Review: House Of Glass - Escape From A Haunted House With Your Puzzle Skills
by Staff Writer
December 24, 2010
Overview
You embark upon a mysterious house, and are asked to renovate it, but once inside, the doors are sealed shut, and you need to figure a way out. You find colored gems that can be used to unlock secrets and hidden passageways as you try to escape the House of Glass. The game is a point and click adventure that provides Tangram puzzles, but in 3D.
Features
House of Glass is free to enter the house, and play the first few puzzles, but costs $4.99 as an in-app purchase to unlock the whole game. There are 30 puzzles in total as well as other non-tangram challenges. The game includes Game Center for online high scores and achievements as well as the ability to create your own 3D tangram puzzles.
The Good
The story may be the best aspect of the game, and that’s saying something with so many good things going on. As soon as you enter the mansion you’re presented with so many mysteries with such creepy overtones. It’s the kind of story that sucks you in, and one you want to get to the finish.
The game embodies the great qualities of a point and click adventure as you interact with most parts of the mansion. Each thing you tap on provides more of the story, or provides clues, or a new puzzle. Speaking of the puzzles it’s Tangrams in a whole new dimension, with many more potential shape combinations with each piece having multiple configurations.
Also rather than just a collection of puzzles, each puzzle acts as a mechanism to advance the story. There are other types of puzzles as well as you collect items, and then try to figure out how they interact within the environment. You’re always moving on to the next puzzle through multiple rooms in the mansion, but the next step isn’t usually obvious which is a great challenge.
The game takes a couple hours to complete, and it’s an enjoyable experience throughout. It’s tough to get stuck because in the mansion there are coins scattered about to collect, and each one act as a hint in the puzzles. Game Center is also included for online highs cores and achievements to add a little to replayability.
This is a game that once you complete you want to go back for a second time with a better understanding like after watching a complex movie. Also it’s a game you want to tell your friends about, because it’s a rather unique, and rare experience.
The game has outstanding visuals on the iPad with a beautifully designed mansion. The 3D crystal pieces sparkle, and there is so much depth and detail to every aspect of the game. There is also a well fit soundtrack for the puzzle aspect as well as the creepy tone of the story.
The Bad
The game comes to an end relatively quickly, or maybe it just seems like it because you’ll want to finish it, and left wanting more. The entire game is pretty challenging, so be warned because the game doesn’t direct you exactly where to go, and actually does require some thinking. The hint system comes in very handy, but is limited to the tangram puzzles, and can’t be used in the other puzzles.
Speaking of the other puzzles there isn’t much of an explanation of what to do, so you just have to figure it out. They’re the kind of puzzles you stare at for awhile, and then finally figure them out. The game sometimes crashes after you’ve been playing for an extended period of time, but starting the app again picks up right where you left off.
The Verdict
House of Glass is an extraordinary overall experience that is just great for the iPad. The story is very intriguing to make you want to complete it. The 3D tangram puzzles are very unique, and the entire game is very challenging, and requires a considerable amount of thinking which is always nice.
You should download House of Glass for free to try it yourself, and the $4.99 in-app purchase is worth picking up.
