The Spectrum Retreat

It's a puzzle adventure that sprinkles a bit of philosophy into its narrative. It doesn't break new ground, and the pacing can feel sluggish at times, but there's a quiet simplicity to it—neat and unpretentious.

The Spectrum Retreat is a bizarre game that is quite uneven, and yet it’s somehow captivating. I will have to split the game into two parts: the exploring part and the puzzle part. Why the split? Let me try to explain it to you.
Let me start with the puzzle part of the game. Puzzles are based on simple mechanics; you have a device that lets you use colors. They let you pass matching-color barriers and teleport. At some point, you will be introduced to room rotation, which will spice things up a little bit. In my opinion, puzzles are fun, and I liked that those puzzles were gradually getting harder. Yes, there is one section of the game that can be frustrating, and that is level 5. If you get stuck at that level, then you will have to press the restart button. It's a quite long level, so it may be frustrating and tedious. Let’s now talk about the exploration part of the game.
You wake up in the hotel (I know, scary), and you have no context on who you are, where you are, and why there are some weird robots talking to you. You'll get a call from Cooper; she will tell you that you’re put here not by your will and that she will help you. At the beginning you may feel confused, so naturally you will try to unravel the mystery. You will realize that this game has a repeating-the-day motive. You will repeat the day and do the same thing, and then you go explore, and I feel that the game here is… uneven. Let me start with the positive side of this part of the game. Firstly, the atmosphere in this game is amazing. It sometimes feels like you are in a horror game, but this is not a horror game; it will never try to scare you, and it doesn’t have jump scares. It tries to make you feel uneasy, and every time I was walking around the hotel, it looked and felt like I was in the hotel from The Shining—especially the ballroom, which feels like it was inspired by The Shining. Every day, I was intrigued with the mystery behind the hotel, and I wanted to see more. Unfortunately, The Spectrum Retreat is not focused on exploring the hotel. Exploring sections are short, and it's more like a quick break from puzzles at times. There are some cool ideas with environmental storytelling, but it doesn’t use the full potential that I think this game has. Exploring feels tedious because your character is slow. You don’t have a sprint button, and I sometimes wish it had or that the character was a bit faster. The Spectrum Retreat slows you down, but I have yet to get an idea why it does it. It doesn’t build suspense; it sometimes ruins it. To be fair, even though I have written these negatives, I still didn’t regret it. Why? Let me answer it with one word: story.
You have probably seen that some reviews tell you that the story is a bit of a letdown (especially the ending), and I disagree with it. In my opinion, the story of The Spectrum Retreat is intriguing and asks you certain philosophical questions about identity, memories, free will, and trauma. It’s not an easy task for me to talk about it without spoiling it much, so let me tell you this. When you’re in the puzzle rooms, there will be some weird, glitchy furniture with documents on them. Study them, listen to some memories, and when you are at the final choice, don’t think about the choice itself. Think about the idea behind the choices and how your character got to this moment. Maybe I’m overanalyzing stuff, but in my opinion this is a quite tragic game that tells us that the most scary thing is that we sometimes wake up and don’t know who we are. To be fair, puzzle sections feel a bit detached from the story. I understand the logic behind them, but it is quite confusing when at one moment you’re in an art deco hotel and then at the other moment you’re in a more futuristic room. I wish puzzle rooms were connected to the story, that they had some theme behind them (the glitchy furniture parts of the room were not enough for me). Only level 5 felt like it was connected to the story, and I wished there were more levels like that. I understand why people find the story quite mediocre or that it is not up to par with other games with this kind of motive, but I think otherwise. I think it's a clever philosophical game.
Should you play it? I think you should try it, especially if it’s on sale. If you’re just looking for a good puzzle game, then this game will give you some decent puzzles. If you’re looking for an amazing story and want to unravel a mystery… then you should be ready that it may not meet your standards. It’s an uneven game in this aspect, and the ending can be quite anticlimactic, and you wish it gave you more context… on the other hand, I quite liked that it doesn't reveal some secrets. It lets you build your interpretation and theories.

I started and didn't close it out until I completed it. Voice acting was perfection, sound design and music the same. I was creeped out, sad, hopeful, angry, and here I am starting another playthrough.

First-person puzzler with great storytelling. The puzzles are the right level of challenging and are satisfying to complete. Only takes about 4 and a half hours to play through. Too short for full price but well worth it when you find it on sale for 70% off.

Fun puzzle game, but I wish there were less possible softlocks in puzzles near the end

Pretty good puzzler with an interesting story. The mechanics are interesting, but there might be some problems if you're prone to motion sickness.

The Spectrum Retreat is a mostly fun Portal-like. You work your way through increasingly more complex chambers. The new tool introduced over time are keep the puzzles interesting. The puzzle can be difficult but never feel unfair.

The game boasts a story told between puzzles. It explores how the player character ends up at the Spectrum Retreat. I found that the way this story is delivered to be the worst part of the game. It can be such a slog to slow walk around the retreat to search for clues to advance. Even though it would be somewhat out-of-place, you should be able to run during these sections between puzzles. The best part of the game are the puzzles, and the parts between bring the fun to a screeching halt. I could imagine some people finding the conclusion to the story very satisfying but I just found it average. I decided to go for the achievement that unlocks by after selecting the alternate ending. This requires you to reply the entire game. For me that sealed the deal how unfun the sections outside the chambers can be.

Having said that, most of your time is going to be engaging with the puzzle chambers, which I really enjoyed.