[i][b]Disclosure:[/b] I have completed the android version of this game once before. It is a true port.
[b]TL;DR:[/b] Amazing detective themed puzzle game. Basically a point-and-click adventure with the third dimension adding depth to the timeless mechanic. Pretty good story which feels like it had a rushed ending. Puzzles are intuitive with plentiful hints hidden throughout the levels. However, some of the puzzles are a bit on the difficult side and not particularly clear. Most are about guessing passwords, like an escape room. Hints and solutions are built into the game. Good OST and pretty amazing visuals. Some of the levels feel like padding. Mostly bug free. Worth buying.[/i]
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Tiny Room Stories: Town Mystery is one of those indie games which I loved when I first played it on the Android years ago. It took me about a week to finish it back then and everything about the game left such a lasting impression on me that I decided that I simply had to purchase a copy on the PC even though the Android version was (and probably still is) completely free. Suffice it to say, it is one of my favourites and I eagerly anticipate upcoming titles from this developer.
The tale follows a nameless private detective who turns out to be Peter Stone Jn. later on in the game, as he returns to his hometown of Redcliff following a letter from his father, summoning him. He reaches the border of Redcliff and finds the town empty, as if it had been abandoned for months prior to his arrival. Now, he must piece together why his father wanted him to come here and what happened to all the residents of this now ghost town. The tale starts off a simple mystery which delves deeper into a conspiracy, only to divert into a sci-fi themed adventure. Perhaps one of the more charming features of the game is the protagonist's occassional commentary on what's going on around him and how he occassionally nudges players towards the right path. The story is definitely a strong selling point of the game and despite the fact that the ending felt like the devs couldn't really figure out what to do after a certain point in the story and just decided to toss the curtain, the anticipation, mystery, and the overall way in which the mystery unravels throughout the game, makes it a worthwhile tale overall. Including a whole bunch of the references to various pieces of fictional media found throughout.
The mechanics are an innovative take on the point-and-click genre where you can turn the scene in three dimensions to observe it from a different angle. This simple change, adds a ton of depth and overall immersion to the game, and can even make certain parts of it feel like a labyrinth. Things that were previously hidden can be revealed simply by rotating the scene and changing your perspective. Perhaps that is a commentary on the truth and the nature of life itself, but it does wonders for the game too. Most of the puzzles within the game are structured like Escape Rooms where you have to either figure out the access code to a certain door or find a special key to advance further in the level. The parts of the puzzle usually click together seamlessly, and the game will provide you with the information that you need to piece things together on your own, should you bother to explore enough. However, in the event that you're stuck, there is a hint system built into the game which can nudge you down the right path, failing which, you can see the solutions for yourself and even solve the puzzles and skip ahead if you can't figure certain parts out on your own. This adds a layer of comfort for the players which avoids a whole lot of furstration. Despite that, certain pieces of the puzzles boil down to being collectathons and force the player to interact with literally everything on the screen like a madman, adding to frustration.
The game begins with a tutorial and pretty obvious puzzles. As the game progresses, the puzzles remain simple, but the pieces of information required to solve them begin being distrubted throughout various parts of the level and the task becomes to hunt them down by solving other minor puzzles. By the end, you're essentially solving one giant puzzle by solving smaller sections of it one by one. There is definitely an increase in difficulty in the game, and the Hint system is a true godsend for whenever you get stuck. I swear that I could not have cleared certain levels of the game without it. That being said, despite the hints, some parts of the game are a bit too obtuse and feel like an oversight. For example, the encryption puzzle in the military base has no hints whatsoever. Then there's the puzzle with the pews in the church with intentionally wrong hints and the right answer spread across multiple pages. Then there's the phone to be unlocked in Chapter VII Part 1. Speaking of, some of these levels like the aforementioned one feel a lot like padding for the actual story itself since they're merely hurdles to be crossed that don't actually progress the story any further. Out of all the levels, the additional chapter is probably the longest and the most difficult, primarily because it has no hints.
The graphics, even though simplistic, are cel-shaded and apt for the title. They make the rooms look cute while not breaking the immersion of the levels. The music is also on-point and honestly, never gets stale. The actions and reactions of the protagonist also add a humanising element to the entire journey in a town where he's the only person there.
Throughout the game, apart from some of the puzzles which may have been too difficult to figure out, I have not really encountered any bugs or oversights apart from one. In the additional level, there is no background music once you interact with the music player for whatever reason. To add on top of that, the game has come out in 2019, but the hints for the same level are still in development. Given how obtuse the puzzles are in that particular level, they really should have added hints there before they started working on their two new titles.
In the end, Tiny Room Stories: Town Mystery is a wonderful puzzle game with a gripping narrative which could use a bit of work. But given how it was made a two-person team, I won't hold the flaws against them. In fact, despite of its shortcomings, it is one of my favourite games and I would definitely recommend this game.
