OUR SECRET BELOW Review: A Well-Made, Single-Player Escape Room

PC Review Code Provided by DarkStone Digital

Everybody knows that one of the party games that has been growing in popular attraction is the appeal of an escape room. Just you and a handful of people working together to get out of a room locked behind a serious of puzzles, all while trying to stay within a time limit. This exact set up is what DarkStone Digital had in mind with Our Secret Below, except this time you only have yourself to work with and less than four hours to escape! Can you do it? I did and I can honestly say that I am ready for more!

Story

Take on the role of Nia, a woman who has been kidnapped and held against her will. After awaking and getting face-to-face with your captor, you end up overhearing him mention that you only have hours left to live! Now, with limited time, you must break out of your cell, learn of your captor’s past, and use the knowledge to escape captivity.

Gameplay

To start this off I want to let you be aware of something that isn’t initially told and that there is no save system to this game. It is meant to be completed in one sitting so be ready to put about two or so hours into your first run. All of the puzzles are RNG-based, so there is no just looking up the answer if you get stuck either. Each playthrough will have different answers for puzzles even though finding the answer is generally the same path with a few changes here and there.

However, they do provide a “hint guide” version of the game for those that want help along the way. I didn’t use this myself so I am not sure how it works, but there’s no doubt it will change the way the game is meant to be experienced although it will be easier.

If you have ever been in an Escape Room, then you know that it plays out very similar to that setup. There are some initial puzzles you can solve through observation, but other puzzles will require some progress to be made before they are able to provide all the pieces you need to solve them. To find answers you will need to look through drawers, cabinets, and whatever else you can open for tools and clues, all while reading through the various notes that are laid around the basement.

As you make progress towards your freedom, weird moments will begin to take place. These are more than anything story elements for the game, but they will take you through some strange and uncomfortable settings. Other than these moments, the entire game takes place in the basement.

As far as the actual controls go, there is no run option but you can crouch, interact with objects, hold them in your four-slot inventory, and tools are auto-used when interacted with the correct object. They feel pretty smooth and rather basic allowing you to focus on the escape room game itself. Just be sure to utilize that crouch option and be mindful of how often you trip the motion detector; he’s always watching.

Visuals and Sounds

I bundled these together for this title as this game went with a minimalistic attitude in both sections of the game. While the layout and design of the level are well thought out, nothing really was visually impressive. I did like the “strange moments” a lot though as they showed the creativity that a video game version of an escape room can provide without providing incredible detail nor being elaborate.

There is actually pretty much no music in the game, which should have been expected since I have been in a few escape rooms myself. They leave in silence to fill the atmosphere and allow you to think through the puzzles yourself. This silence helps as sometimes the game provides random audio queues to help you out or uses certain sounds to emphasize a moment, such as providing an indication that you unlocked something.

Replayability

This game has a total of three different endings and after each ending there is a new “Index” that you can check out. After my initial game completion, I checked out the first index and it is a very short playable sequence, but I feel that having all the indexes would provide a further story expansion or gameplay experience possibly.

Aside from finding all the different endings and seeing what the unlocked index’s hold, the puzzles are completely randomized so you could go through the escape room again if you want. You will know how to find your answers though, so part of what attracts people to an escape room is used up, unfortunately.

What Could Be Better

Any game that expects you to beat it in one sitting needs to state this at the start. Luckily, I did complete this game in a single sitting but I considered taking a break a few times which would have ended up making me restart. That would have been frustrating and I can see this happening to others without a warning.

I would say that this game is slightly mislabeled. If you are looking for a thriller, I wouldn’t put this game in that box. It is more of a mystery and psychological horror that has a few scares, but all-in-all it is just an escape room video game. It’s not that big of a deal, but I can see this misleading some players to expect something more than what it is.

Conclusion

Our Secret Below is a fun, challenging escape room video game! My experience playing through this game showed how much more creative an escape room experience can be when created in a virtual world rather than our real one. It had puzzles that were difficult to solve, clues that were hard to find, plenty of notes to read through, a couple of interesting experiences, and a nice consistent challenge to keep the anxiety levels high throughout. All that for the same price as a single run of the average escape room except this one I can play through again anytime, I would have to say this is an easy game recommendation!