The House of Da Vinci 9+

If it's worth doing it's worth doing brilliantly

So downloaded and played first chapter and I'm thinking this is a Room Series lookalike I hope it's as good if not better otherwise don't bother. It's got the look and feel of the Room, similar mechanics and even the optical spyglass with bells on, lets see if it turns out to be a winner or (not a cheap) imitation.

UPDATE so it takes some confidence to launch a game so similar in look, feel, style and mechanics to the brilliant Room series and my initial early review echoed a concern that it would be a pale imitation, well it's not and the developers are to be congratulated, if you love the Room series get this and enjoy. Fireproof Games Room series set the bar really high but these guys have matched it and delivered a really impressive, immersive game played without a bug or glitch. Admittedly a couple of the challenges are a bit esoteric and it's a bit easy to miss manipulating found items and the clock thingy in the final chapter is clunky but hey in 4 hours of gameplay that's ok. If you love Room series get this and let's hope for more.

Developer Response ,

Hi there. Thank you for your comment – and don't forget to let us know your opinion after you finish the game :-)

Tries to be The Room - but fails

I finished all the games in “The Room” series, and was looking for a new, similar game, but I wish I’d done this one first because I couldn’t help but compare it unfavourably. Positives first; it’s an interesting concept with beautiful and detailed artwork, and it’s nice to see some of da Vinci’s inventions featured.
Negatives: illogical puzzles, outstandingly unhelpful hints that often pop up after you needed them, frustrating controls, too much unnecessary to-ing and fro-ing between areas (if the main character were wearing a step counter it would be in the thousands. The puzzles are unnecessarily difficult to the point that it gets too frustrating to play for more than 20 minutes at a time, and unlike The Room I had to resort to watching walkthrough videos which I really don’t like doing, because you shouldn’t have to; it’s unsatisfying and makes gameplay very stop start. The random men made no sense, nor did the sudden ending.
All in all it feels like the game needed much more testing by members of the public or independent testers during the development. I really hope the sequel was better, but right now I’m not inclined to pay for it to see. Disappointing and frustrating.

A waste of my life!

The display of the scenarios was far too dark, as mentioned by others elsewhere, I had to turn my brightness on my iPad way up. Rooms are clumsy to navigate, and as again, mentioned by others, too bitty and full of fiddly and often unresponsive triggers, with too many tools to open, unwind and merge for no real reason. You solve something without knowing how you did it, which is very annoying. Solutions were far too obscure and clumsy to find using existing controls. And then we had the Fibonacci sequence…really? I fear I have unfortunately arrived in ‘The Land of Geek’, woe is me! Frankly, this game is annoying and tedious. The developer may have been in rapturous glee, as he contrived (I doubt a she would have done this), his various abstruse conundrums, thinking all the time that he was far more ‘cunning than thee’. I ended up pressing the clue button again and again, out of bored frustration, usually to find that I’d already tried the solution, and that the controls hadn’t responded quickly enough if at all, even when I had stroked the appropriate area several time. No way as logical and clever as The Room series, or Fire Maple’s games, tedious is the word that comes to mind, and needless to say (but I will), I won’t be buying the follow ons.

Developer Response ,

Hi Don, thanks for playing and for your extensive review, we appreciate it. It seems that it just wasn't the best fit for you but if you believe this was due to technical issues, please get in touch with us and we'll be happy to help. Thanks!