THE SPECTRUM RETREAT Review for Xbox One

You know those existential questions “Who am I?” and “What am I doing here?” Well, the main character in The Spectrum Retreat really has no idea who he is or why he is at the hotel. The protagonist of the game does not know who he is or anything about his past. The Spectrum Retreat is developed by Dan Smith Studios and published by Ripstone. The game is a first-person challenging puzzle game within a creepy hotel. I’ll be honest, I jumped once.

Every day starts and ends in the same way as the previous day at the beautiful Penrose hotel. Your mornings are: you get out of bed, get greeted by a faceless robot, and go eat breakfast. Then once you are done with the puzzle you go back to bed only to wake up and do it all over again. Sounds regular and mundane right? Well, because of the protagonist’s unique story and the puzzles on each floor, it is much more complicated and harder than you would expect. The main idea of the story is to get you out of the hotel. This comes with some help from the outside world. Cooper, your mysterious woman helper, does not like that you are trapped in the hotel because she believes it is happening against your will. As she helps you get to the roof of the hotel (starting at the first floor to the fifth floor) you gradually learn more about the protagonist’s past. The futuristic cell phone is the way she contacts you and the way you make it through each puzzle.

One thing that I really like about this game are the mechanics of it. At its base, the puzzles are color puzzles. Your futuristic cell phone color has to match that of the door so that you are able to go through it. The way that adds complexity to the game is that each floor adds a new mechanic to the game, so by the time you get to the last floor there are a handful of mechanics that you can use to get through the puzzle rooms. What I like about this is that it made me feel like I was not doing the same puzzle over and over again. Instead, with the new mechanics, each floor felt different than the last, which, in turn. made me think differently.

In each of these puzzles, there are also little fragments of memory to help give you a better idea of what he went through before finding himself in the hotel. These fragments come in voice overs as well as images. These moments are very important when figuring out more about the character you are playing as. The one thing that I wish The Spectrum Retreat did more of was include additional voice overs (while doing the puzzles) because those are the ones that have the most impact. Also, I think that it will help make the story not feel sporadic. In one of the puzzle rooms, you find something out that happened in the main character’s family and his wife is crying. You hear her crying until you complete the puzzle in that room. This was one of the more sadder moments within the game. Cooper does also know the protagonist’s story, but she cannot tell him or else the entire system will reboot. He has to learn about it on his own so that he can get out.

The hotel, or whomever is controlling the hotel, does not want you to leave. With each floor cleared, comes more and more suspicion and the defense programming in the system begins to take effect. This actually led to one of the moments where I did get a little scared because I wasn’t expecting it (which was great!). Also with each floor cleared, the hotel gets more and more distorted. Each of the robot’s dialogue starts to sound like they are stumbling with their words at times. Then there is the hotel itself that starts to distort. It makes it look like there are glitches in the programming. You also get more access to the hotel itself.

Overall, The Spectrum Retreat’s design is visually beautiful when it is supposed to be and edgy during the distorted moments. The atmosphere itself is also creepy. I really enjoyed the fact that it is a color-based puzzle game because it did not really need an explanation (none of the mechanics really do). The mechanics adding a new layer to every floor’s puzzles. The main thing this game needed was more story elements because the story itself is tragic.

7 out of 10

Take a Look at The Spectrum Retreat Trailer:

To order the game on PlayStation 4 please visit: bit.ly/TSR-PS4-US
To order the game on Xbox One please visit: bit.ly/TSR-Xbox-One
Visit The Spectrum Retreat webpage on the Ripstone website: https://ripstone.com/game/the-spectrum-retreat

*Price liable to change depending on platform

Samer Alrayes

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I have always loved playing video games. As a writer, I see them as interactive stories. Just like with books and movies/television, people can become so immersed in a completely different world. I play a wide range of games like: Stardew Valley, The Witcher, Fortnite, and Destiny. I'm just a graduate student that writes stories and plays video games.

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