!

The Walking Dead 2 Episode 4 Review

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I missed out on this episode when it first came out because I was working at camp and didn't have internet or time to play. Now I get around to it just as the season finale comes out, which means that I will not have a month of suspense at the end of the episode.

Amid the Ruins brings us back to the more familiar Telltale formula, with action sequences interspersed with characters talking while walking and even a hub area where you can take a break and look around a Civil War memorial.

I mentioned in the last episode that Clementine carried the group in a way that is not normal for an 11 year old girl. This episode did feature Clementine contributing heavily, but not in ways that felt forced by the writers. The flow and pace of the episode felt much more natural, with almost no moments that pulled me out of the game.

There were even a few genuinely humorous moments, mostly provided by my new favorite character, Mike. I wish he had gotten a chance to shine earlier, and I certainly hope that they do not kill him off. Small chance of that.

I will likely play the season finale within a day, so you won't have to wait long for my thoughts on that.

Luleå 2014: The Journey There

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I knew that my time in Sweden was going to be an adventure, but I was not planning on the trip there being such a big adventure. And every good adventure needs to have its story told, so here it is.

It all started almost two months before I was scheduled to leave: I applied for a Student Residence Permit through the Migrationsverket website on July 2nd. Soon afterward I tried to check on its progress and learned two things: the waiting time could be up to two months, and their website only lets you check on the status of applications made on paper. For online applications you have to call the embassy to ask about it. The problem with that approach is that they only answer the phone for residence permit questions for an hour a day, three days a week. That hour started at 10am, which meant that I could never call personally because working at camp does not give much free time during business hours. So +Amy Buck started calling, but they are so busy that if you do not call right at 10 you will almost assuredly be in hold for the whole hour. Finally she got through on August 11th, one week before I was scheduled to leave. She found out that my application had been rejected on July 28th, but they had never sent me an email with my rejection letter.

Now the reason it was rejected is interesting: part if the application involves demonstrating that you have enough money to live in Sweden during your stay. So I had sent them a bank statement and a statement about my financial aid for the fall semester. Problem: I forgot to make sure that the bank statement had my name on it (duh). That's okay, the financial aid should be enough. Well, turns out it "wasn't clear that the university was giving me access to that money during my time in Sweden." What do they think financial aid is for?? So my mom decided we needed to do it the brute force way: she transferred $7,000 to my bank account (telling me all the while that I am not allowed to spend it) and we printed a bank statement with my name on it. We sent in the new documents along with an appeal letter the next day.

We had no idea how long it was going to take for the appeal to go through, but we waited vigilantly. According to our contact at the Swedish embassy it was illegal for me to enter the country while my permit was being appealed. The day before I had to leave we started looking for alternate options: it would cost way too much to change my plane tickets, so I made an offhand comment about staying in Germany until I was allowed to go to Sweden (my last plane change was in Düsseldorf). Suddenly mom sat up and presented the idea of staying with Laura Mertens' family. Laura had studied in America and stayed with us for a month a year and a half ago. Laura told us that they had plenty of room in their house, and they told me which trains to take to get to their town near Frankfurt.

Before leaving I had a little gathering, mostly of Morris buddies who hadn't seen since May. +Sonja Richardson had told me that she wouldn't be able to make it to the party or to see me off at the airport; turns out she wanted to surprise me by picking me up from camp. And surprise me she did, despite +Eric Buck almost giving the whole thing away.

My first flight left Minneapolis at 10:22am, so we got up at 6 so we could get there about three hours early. Because I was still scheduled to get on a plane to Stockholm from Düsseldorf, we didn't want to have any check in luggage whatsoever for fear that it would automatically transfer to the next airplane and go to Stockholm without me. We packed about a week's worth of clothes into a bag and all of the electronics I was taking into my backpack and I took them both as carry on.

The flight from Minneapolis to Newark Liberty was pretty short and uneventful, but man it was so exciting because it was my first flight in ten years. I was grinning like an idiot throughout takeoff and landing.

The plane from Newark to Düsseldorf was way bigger and more luxurious. Each seat had a pillow, a blanket, a screen to watch movies, and a USB outlet. I tried to sleep for most of the flight (it was about 11pm in Düsseldorf when we left) but as you can imagine that's not an easy task. The ear plugs that +scott kopp gave me definitely helped. I also made my first airplane buddy. I was on the aisle seat in the middle section, and the only other person in the middle section was an old lady at the other aisle seat (so there were two empty seats between us). When she saw me struggling to sleep, she motioned me to lay down on those two seats and stacked up the pillows next to her. In hindsight maybe she was a vampire trying to get my neck nice and close whole I was sleeping, but I'm pretty sure that didn't happen.

Do I got into Düsseldorf, got my passport stamped (I was suddenly reminded of Papers, Please) and it was time to find a train. That turned out to be pretty easy, as the instructions Laura's mother sent were thorough.

There are a few things I noticed about Germany right away:

1. T-Mobile appears to be king, as all of the pay phones are operated by them, as well as many of the Wi-Fi networks in the train stations. Unfortunately I still counted as roaming, and so I just left my phone in airplane mode to avoid paying $0.50 per text message or $1.50 per minute.
2. There is a lot of graffiti lining the railways. I gather that it is more of an artistic expression than defacing property (I suppose I should call it "street art,") but still technically not allowed.
3. Smoking is a lot more prevalent than I am used to. It's not allowed inside most of the time, but In the Frankfurt airport I saw a smoking area that was a big plastic box.
4. A lot of people said goodbye to one another with a really cute " cheers! "
5. In the little town I was staying in, there aren't any sidewalks. There is the street, then there is a paved area that pedestrians and parked cars share.

That first day in Germany was an interesting one: I spent most of the day hanging out with Laura's little brother Felix, who does not enjoy his English class so we had trouble communicating. I was also falling asleep for most of the day so I wasn't much help. I wasn't sure how long I was going to be staying with the Mertens, but a mere four hours after I got to their house I received the email saying that my residence permit had been approved. The timing couldn't have been worse: I didn't really get any time to hang out with them, and I had to spend another $500 for a plane ticket and train ticket.

So the next day I went to the Frankfurt airport. Oddly the German security was more of a hassle than American security was; their metal detector went off when I had everything off but my shirt, pants, underwear, and socks. My first flight went to Helsinki. I sat next to an older Finnish man who I talked with before the flight, but he fell asleep before we even left the ground. My flight from Helsinki to Stockholm was in a tiny little two-propeller airplane, and let me tell you that the smaller your aircraft, the more terrifying the landing will be.

Once in Stockholm I was pretty much on my own. I had booked a night at a youth hostel, but first I had to get there. Using the wifi in the airport and the saving grace that is Google Maps, I figured out that I could take an airplane bus to a metro hub, then a subway to a station about a block from the hostel. Only problem with that plan was that the ticket machine didn't like my card, so I walked a couple kilometers instead. Keep in mind that I had two heavy bags bursting with all of my worldly possessions, so I kind of felt like a badass.

The next morning I had to get over to the Migrationsverket to get my picture and fingerprints taken. This time the ticket machine liked my card, so I got to experience the subway for the first time. It was a little intimidating when I went down the stairs, got my ticket, then saw the real flight of stairs I had to go down. Subways are pretty easy to navigate, though you can't use a GPS to see how far you are from your stop.

I was significantly less confident in my ability to figure out the buses, so I walked another couple of kilometers to the Migrationsverket. I arrived a couple of minutes late for my appointment, but they were very nice and called me up when they had an opening. I met another American who was also a couple minutes late for his appointment and who also owned a Nexus 5. I swear, we were twins.

After that I took a metro train to Stockholm Central Station and bought a ticket to Luleå. By that time it was about 1pm and my train didn't leave until 6pm. I stowed my bags in a locker, got some lunch in my belly (I ate at a McDonald's, but don't yell at me; it had to happen once) and then I was ready to be a tourist. I could see several cool buildings from the station, so I just started walking from one to another taking tons of pictures.

My favorite building was the Stockholm City Hall. It is a big red brick building on the waterfront that has a big old garden, a courtyard, tons of statues and interesting things to see. And it didn't cost anything to get in!

I also found the oldest building in Stockholm, a church built in the 1200s. It is the royal burial place of many Swedish Kings, and I want to go back and explore it more extensively but it is a museum so I saved my money for another time.

I suppose I could let you read this sign to find out more.

There were also a bunch of other buildings that I took pictures of but don't know anything about.

And then there is this shop front that I wouldn't be surprised to find in Minnesota.

After my afternoon I went back to the train station and found my platform. There were a couple of girls getting on in front of me who had tons of luggage (remember them later, I am using a writing technique called foreshadowing). As it was an overnight train ride I settled in to read some more A Clash of Kings before going to sleep. I slept better than I had on the plane from Newark to Düsseldorf, but that isn't saying a whole lot. I woke up before 6am and decided that it was pointless to go back to sleep. After the last stop before Luleå I noticed that the two girls I had noticed before the train ride were still there. So I went up and asked them if they were going to the university. Turns out they are Marta and Renata, exchange students from Poland, don't know any Swedish yet, and didn't have any idea what to expect when we got there. So we decided that if we were going to get lost we would do it together.

Our arrival in Luleå was pretty depressing. It was cold and rainy and early on a Saturday morning, so there was nobody around. Marta and Renata already had tickets for the bus to the university, but I didn't and the ticket station didn't open until 9:30. I had to hope the bus sold tickets as well. While we waited I saw a cute little park and took some pictures.

The bus finally came and it did indeed sell tickets, but once again the machine didn't like my card. I was about to get off the bus, but the driver kindly told me that I could get on. We got off at the university and realized that we had absolutely no idea where to go. All of the doors were locked, and there was nobody around to ask what to do. We looked so lost that someone asked us if we wanted to get inside a building. We said yes, if only to get out of the rain. Inside there were a few people sitting around, so I asked one of them if we could use his phone to call our contact at LURC (the office that helps the international students.) He told us that we would be able to get our keys at 1pm, and until then we could store our bags in the fitness center. The guy whose phone we borrowed, Tobias, showed us where to put our bags, where we were going to go to get our keys, and where we could get some food in the meantime. He also owned a Nexus 5.

So we waited for a while, and then someone from LURC came by and gave us our welcome packages. He drove us over to the apartments where we are staying and got us set up. Later in the day there was a barbecue where I met a bunch of cool people. I missed about a day of activities, but I made it here in one piece and with all of my things, so I'd call it a win!

I'll be keeping a fairly detailed journal here on the blog, especially when significant things happen. You can bet that orientation week is going to be significant. I have also been posting thoughts and pictures as they happen on Google+, so be sure to pay attention to that if you want to see my day-to-day. I have a really good feeling about this semester, it's going to be a blast!