Developer: Fractal Projects
Publisher: Fractal Projects, Ratalaika Games
Platform: PC, Switch
Tested on: Switch
Save Room – Review
Managing your inventory in the older Resident Evil games was always a challenge, especially if you had to decide which weapon you wanted to keep and which supplies you wanted to save for later. In most cases, you’d be combining items to create new ones, and you’d also make sure that your guns would be fully loaded. If this is something that you quite enjoyed doing, then you’ll be happy to hear that an entire game exists that solely revolves around inventory management. As this is a very short and basic game, we will be doing an equally short review of Save Room.
Right off the bat, it’s clear that developer Fractal Games took a whole lot of inspiration from the Resident Evil games, as the inventory screen looks nearly identical, as do the items you’ll be moving around. You’ll have different colored herbs, ammo, guns, and other smaller items. It’s your job to cram them all into your limited inventory space, and this is done by rotating items, combining items, using health items, and, of course, reloading your weapons. You’ll see a gradual increase in difficulty over the 40 levels the game has to offer, and it will only take you around two hours to beat the game. After that, the game offers almost no replay value, except if you wish to do the same puzzles over and over again. Truth be told, that’s all there is to the game. The controls are responsive, the sound design is decent, and we loved the many not-so-subtle references to the Resident Evil franchise.
Even though the game controls nicely with a controller, we do regret that the port does not have touchscreen support. This would have made the game a lot more fun to play in handheld mode, even though it would have required a fairly big overhaul of the controls. Nonetheless, it would have been very satisfying to be able to drag and drop items, and then flip them around by using touchscreen controls.
Conclusion
Save Room is a short and sweet puzzle game, and we very much enjoyed playing through the 40 levels of the game. If you loved managing your inventory in the Resident Evil games, and you wouldn’t mind a game dedicated to these inventory management mechanics, then picking this one up is a no-brainer. That being said, the game is very short with little replay value, so don’t expect to find a game that can keep you occupied for the coming weeks.
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