The Past Within

I came here looking for a co-op puzzle game and instead found myself staring at what I can only describe as a 3-course meal of Victorian flesh and existential dread, with an ambient soundtrack that made me feel like I was being slowly digested by something with excellent taste. My wife and I sat down expecting a fun little game and stood up as different people with questions about our bloodlines. The atmosphere is immaculate. The sound design is doing things that should be reported. The artwork is so gorgeous and so deeply wrong that it felt rude to look at it without a reservation. The puzzles are smart without being cruel, the lore is rich and completely unhinged in the best way, and somehow you and your partner end up doing real teamwork over what is essentially a dead man’s cryptic to-do list. If you have not played this, you are eating fast food while a Michelin-star kitchen is right next door. 5 stars. We’re already ordering dessert.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

I'll start by saying I've been obsessed with the entire Rusty Lake library for years. I pretty much only play point & click puzzle adventure games and Rusty Lake is at the very top of my list of must-play games. With that being said, I've tried to convince my husband that even though he's not as into puzzle games as I am, that he would love RL -- from the Twin Peaks vibe to the deep, twisty family lore, it's right up his alley if he'd just give it a try. Well, cue The Past Within. We're constantly looking for co-op/2-player games, from video games to table games, and good ones are harder to find than you'd think. We played The Past Within twice, all in one day. He couldn't stop talking about it and when I woke up the following morning, I found him playing Seasons on the couch, already having downloaded the entire series of games. He puzzled his way all the way through, and now he's just as excited and anxious for the next installment as I am! The Past Within was an ingenious take on multiplayer co-op puzzling, and was just as fun & entertaining for a Rusty Lake & puzzle-obsessed nerd as it was for a newbie to the genre. The communication aspect was always fun, never frustrating, and sharing the unique experiences each of us was having was a blast. Amazing work to the Rusty Lake team, thanks for another beautiful game! Fingers crossed the wait for the next game won't be long 🐦

If Escape Rooms needed a definition, that would hands down be Rusty Lake. The graphics, details, the eerie music make the game so difficult to put down. It’s got just the right amount of creepy to make it down right addicting. I’ve paid and played all the Rusty Lake games, and I was so sad when I finished all of them. So when I saw that Rusty Lake finally came out with with a new game, I’ve never double-clicked my lock button so fast. This new co-player game was ingenius. I’m doing long distance with my girlfriend so we’re really limited on how we spend time together, but with The Past Within we had so much fun. I especially was amazed at the new 3D graphics and I LOVED LOVED LOVED that the characters and themes from past games were also in the Past Within as well. Rusty Lake, please don’t stop what ya’ll are doing and I can’t wait for the next chapter.