The Spectrum Retreat | PC Review

July 24, 2018 Zack Parkerson

Have you ever woken up, only to question if you’re really awake at all? This is the kind of world The Spectrum Retreat from Dan Smith Studios immediately establishes. One where you can never quite trust what you see. Oh, and there’s plenty of slick puzzles.

The game essentially breaks down into two styles. First there’s the hotel you groggily awaken in. Things feel off-kilter right away, as a woman calls you and tells you to act completely normal. When you answer the knock at your room’s door, you’re greeted by an expressionless automaton with only a light-up speaker for a mouth. It’s an unsettling first encounter, and sets the tone for what’s to come.

Reality is but a Construct

The other half of the game is a first-person puzzler. Broken down into individualized rooms, the style of the game should feel familiar to fans of puzzlers. Whereas the hotel sections of the game have a very art deco inspired look, these puzzle rooms are straight sci-fi. The juxtaposition of these styles drives home just how strange everything at The Penrose Hotel is.

What you’re actually doing during the puzzles of The Spectrum Retreat is difficult to put into text, but allow me to try. The puzzles all have to do with color (thankfully containing several color-blind options that helped yours truly). There are cubes scattered around that will be either white or red at the beginning of the game. You may need red to unlock a door, but currently your color-holding device has white. Shoot at a red cube and you absorb red, but lose the white to the cube. But once you pass the red door, you now see a white door. What follows is the solving of how to get the colors to where you need, when you need.

Every puzzle feels fresh, and every series of puzzles introduces new mechanics. Once additional colors get introduced the game gets a lot trickier, but imagine four colors with teleporting or walking on walls. Things escalate quickly, but it ensures you never get bored with the puzzles.

The only problem with this area of the game is that you can put yourself in a real jam, and have to start the room over. I think the game wants you to plan your every move, but in reality it discourages experimentation. This normally isn’t too annoying as the rooms are relatively small, but during the longer ones, a small slip-up can cost you several minutes.

Journey Into the Unknown

Though, honestly, this biggest downside to puzzles in The Spectrum Retreat is that it slows down solving the mystery! I’m kidding of course, but it helps illustrate how gripping the mystery is. While the payoff doesn’t fully stick the landing, the build-up is edge of your seat stuff. The hotel gets stranger and stranger, and the art deco and sci-fi starts to bleed together. It’s a pretty neat way to convey your character’s growing unrest and I always wanted to see what was going to happen next.

The Spectrum Retreat is well worth the playthrough for fans of puzzle games or a good mystery. There’s not a lot of first-person puzzle games like it, and it’s been a while since I’ve had such a good time with one. The ending may want to say more than it actually does, but the journey there is utterly captivating. This is great way to spend a few hours during the summer lull.

This review is based off of a PC review copy provided by Dan Smith Studios for coverage purposes. The game is also available on Xbox One and PS4.