The ‘Cube Escape’ and ‘Rusty Lake’ games produced by Rusty Lake are a series of horror puzzle games that when played in order tell a story. I have only played the ‘Cube Escape Collections’ and ‘Samsara’s Room’ games because on the Google play store the other games cost money but I hear are worth a play. The games were heavily inspired by the show ‘Twin Peaks’ created by Mark Frost and David Lynch.

The play order of the games goes as follows but they are not the chronological order:
‘Samsara’s Room’
‘Seasons (Cube Escape Game)’
‘The Lake (Cube Escape Game)’
‘Arles (Cube Escape Game)’
‘Harvey’s Box (Cube Escape Game)’
‘Case 23 (Cube Escape Game)’
‘The Mill (Cube Escape Game)’
‘Rusty Lake: Hotel’
‘Birthday (Cube Escape Game)’
‘Theater (Cube Escape Game)’
‘Rusty Lake: Roots’
‘The Cave (Cube Escape Game)’
‘Rusty Lake: Paradise’
‘Paradox (Cube Escape Game)’
‘The White Door’
‘The Past Within’
Slight Spoiler Warning.

Each game has different plots but they all revolve around cubes, corrupted souls, and murder or sacrifice. The games range from solving a murder case to saving your family island from the Ten Biblical Plagues. My favorite games would have to be ‘Birthday’ where you are trying to change then escape your 9th birthday memory.

The timeline stretches from the 1700’s to 2020. Some have alternate timelines and some games happen at the same time. For example ‘Birthday’ happens physically in 1972 at Rusty Lake but the character Dale experiences his ninth birthday in 1939 at his childhood home. One alternate timeline in ‘Birthday’ is Dale’s mother, father, and grandfather dying but through the game play time is reversed and they are brought back to life.

Two games that take place at relatively the same time are ‘The Lake’ and ‘Harvey’s Box’. I say relatively because the character Harvey goes from the character Laura’s house to the Lake within the time of the game and Laura spends the afternoon at the Lake. So that places them at the same location at the same time but they don’t interact in game.

The characters you play through alternate in most games but overall you play mostly as Dale Vandermeer. In ‘Samaras’s Room’ you play as William Vanderboom. ‘Cube Escape Collections’ you play as The Woman/Laura Vanderboom, Vincent Van Gogh, Harvey, Dale Vandermeer, and Mr. Crow. In ‘Hotel’ you play as Harvey. But in ‘Roots’ you don’t play through one individual character but play through the Vanderboom family tree from 1860-1935. In ‘Paradise’ you play as Jakob Eilander. ‘The White Door’ brings back the character Bob. And ‘The Past Within’ doesn’t have a lot of information about it other than it’s a co-op 3-D game with the characters Albert Vanderoom and Rose Vanderboom.

You don’t need to play the games in the specific order but there are some achievements you can unlock that are mentioned in the other games. Overall game play is fun with the puzzles ranging from easy to challenging. On YouTube the producers post walkthroughs for when you get stuck. There are all sorts of puzzles from slide puzzles to riddles. If you can’t get a puzzle and have you look them up they usually make sense after you solve them.
The games are worth a play, with interesting artwork and complex plots. They also work well for just sitting on your phone or computer bored. I highly recommend them for anyone who doesn’t mind creepy shadowy figures coming at you and trails of blood on the ground. Have Fun!