Rusty Lake is back with another release called Rusty Lake Paradise. So far the game is by far one of the best released by Rusty Lake. In this point and click puzzle adventure game, things take an unsettling turn but pull players in further to complete the story.
The Eilander family is on a small remote island in the middle of a lake and unfortunately have been cursed with the ten plagues of Egypt. Jakob, the brother has learned of his mother’s mysterious death and is called home to help fight off the plagues that are taking over his family. Jakob must puzzle his way through all ten plagues in order to regain his mother’s memories and take part in odd rituals.
During the beginning of the game, Rusty Lake Paradise gives a specific timeline of the Eilander family which seems to be a prelude to the Rusty Lake Hotel game that was released in 2016. So, somehow all of the Rusty Lake games appear to be connected in some way just like the Cube Escape series too. With no tutorial needed, I simply started to click madly across the screen in order to examine every little thing I could possibly find. To my benefit, there were many things I could find and use, the hardest part was finding out the order in which to use my items.
As the story continues however, Jakob reconnects with his family which is made up of his grandmother, father, uncle and sister. Each of these characters have their own mysterious and sometimes creepily odd characteristics. At some points, I wondered if they were going to try and kill me, but the game doesn’t work that way. Following along with the clues I was given, I came across frogs, bugs, a lot of animals and diseases like the textbook plagues I’ve read about so I wasn’t too lost with I needed to focus on but everything just gave off an unsettling feeling.
Mechanically the game works as well as one would imagine. I didn’t have a need to combine items in my small inventory screen but rumor has it that maybe some items could be combined and I simply missed out. Some reports say that the game may have a few problems depending on the system being used and the game simply closes at specific points in the game but I didn’t have any issues with this either. The art work stands out well in this game and pulls the story together with the ominous images, especially when the diseases start coming in to play.
I wasn’t super surprised at the ending (which I won’t spoil), but overall I really enjoyed the game. The puzzles became increasingly difficult which should have been no surprise since the main screen literally gives you the option to look at a walkthrough. Math isn’t my strongest subject so when I had to math-it-up, the puzzles probably took way longer than they should have. But I survived and my brain probably grew a bit bigger too. Who knew a vegetable garden could be so difficult and rewarding? I also learned a lot about horoscopes and stars too!
Rusty Lake Paradise have 50 achievements total and they appear to be around every turn. I easily got 20 or more. After reaching the end however, I was still shocked to see that there were quite a few I had missed. So my suggestion is to click everything all the time both before and after events occur to get those special rewards
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Now that I have played Rusty Lake Paradise, and have seen part of Rusty Lake Hotel, I will be going back to check out the other games that Rusty Lake has created. There is something rewarding about being able to get through all of the puzzles even when they are difficult. The story overall wasn’t bad either and kept me guessing what the main reveal was going to be. I’m still not sure I understand the whole thing but yet again, Rusty Lake is great at creating a story that leaves you wanting more and guessing for days.
Rusty Lake Paradise is available on Steam, Apple Appstore, Itch.io and Google Play