The White Door

The old 'a [thing] for fans and newcomers alike' cliche is unbelievably trite, but it's what comes to mind here. The White Door tries to do something different with the Rusty Lake universe, introducing a third-person perspective, a visual style that's reminiscent of an interactive comic at times, a story told more through monologues than ever before, simpler puzzles, and some surprisingly uplifting passages toward the end of the game that offset all the standard issue darkness and weirdness: all things that serve to make this the most accessible game in the franchise yet, despite an unusually slow start. Yet it's the way that this ends up being woven into the overarching mythology of Rusty Lake that makes it most appealing to the likes of me. The protagonist we're playing as, Robert Hill, is an ex-boyfriend of Laura Vanderboom, driven to madness by her murder; there is a scene set in the Rusty Lake Theatre featuring a Dale Vandermeer cameo; the Rusty Lake Wiki also claims that the manager of The White Door itself is the human form of Mr. Owl, which I must admit didn't come across to me while playing it, but does serve to flesh out his backstory quite a bit (and explain the origins of the cubes in the Cube Escape games) if true..

I would still advise playing the franchise through in order as the best way of getting into it, but it's good to see Rusty Lake making efforts to broaden the scope and appeal regardless - and while this certainly isn't as good as Rusty Lake Hotel, Cube Escape: Theatre, or Rusty Lake: Roots, I could very well see them expanding on the new ideas here in the future and making something that matches, or even surpasses, those high watermarks.