Most of us spent our days at the age of fifteen by being socially awkward and listening to music our parents do not understand. While most of us struggled with puberty, Dan smith decided to make a videogame instead. It took him 5 years to finalize what would become The Spectrum Retreat. The Spectrum Retreat offers a portal-like puzzle experience intertwined with a vague story which gets clearer and clearer after each new puzzle section is completed.
Overlooking the Penrose hotel
You start The Spectrum Retreat waking up in a hotel room. You are welcomed by a droid-like staff member who tells you breakfast is ready. Once you walk through the hotel you notice you’re alone in the Penrose hotel, except the staff who are all droids. Suddenly you get a call by Cooper who offers you some insight and tells you need to escape through the roof. Getting to the roof seems a bit of a problem. The Penrose hotel is designed not to let you escape. Luckily Cooper can help you override the security measures.
Fresh take on Portal
Saying that The Spectrum Retreat is a portal clone wouldn’t be fair. Off course the gameplay is inspired by Valve’s puzzler but The Spectrum Retreat offers its own twists to make the gameplay feel fresh. The communication device you use to talk to Cooper, holds the ability to swap colours with boxes found in the puzzle rooms. Swapping to the right colour lets you pass through coloured walls. Doing this in the right order eventually gets you to the next room. What the game does really well, is offering new mechanics at the right time, keeping the puzzle rooms interesting.
Obligatory walking simulator
The Spectrum Retreat in essence, is a puzzle game. The story part starts after each level of the puzzle rooms are cleared. After each level you need to start a new day by doing the exact same things so the staff doesn’t get suspicious of your escape plans. On paper this looks like a good idea but it got old real quick. The Penrose hotel is a huge place I would’ve like to explore and interact with, sadly the game doesn’t let you. It felt like a walking simulator until you find the entrance to the next puzzle room. I really would’ve liked more to do in the “real world”.
Switch version performs great
The Spectrum Retreat was already released for Windows, Playstation 4 and Xbox One and now sees its release on the Nintendo Switch. The Nintendo Switch version performs up to par with the others. While playing I didn’t notice any problems with the framerate. Everything looks smooth and the colours, which are pretty important in the game, look vibrant.
Conclusion
Although the walking simulator part of this game was dull, the puzzle part of the game is really great. The challenges offered through these parts had me playing the game with much joy. The story unfolds with every level you clear and grows on you, offering a nice experience. This Switch version offers nothing new but is a plausible platform to play this game for the first time.
