Rusty Lake: Roots

About Rusty Lake: Roots

Rusty Lake: Roots is the second premium point-and-click adventure from Rusty Lake, the studio behind the Cube Escape series and Rusty Lake Hotel, released on Steam in October 2016 and also on iPhone and iPad. It holds a Metacritic score of 75 on PC.

James Vanderboom's life changes when he plants a special seed in the garden of the house he has inherited. From there you build the family's tree of life, unlocking portraits by playing through the moments that begin and end each member's life: a wedding, a portrait, a well in the garden, a soldier in a trench, all drawn in the studio's flat, storybook style.

Each level is a self-contained puzzle room with items to combine and mechanisms to work out. The calm surface does not last: the game is built to switch from quiet to very dark moments, with strange figures such as a man with a stag's skull for a head and secrets in the bloodline that only the tree reveals. Every level has its own theme song.

It suits puzzle fans who like the macabre more than jump scares, and anyone who has played the Cube Escape games.

How to play Rusty Lake: Roots

1. Buy it on Steam for Windows or Mac, or on the App Store.
2. Choose a portrait on the family tree to play that moment.
3. Look around each scene, pick up items and combine them to solve its puzzles.
4. Unlock new portraits and follow the bloodline across generations.

Tips

• Write down symbols and numbers; clues often carry over within a level.
• If you are stuck, the tree may hold secrets you have not found yet.

Questions