Ice Scream 7 Friends: Lis

About Ice Scream 7 Friends: Lis

Ice Scream 7 Friends: Lis picks up after the kitchen escape of Ice Scream 6. J, Mike and Charlie have gathered in the control room, but Lis is missing, and Mike follows her down a pipe into the laboratory beneath the factory. Meanwhile Charlie hides in Rod's van and rides back to town to find something to help his sister.

You switch between Lis and Mike, who can reach different areas, and for the first time in the series you can pass items between friends to complete puzzles. The laboratory has two halves, Chemistry and Robotics, where the Mini Rods are experimented on and built, and the chapter also returns to town locations from the early Ice Scream games. Story scenes go into Rod's early years with Sister Madeline, the nun of Keplerians' Evil Nun series.

The tension is the series' usual mix: the Mini Rods patrol and raise the alarm if they see you, Rod roams in his grinning mask, and you hide or run when he comes. A step-by-step hint and mission system helps when you are stuck, and ghost mode lets you explore with no danger.

Mike brought his Electrogun down the pipe with him, but it breaks in the fall and has to be fixed before it'll stun anything again. Until then you lean on the kids' homemade traps, which only hold Rod or a Mini Rod for a short while. There are four difficulty levels. They change how sharply Rod and the robots react to noise, how fast they move and how many tries you get before it's over.

Worth knowing before you start: there's no save system. You're expected to clear the lab in one go, and players put a run at about an hour. Ghost mode makes you invisible, though the free version drops an ad into it every few minutes.

It is a cartoon-style scare made for all ages, rated Teen on Google Play for fantasy violence, and the penultimate chapter before Ice Scream 8. On iPhone it isn't sold alone. It comes as the third chapter of the Ice Scream Friends Adventures app, after Mike's and Charlie's chapters.

How to play Ice Scream 7 Friends: Lis

1. Download Ice Scream 7 free from Google Play on Android, or get Ice Scream Friends Adventures from the App Store on iPhone or iPad.
2. Pick one of the four difficulties, or ghost mode to explore without danger.
3. Explore the laboratory as Lis or Mike, switching when an area needs the other.
4. Pass items between the two friends to complete puzzles.
5. Keep out of the Mini Rods' sight, hide from Rod and reunite the four friends.

Tips

• Use headphones: you hear Rod and the guards before you see them.
• If a puzzle needs an item the current friend lacks, check whether the other one can pass it over.
• Use the mission list and hints to see what to do next.
• Set aside an hour or so. The game has no save system, so a run is meant to be played through in one go.
• Mike's Electrogun is broken when he lands. Getting it repaired early gives you a way to stun Rod or a Mini Rod for about a minute.

Questions