Cube Escape: Seasons
Cube Escape: The Lake
[Note: Please be warned that these games contain content some may find disturbing.]
Things aren't what they seem in Rusty Lake's deceptively serene and surreal escape game Cube Escape: Seasons, also free for iOS and Android, and the start of a new series alongside Cube Escape: The Lake. In Seasons, you'll take a trip through your memories in a small, quiet house that holds a lot more secrets than you expect. In The Lake, the water is calm outside your little fishing hut, which doesn't seem to have very much in it apart from some old cabinets, a fishing rod... and a knife. Click around to interact and pick things up, though be warned that the cursor won't change if it passes over something you can use, so you'll need to be diligent. Items with a magnifying glass in your inventory can be clicked to view close up, while others can be used where you like by clicking them once to pick them up, and then again wherever you want to try to use them. Some items can be used more than once... occasionally in the same fashion. The small arrows at the edges of the screen will let you move and look around the room, and the white arrows on the right side of the screen will let you scroll up and down through your inventory. You may want to play Seasons first, as there's something you can find (and make a note of) there that will change the ending of The Lake.
It's safe to say that Cube Escape is shaping up to be a seriously captivating series, thanks in no small part to its striking visual style and unsettling effects. Part of the enjoyment comes from catching all the little details as you explore, and Rusty Lake knows how to mix the otherworldly with the mundane in a way that sticks with you. Seasons is significantly longer than The Lake, and thus a lot more complex. Some of its puzzles definitely operate on their own sort of logic, forcing you to think outside the box, and at times you might be stymied thanks to some fiddly hotspots to click on, or have visual clues in the scenery that might blend in a bit too well. Despite that, the way it unfolds with its blend of moments shocking one moment and skin-crawling the next, gives an intriguing sense of wrongness that compels you to unravel it. The whole thing feels like a dreamy slowly going wrong, and if you apply dream logic to it, you'll be much better off with its more creative mechanics. Though The Lake is significantly short, it still packs a punch with its atmosphere, though even with the special code from Seasons it still feels like it ends rather abruptly without developing the overarching plot significantly. Together, however, they make a big impact, and fans of dark horror where most everything is up to interpretation will find themselves eagerly awaiting more.
Cube Escape: Seasons (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad)
Android:
Get Cube Escape: Seasons
Cube Escape: The Lake (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad)
Android:
Get Cube Escape: The Lake
Totally stuck in Fall 1971 now, but completely loving this one
PurpleLogic...
I found Fall to be pretty easy...
That, and the 4 photo pieces, is all you need (the photo pieces are all pretty obvious)
I am now trying to "change the past"
Made several changes, and seem to need 1 more.
GREAT GAME
I'm stuck on winter.
Look at the bulletin board
PurpleLogic...
How are you able to make changes?
Right before the end the game crashed on me a couple times :( Both times happened when I was going to another year. The first time it reloade where I left off before, but the second time it gave me just the first year. When I clicked on it I had all my inventory but no scene.
Really, really good game though.
I've determined that Seasons is broken for me (Winter).
I looked at the walkthrough - and I've followed it exactly but the blue cube will not come out when I click on it. I get a sudden whitish 'doughnut' above the clock face when I click - but the cube never comes out.
I'm playing The Lake now and there's a box that will allegedly only open with a code from Seasons. Since I wasn't able to complete that game (a 2nd try at the game, starting from the beginning, one of the photo pieces seems to be missing from the 3rd level and AGAIN I can't continue) -- I was wondering if someone could spoil the code.
For those of you playing The Lake, the code from Seasons is:
I really like how the transitions have the layering 3D effect. It makes the games much more immersive.
Thank you bluemoose, you saved me a ton of frustration!
This series reminds me so much of Samsara Room, in fact I think it's from the same developer and all of them are in the same universe.
If you're talking about that same box, then how do I close it?
Newermind,
There's a lot of stuff in that lake
I was having such a fine time, then it crashed. I had just started changing the past. I want to rate it a 5, but crash makes me want to rate it a one. Tomorrow I'll try again before I make the rating.
These were pretty damn good!
In Seanons, how do you
@cthuljew
In Lake, I had an extra gem at the end. Not sure what I was supposed to do with it, but maybe if I had used it somehow, I wouldn't have got the message at the end saying I could change my fate by using the code from Seasons, which I had done.
in seasons - winter - i'm stuck too. i got mixed up with what to do to escape memories or change time, and ended up activating the blue cube before i realized oops i have to change time first. and now, no way to get the blue cube out, or at least or to begin only the 4th level again...
sorry.. i guess i got it wrong. seems my above comment makes no sense, i can do both ~
Shoot, got a glitch midway into the game.
That's exactly what's happening with me too.
barbara,
I enjoyed the heck out of these. Really interesting and well-designed. That faux-3d effect is very effective.
I had a little trouble, probably not enough memory for my tablet to load the background properly, but at least it still played. It was all black with some digital blurring, so I couldn't see the black objects. This was not the programmers fault, I have had this happen on a few other games buy other authors. I had to consult a walkthrough to find them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7Oj4HqIS0E
The ones I could not find were (and location)
barbara
to change your fate
first play the other game (seasons)
Thanks Harrington,
Can anyone explain why I can
Dora, could you put, perhaps behind a spoiler tag, the nature of the content that you warned for in the article? Thanks!
Stuck on Fall. Have three of four photo pieces. Pretty sure the fourth is just bugged for me. :-(
Sure thing. :) The content some players may find disturbing is
On another contemplative note, regarding some of the game's themes,
Seconding this request. I have a suspicion but if I'm wrong, I would be needlessly avoiding what could be a fun set of games.
Thanks for the warning on material. This looks like it should be fine for me, and I'm gonna download it later :) Before I do tho, any jumpscares?
Hi there! Please read my response if you're concerned. :)
Yes, absolutely. :)
I couldn't finish Seasons, the content touched a little too much on a particularly sensitive experience for me. I managed to make it all the way to the 1981 before I really had to close it, so I got to play a fairly large chunk! It's a shame, because I do enjoy the style room escape where you have to uncover the mystery of why you're there, and overall it was very clever and novel. Also, going by some of the spoilers, it looks like I missed out on the more interesting/intricate part of the game. Well, I enjoyed the art style and the great atmosphere it created!
Same boat as Kay; loved it, ready to rate it 5, and just as I was making a final change, it crashed.
I enjoy it enough that I'll try again, but not right now.
Dora is that "yes absolutely" a yes there are jumpscares, or a yes to something else? I just wanna make sure.
Troy,
This is definitely from the creator of Samsara room.
One word: brilliant.
Surprised that the lake was as short as it was, after the length of what could be considered an 'epic' of an escape game, the Seasons.
I loved Samsara Room when it came out, and it was amazing-cool tonight to see that this programmer got an amazing idea for a game years ago and polished it into something top-notch like this, which the game deserved. I was suspicious too for a couple of seconds, and then as soon as I saw that pink grandfather clock I knew I was right...and the SECOND thing I thought was how I hoped the pink grandfather clock DIDN'T open to reveal a very overweight...and very under-dressed corpse, as we were oddly subjected to in Samsara Room. LoL
Heh, I'm with you on the corpse.
This game had it's fair few shocks though, too. ;) At first I found the game slightly surreal, and had no idea why it was given an R rating, until I, let's say, took a look at the night sky.
Any thoughts on what to do right at the end when I accidentally filled up my water cup again?
I think I broke the game by pouring the water in the blender and then refilling the cup, because now I can't put the contents of the blender into the cup. =(
Just kidding, I had to click a weird part of the sink but it worked.
I think it is possiple to empty the cup in the sink or the fireplace.
In Rusty lake, there is a box:
Did anyone figure out how to open it? I have no idea what it's referencing.
Rusty lake mirror box hint through:
Walkthrough if anyone is interested
Spring
Summer
Gymnopedié plays on the background :)
Fall
Winter
Back And Forth In Time
Spring
Summer
Fall
Winter
Spring
This looks lovely, but the performance (on Seasons) is so slow as to make the game unplayable. I'll try again some other time.
What a total shame! In Seasons I made it to Winter 1981 and one of the blue photo pieces disappeared from the inventory, so I had an incomplete photo and could not proceed any further. When I tried restarting the game, it took me back to where I was. I tried clearing my browser history, and searching for a cookie, but to no avail. Very, very disappointed.
Thank you, Braxium. If it weren't for your complete text walkthrough for the Cube Escape: SEASONS game somewhere down this comment thread, I would've never been able to appreciate this game at all. I want to know the story behind it without much stress; I'm that kind of a gamer. Life is already stressful enough. :3
Actually, your item didn't disappear: did you notice the arrows above and below your inventory? You can have more items than will fit on the screen at once.
(Of course, this is way too late to be helpful to you, Chiktionary, but just in case anyone else thinks they're in the same boat...)
Update