Cabin Escape: Alice's Story Review

More of a taster for those tempted by Glitch Games' Forever Lost series, Cabin Escape: Alice's Story isn't the longest of puzzle games by any means but it is quite entertaining.

It's touted as a prologue to the series, but there's little need to have played one of the games before. Cabin Escape: Alice's Story works just as well to newbies as it does old hands. There are some familiar elements though. Namely, players can still take photos of the clues and rooms they find on their journey, thanks to an in-game camera. It'll prove handy too, working kind of like a visual notebook.

As the name suggests, Cabin Escape: Alice's Story is all about helping a woman called Alice escape a cabin by solving various puzzles. It's a dark and foreboding cabin. Think horror film cabins and one isn't far off. Include some seemingly innocuous items such as kids drawings and things get a little more unsettling. As it's night time, the background music mostly consists of the sound of creatures outside, but unfortunately it's a bit repetitive and makes switching to mute a tempting proposition.

Starting out, it's all a bit vague as to what needs to be done next with no hand-holding to speak of. That's both refreshing and sometimes infuriating. Exploration is the key here with the puzzles that open up being fairly logical, although how everything pieces together isn't quite so clear at times. It's a shame and cheeky though that it costs $0.99 for each hint, with no freebies included. For an one off payment of $0.99, players who are stuck can opt to unlock hints, and the developers also promise to help out via email.

It won't be the longest of puzzling experiences, and some might be infuriated by the lack of assistance or guidance that Cabin Escape: Alice's Story offers, but given it's entirely free to play it's not a bad choice for adventure gamers to make. It'll get one warmed up for future titles.