Rusty Lake Paradise Continues The Outstanding Surreal Adventure Series
The developers over at Rusty Lake have a unique sense of style filled with anthropomorphism, the macabre, and the surreal. To this point they have created nine Cube Escape games that are completely free to enjoy, and two Rusty Lake premium titles. Rusty Lake Paradise is the third in the series, and the best part of the series is that all of the twelve games so far are connected. It’s a bit like a baby version of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with the crossovers and tidbits between each Rusty Lake game and the Cube Escape series.
Rusty Lake Hotel started the really weird idea with a hotel filled with anthropomorphic characters, and shocking scenes. Rusty Lake Roots went back to the 1800s to provide backstory for the Lake, and now Rusty Lake Paradise is a pre prequel going back to the 1700s to give us more about the inhabitants of the hotel. The continuing story is the most compelling aspect of the series, and yet there are still some great point and click adventures to partake in. Paradise gives you the ten plagues of Egypt to face on Paradise Island, which sits at the center of Rusty Lake. You get to play through the same location ten times, but each one has a different set of puzzles with subtle changes to the environment. For example, the plague of locusts has the island shrouded in fog, and the plague of hail covers the island in snow.
The curious case of Rusty Lake returns with an all new story to play through.
Paradise maintains the classic point and click adventure elements as you try to find items through the environment to add to your inventory that you can then combine or use to interact elsewhere. The third installment of the Rusty Lake series amps up the number of, and complexity of logic puzzles scattered throughout the island. There’s a lot more thinking involved to make it through all ten plagues, and yet the game delivers a brilliant balance of accessibility and difficulty, so that you’re not overwhelmed, nor bored. It’s great to see each puzzle combine to fill in this all new storyline that still maintains the weird setting, and builds the mystery even more. There are classic Twin Peaks elements mixed with Rusty Lake’s own sense of odd characters and the creepy tasks each one needs.
Rusty Lake Paradise is the strongest puzzle outing of an outstanding series that seems to keep getting better. Paradise can stand alone, but be sure to check out all twelve games in the series, and even through them all, you’re left wanting more.