Alright. Rusty Lake Hotel is done and dusted. This was a pretty trippy murder point and click adventure. It was clearly focused on the topic of gluttony. Beyond that, the meaning behind the ending was somewhat lost on me. So, I read up a little on it after finishing it tonight, and it turns out that I probably should have played the Cube Escape Collection first, to get a better understanding for this game. I don’t currently own that collection, so I’ll pause moving on to the other Rusty Lake games until I’ve had a chance to check out the said collection.

Anyway, taken on its own, Rusty Lake Hotel was a pretty interesting game. I wouldn’t call the puzzles intuitive, but some moderately frustrating trial and error will get you where you need to go. There were a couple particularly frustrating sequences balanced against some pretty obvious ones. YMMV of course, but it does follow old PnC logic much more than I’d personally like.

So much so that I played a chunk of this years ago, got frustrated and set it down, only to pick up where I left off today (the night am publishing this review).

That said, I did finally grind through the frustration, and I’d say the morbid payoff ended up being worth it.

It is a visually evocative game, and I’d say it really puts you in the correct frame of mind to really get into the murderous (and gluttonous) spirit of the game.

Is this game worth your time? Probably. Cost vs value is there. However, you will need to take on the additional cost of the Cube Escape Collection to maximize the value of Rusty Lake Hotel, and as such, you’re really looking at two separate purchases. So….make your decision accordingly. This game can definitely be played on its own and be enjoyable, but I think the story will be very vague if you choose to do so.

It is fully Steam Deck compatible. I did find the touch screen to be preferable to the gamepad controls