The White Door

The White Door is clearly a Rusty Lake game, with the series' familiar art, puzzle, and storytelling styles permeating throughout the entire experience. This fascinated me, as The White Door sidelines the series' standard first-person room-escape gameplay for a unique and unfamiliar third-person two-panel system. In the previous games, you played as the title's respective main character, directing their actions in order to progress. In this game, you still technically control the main character, but the new approach to gameplay makes it feel more like he is directing you instead. With the game simultaneously feeling like a main-series title and something completely new, it ends up being a very unique and enjoyable "spin-off" that I wasn't expecting.

Stepping aside from the narrative of Dale Vandermeer that had been kept at the forefront for most of the Rusty Lake franchise, The White Door dives deep into the mind of Robert Hill, ex-boyfriend of the late Laura Vanderboom. Robert has made cameos in a few Rusty Lake games already, with most appearances relating to his struggle over the death of Laura. The White Door builds upon that narrative, giving you an intimate look at how Robert starts to comprehend and work through his trauma. This deep-dive is paired with enough world-building that it doesn't feel like the game should stand entirely on its own, but it does make it more of a treat for people like me that have played every game so far.

As the narrative is so important to this title, the puzzles tend to take a back seat. This generally ends up being okay though, as too much time spent on puzzles could quickly wreck the pacing that drives this game. However, for those still craving a challenge, the developers crafted a very involved alternate reality game that you can begin by calling the phone number found on a business card in-game. Some of the ARG has already concluded, but other parts are still available and can offer anything from a fun distraction to a serious trial, depending on your dedication. I personally dabbled in it, but then I used a walkthrough to unlock the associated in-game scenario. I appreciate the work that went into crafting the ARG, and it offered some intriguing tidbits, but it requires too much time and effort for me to be interested in solving everything myself.

As the most expensive and least traditional game from Rusty Lake thus far, I'm worried that people might pass this one by. It is far from the definitive game in the series, largely because it's so different, but those differences make it really stand out. Just by its structure alone, this is already the game I want to revisit the most, and I would encourage anyone who enjoyed the previous games to play it. It goes on sale often enough that you shouldn't have to pay full price anyways.

The game is available on Steam here (as of 6/28/21): https://store.steampowered.com/app/1145960/The_White_Door/
The game is available for Android here (as of 6/28/21): https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=air.com.RustyLake.WhiteDoor&hl=en_US&gl=US
The game is available for iOS here (as of 6/28/21): https://apps.apple.com/us/app/the-white-door/id1472184189

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