Peering through the keyhole: a deep dive into The Room series

Mairi Nolan, 19 September 2024

It’s not true. I did naaahht- Oh hi, Thinky Games readers! In this article, we’ll be talking about The Room. No wait, I’m not referring to the 2003 Tommy Wiseau film (although that might just be the crossover I’ve been waiting for my whole life). I’m talking about Fireproof Games’ incredibly popular escape room puzzle game and its equally successful follow-ups.

Now before we get into it, a quick spoiler warning. This article won’t discuss any specific puzzle solutions, but it will make references to characters and plot points from each game. Since much of the lore is scattered in background documents it won’t affect your experience too much, but if you enjoy finding and reading everything yourself then you’ve been warned! Without further ado, read on to learn more about the history of the series, its dimensional-hopping timeline, and what makes this series of puzzle games so iconic.

Ask any escape room enthusiast for a video game recommendation and you’ll hear the name The Room tossed around. But what is it? Each game features a series of rooms complete with detailed contraptions you need to solve. Whether you're looking at a single box on a table or wandering around a sprawling mansion, you’re always looking for a secret seam to interact with. Push this, pull this, lift this up, or view that from a new angle. The Room series is an elaborate puzzle box of dimly lit corridors, peculiar contraptions, and otherworldly magic. Every steampunk-style box, every cryptic letter, and every strange symbol beckon with a quiet promise: Solve me and I’ll reveal my secrets. Its narrative dances on the edge of the arcane, with the occasional subtle nod towards Lovecraft.

The Room series is an elaborate puzzle game by an artist-heavy team. It’s gorgeous and every single screenshot is a piece of art I’d gladly hang on my walls. The Room puzzles are rarely too complex but what they masterfully do is encourage playful exploration of the environment. It’s clever puzzle design, and immensely satisfying to play, but the real focus of the series is how something so ordinary as a box on a table can become so extraordinary.

“Your path will appear when the last bell tolls midnight. A trifle dramatic, I know” — Clocktower

The Room began back in 2011 when Fireproof Games - a British game development studio focused on designing environments for AAA games  - started developing their first original IP game. The move turned out to be a success when the next year The Room launched to widespread critical acclaim and awards, including a BAFTA, the GDC award for best mobile game, Apple’s Game of the Year and the TIGA Award for game design. Whilst this and the subsequent games in the series were built for the tactile, touch screen of a mobile device, the series grew from strength to strength as it was remastered for PC and console, leading up to their most recent release in VR: A Dark Matter.

As of writing, Fireproof Games has releases five games in The Room series, including:

• The Room (2012)

• The Room Two (2013)

• The Room Three (2015)

• The Room: Old Sins (2018)

• The Room VR: A Dark Matter (2020)

Across these five games, the lore goes deep. We find ourselves travelling millennia, traversing Victorian manor houses, ancient temples on far-flung planets, and witches’ huts buried deep in the woods. We often find ourselves occasionally pausing to peer over the brink into the inky black, tentacle-filled world of the Null. What I mean is, that

The Room

’s lore is hard to squeeze into a box.

Yes, pun intended

. Temporally, the events of the game begin in 2620 BC and end sometime after 1908, that is, unless you count the multiple endings. In one such ending, you may find yourself stepping out onto the surface of an unfamiliar planet far from Earth in goodness knows which year- But wait! I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s go back to the beginning.

“The first set of keys you will have to make yourself, but the final one is held ready for you” — Forge

Deep diving into The Room is not a light endeavour. Unlike with our recent Rusty Lake deep dive, The Room’s lore is so deeply buried within its environment, it serves only as an extra reward for those who dig deep enough to find and make sense of it. I can’t count the number of times I went back through the games looking for an extra reference to the Chapel of the Sacred Guard just to avoid a loose thread. Or how I found myself craning my neck in The Room VR: A Dark Matter just to read a partially covered newspaper, purely because I could.

"Travellers such as ourselves require such things to find our path. A light in the black" — Grey Holm

Whilst all The Room games are set in the same cinematic universe, The Room, The Room Two, and The Room Three can be considered the central trilogy of the series. The Room: Old Sins and The Room VR: A Dark Matter, on the other hand, take place in parallel to the core trilogy, following a different cast of characters. Together, all five paint a complete picture of the world, with common themes and antagonists throughout, but separately they can be considered and enjoyed as standalone games.

This brings me to my next point: there are two types of The Room players. The first are those who enjoy the games as fun escape room puzzle boxes… And to be honest, they’re not wrong! Picking up any title and playing it on a whim will still be a fun, whimsical game of mechanical puzzle boxes set against the backdrop of a mysterious world.

Then there’s the other camp of players. The ones who, like me, have enormous murder-boards tracing every scrap of detail across the dimensional-hopping timeline. Regardless of which camp you fall into, The Room is a rich experience for all.

So, to help us digest this tangled web of timelines and characters, I've created a quick list of things you need to know before we dive in. They might not make much sense now, but you'll understand the story better if you have a grasp of these details:

The Null is the central antagonistic presence of The Room series. It’s the glue that keeps the universe of the games together. It’s described as the fifth element, alongside Air, Earth, Fire and Water, but you might prefer to imagine it as an otherworldly void. The game’s director, Barry Meade, explains it a little better:

“The Null was invented as a device to get you through the game before we ever named it and gave it a story. As you were answering a letter from an old friend who was in trouble - but who you'd never meet - we needed something physical to represent the sinister powers & danger your friend was dabbling in, so we came up with the idea that it's essentially a kind of Ur-Chemical, that Alchemists were chasing, and mystics sought through the centuries.”

As a storytelling device, the Null can manipulate time and space, and transport its users to the furthest reaches of the world. It’s so powerful it can only be contained with complex mechanisms which, you guessed it, are puzzle boxes. In some deeper reaches of the lore, it is suggested that the Null might be more than a simple chemical. Perhaps a living, thinking being with nightmarish tentacles whose goal is to trap the souls of the living in its world. Perhaps.

As for the Craftsman, he is a powerful user of the Null and the architect of the games’ puzzles. At times he too is an antagonist, and other times he acts as a guide. Rarely seen, often mentioned, The Craftsman is ever-present in the background.

But that’s not all, the players are also introduced to a number of strange and shadowy organisations throughout the series. Including,

The Royal Institute - A scientific organisation who denies knowledge of the Null.

The Circle - Led by the mysterious ‘Crowley’ and charged with collecting and extracting Null samples.

Talisman - The Craftsman’s company that's rarely directly mentioned but visible on the strange contraptions the Craftsman constructs.

The Initial Trilogy - The Room, The Room Two, The Room Three

The initial trilogy of The Room, The Room Two and The Room Three follows our friend A.S. and begins exactly where you might expect it to: In a room. Across the three games, you dive deeper and deeper into the metaphorical puzzle box to reach the centre of the mystery. Along the way, you’ll encounter an eyepiece that allows you to see the Null prompting the realisation that perhaps the world isn’t at all what you thought it was.

Each of the trilogy games seamlessly rolls onto the next. At the end of the first, you encounter a door. In the beginning of the second, you walk through that door into The Room Two. As your understanding of the Null increases, the game too grows in scale. Where The Room largely centres around one puzzle box, the sequel offers many new spatial and temporal locations to explore - a crypt, a pirate ship, a temple, a laboratory, and so on. In a dramatic ending filled with oozing darkness and too many tentacles that definitely maybe gave me nightmares, you finally come to terms with the Null and its horrific power. Is this your end?!

No! Of course not. After all, this is a trilogy. One short time jump later and you find yourself - the protagonist -  seeking help at the Royal Institute. Here they refuse to acknowledge the Null, but they do point you to a strange old mansion called Grey Holm, where the events of The Room Three take place. Here, you come face to face with the peculiar architect of the puzzles called The Craftsman and he has one final challenge for you. Will you be able to solve his final puzzle box?

Well, that’s actually up to you! The Room Three has multiple endings, and each one gives a slightly different explanation of the events of the trilogy. Whilst none of them have been confirmed as being canon by Fireproof Games, they have admitted that if they were to continue the original trilogy it would pick up from the “Lost” ending, rather than the “Imprisoned”, “Escape” or “Release” endings. Personally, I enjoyed the “Escape” ending the best, but then I’m a sucker for a happy(ish) ending.

The Elaborate Side Quest - The Room: Old Sins

After releasing the trilogy, Fireproof Games took three years to develop the next in the series, The Room: Old Sins. Old Sins takes the best locations, mechanics and tropes of the trilogy and builds upon the universe in a consistent and cohesive way. The core themes of the Null, the Craftsman, and missing people continue, but instead, we are also introduced to new characters. The player takes on the role of Collector Hydrus, a researcher working for The Circle who is sent to Waldegrave Mantor to investigate the disappearances of Edward and his wife Abigail Lockwood. You see, The Circle has given Edward a little piece of the Null to study, and if the first three games taught us anything it’s that the Null is bad news.

The Dramatic Ending - The Room VR: A Dark Matter

The final entry in the series, The Room VR: A Dark Matter, is my favourite in the series for two reasons. The first is that it’s the logical conclusion of touch-screen tactility. Secondly, I’m from London, and I took particular delight in deliberately clipping myself through the walls so I could ogle at the beautiful Victorian streets of Bloomsbury.

Once the excitement of playing The Room in VR wears off, players return to a comparatively terrestrial detective room and are given their task. This time you’re investigating the disappearance of Dr. Rupert Montgomery who, with the assistance of our old puzzle-making adversary, The Craftsman, was looking into the Null. Again, we fall headfirst into the world of the Null and are transported into new locations, new eras, and meet colourful new characters. This time, we’re kicking ass and taking names- in a strictly puzzle-solving way, of course. With a mystery to solve and a missing person to find, our protagonist of the London Police takes no prisoners leading to perhaps our first ‘positive ending’ of the entire series.

Whether or not The Room VR: A Dark Matter is intended to be the final entry in the series, it does a good job of providing closure. I’ve done my best to avoid spoilers, but rest assured this entry in the series explains the who, the what, and most importantly, the why of what happened.

Fireproof Games have come a long way since 2012 and through it all they haven’t lost sight of their most important puzzle pillar, the puzzle box. I’m not the only one who thinks that, since The Room has gone on to spawn its own sub-genre of escape games filled with tactile, steampunk contraptions and you can see its long-lasting legacy in games like The House of Da Vinci, Ada’s Study, the upcoming Blue Prince game, and even physical escape rooms themselves like The Alchemist in Amsterdam. I expect we’ll see even more games in this sub-genre crop up in the future, as The Room's approach to puzzle games and mystery adventures has solidified its legacy within the gaming space.

You can play the The Room series on PC (via Steam), Nintendo Switch, and on mobile through the Android App Store and Apple Store. Their VR title can be played through Meta.