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Genre: Adventure Developer & Publisher: Rusty Lake Released: August 13, 2026 Requirements: OS: Windows 10 or higher Processor: Minimum, 2.4 Ghtz processor Memory: Minimum, 4 GB RAM Storage: 4 GB available space
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Genre: Adventure Developer & Publisher: Rusty Lake Released: August 13, 2026 Requirements: OS: Windows 10 or higher Processor: Minimum, 2.4 Ghtz processor Memory: Minimum, 4 GB RAM Storage: 4 GB available space
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By flotsam
Servant of the Lake Rusty Lake We are about 11 years and 20 or so games into the world of Rusty Lake, a realm that delivers weird and stylish point-and-click pieces of fun. I am not nearly familiar enough with what has come before to appreciate all the interwoven intricacies of the broader lore, but trust me when I say it doesn’t really matter. Two things can be true; this stands alone as an intriguing ‘out there’ piece of adventure puzzling, at the same time as it weaves another thread into the Rusty Lake tapestry. In that regard, what follows is very much a product of the former. Don’t be surprised though if it leaves you wanting more of the latter. The game casts you in the role of a servant, hired to attend at the Vanderboom estate over the course of a three day weekend. The three siblings are arriving for their annual reunion, and you are tasked with helping to make it a smooth experience. Mundane tasks abound, but then things take a strange spiraling turn involving a mysterious Elixir. That the coach driver wished you luck when he dropped you off was probably a clue it wouldn’t be plain sailing. The maid probably seals the deal; she looks like she can’t wait for the weekend to be over. There is a minimalistic graphic style that helps deliver a visually off-kilter world. The hand drawn 2D graphics and a muted colour palette are highly effective, and some gorgeous water-coloured backgrounds add a layered almost 3D effect to various scenes. Though more elaborate than the other games I have played (a comment that applies across the board), it felt instantly familiar It is entirely point and click, and uses a first person perspective. Some scenes can be dragged or clicked left and right, but for the most part what you see on screen is what there is. You can click your way through the halls and rooms of the mansion, clicking the back arrow at the bottom of the screen to retrace your steps. None of the environments are very big, but it didn’t feel constrained. The locked and/or inaccessible doors you come across hint at rooms that might become available down the track. There are no hotspots so you need to click on things in the hope of eliciting a response. You might also have to drag or slide or pull an item in order to interact successfully (e.g., cupboards, drawers, curtains). Many of the things to click are reasonably apparent but some things are anything but. Don’t assume anything is out of bounds. Even allowing for the rules of Rusty Lake (i.e., weird stuff happens anywhere) some interactions might well feel obscure. I just went with it. You will need your best puzzling brain. Some are straightforward, some not at all so. Inventory items are part and parcel of many, as is identifying and applying clues to puzzles. Some are multi-part, requiring you to pull together various threads to get to the solution, with the alchemy lab being a highpoint in that regard. Some involve repetition (i.e., do it successfully a certain number of times or start again); others require you to manipulate an environment (e.g., get those cockroaches down that hole), and trial and error is a necessary element in working out how a puzzle works (e.g., poke that, see what happens, poke something else, repeat). The game is full of them. Many are unique or presented in a unique way, and while you might not like all of them, there are plenty that you will. And if you get stumped (which I did), there is a link in the menu to an official video walkthrough that is constructed to make finding your particular issue as easy as possible. I did discover that for those puzzles where you manipulate what is in front of you, whilst one has a reset button, the others can be reset by exiting the game and coming back in. It enables you to then follow the walkthrough should that be necessary. The game is voiced, and the sound design (both effects and the music) creates an environment that helps pulls you into the mansion and its various rooms. The handful of scenes outside are equally as ‘real,’ and across the board the estate is, if not quite a character in its own right, is far more than just the canvass on which events take place. Your inventory items sit right of screen, and you just click to try and use one in the game world. There are many items throughout the game but used ones will disappear, so managing the inventory isn’t really a thing. An icon top right takes you to your notebook, which keeps track of where you are up to by day and by task (the game plays out across three days and is divided into time periods and tasks (e.g., welcome the guests, clean the hallways) and contains copies of important notes (i.e., clues) that you find. It also indicates whether you have found the ‘secret’ achievement (i.e.,, one that you don’t achieve by simply completing the particular task). You can also make your own notes in it should you want to. When finished, your notebook enables you to jump back into any task to try and ferret out any missing achievements and is also relevant to a whole other bit of puzzling that starts with a note you find in the carriage that comes to collect you when the weekend is complete. It carries over if you quit, so don’t panic (I did) if the game looks like it is starting from scratch when you next play. You can of course start again, but you can just access the notebook to pick-up from wherever. I got about half the secret achievements, and haven’t yet tried to solve the extra sequence, so I have plenty of incentive to get back into it. The game saves exclusively on exit and to a single save point, and you just hit continue next time you play. It took me about seven hours, and furthered my desire to explore more of the Rusty Lake world. I played on: OS: Windows 11, 64 Bit Processor: Intel i7-9700K 3.7GHz RAM: Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB DDR4 32GB Video card: AMD Radeon RX 580 8192M
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