Trap someone inside a cabin with an old PC game they have to use to escape and you’ve got Is This Game Trying to Kill Me? Developer Stately Snail creates an escape room that cleverly blends first-person and 2D gameplay together well. This makes for a fun mixture of puzzles and riddles as each reality works together.
For example, solving a puzzle in the PC game may reveal a clue in the cabin that solves another puzzle. Over time, new areas inside the cabin and game will unlock. It’s just a matter of figuring out how each reality plays with the other to continue making progress.
While most puzzles and riddles aren’t too difficult to solve, Is This Game Trying to Kill Me? has helpful hints if you’re struggling. I did have a couple of moments where I overthought a puzzle and made it more difficult than it was. Or one moment when I had absolutely no idea where the game wanted me to go. This forced me to use a hint to get a general idea of where I should be.
Moments like these can throw off the pacing when you’re exploring for an obscure solution. Which makes me wonder if this is why it takes some players three to four hours to complete when it only took me two hours. Despite being a short experience, the developer nails the combination of solving puzzles between both worlds. It’s always neat to interact with something a certain way and suddenly realize how it connects to a different area.
One unfortunate negative of being a shorter game is that it doesn’t have enough room to develop an interesting story. It has a few characters with limited dialogue that barely exist. This leads to a greater focus on the gameplay than the story. Even though the developer leaves just enough story in to make me want more. Or to at least make me curious about the world.
I ran back to characters a couple of times hoping for more but was left disappointed. Instead, there are only a few notes for the tiny bit of story lurking in Is This Game Trying to Kill Me? I would have liked to see the characters be more involved in the world. And perhaps that would dampen the tedium of running back and forth between the real world and the computer.
Is This Game Trying to Kill Me? Review | Closing Thoughts
Is This Game Trying to Kill Me? is an awesome concept that suffers a little from being a short experience. It excels as a unique escape room that also has brutal cutscenes each time you mess up. There’s nothing like a bunch of spikes impaling your 2D game character that suddenly come through the monitor screen. This adds a cool level of detail to connecting both realities. Even if I wish the developers spent more time developing the story of those worlds.
Review Score: 7.5 (Good)
Is This Game Trying to Kill Me? was provided by the developer via a Steam code.
Jeff is a journalist with over 10 years of experience writing, streaming, and making content about video games. With an associate degree in journalism, he’s a sucker for RPGs, survival games, roguelikes, and more.