The Spectrum Retreat

 Xbox One
The Spectrum Retreat Image
Metascore
69

Mixed or average reviews - based on 10 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
6.3

Mixed or average reviews- based on 6 Ratings

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  • Summary: A challenging, first-person puzzle game set in the near future when you will explore a striking art-deco hotel that holds a deep-seeded mystery surrounding your current stay. Your desire to unearth the truth is obstructed by an array of color-coded puzzles, mind-bending physics challenges,A challenging, first-person puzzle game set in the near future when you will explore a striking art-deco hotel that holds a deep-seeded mystery surrounding your current stay. Your desire to unearth the truth is obstructed by an array of color-coded puzzles, mind-bending physics challenges, and the growing fear of exposing your true intentions. … Expand

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Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 10
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 10
  3. Negative: 0 out of 10
  1. TheXboxHub
    Jul 10, 2018
    90
    The Spectrum Retreat comes across as a great success from a special talent – one who has provided a fun, rewarding puzzling narrative game that sticks with you.
  2. MondoXbox
    Jul 10, 2018
    80
    The Spectrum Retreat sports some very interesting and satisfying puzzles, but it fails in providing an intriguing story backdrop connecting them. Nonetheless, it's still one of the best first person puzzlers this gen, and it definitely deserves a go.
  3. Generación Xbox
    Jul 24, 2018
    80
    The spectrum retreat is an exercise in style, and a very personal piece of work, that even when it's incapable of blending properly narrative and gameplay, it succeeds in being fascinating and sophisticated.
  4. Xbox Tavern
    Jul 16, 2018
    68
    The Spectrum Retreat’s greatest achievement is how engaging, challenging and unnerving the whole experience can be. The drawback however, and the bane of most puzzle games, is that there really isn’t much longevity to it. That said, Dan Smith’s debut project is certainly a game that any fan of the genre should try out, and for his first attempt, Dan shows a great deal of promise for his future in game development.
  5. XBLA Fans
    Aug 6, 2018
    60
    Puzzle-wise, the game delivers like a morning newspaper. You get what you expected. Then you realize it had rained, and the story was hard to read, and ink had smeared around the important parts. The graphics are fine, but not good enough to excuse the sudden clumsiness of loading changes in the environment. The saving grace is the excellent voice acting and puzzle concepts. It turns out to be just mediocre overall. You will likely enjoy The Spectrum Retreat, but your love for it will be as empty as the hotel.
  6. TrueAchievements
    Jul 31, 2018
    60
    Whilst The Spectrum Retreat is an enjoyable, well-paced puzzler, it never quite hits the heights of other similarly styled puzzle games. You learn the backstory at the same pace as your character, which means you face the twists and turns together, but it feels like the story could have been expanded on more. The puzzles themselves are never too difficult, but challenging enough to hold your attention. Overall, it's a short but sweet puzzle game that whose greatest fault is coming after several similar but better games.
  7. We Got This Covered
    Jul 9, 2018
    50
    The Spectrum Retreat is a perfectly serviceable puzzler, but it rarely rises above mediocrity. There's potential within the ground of the Penrose Hotel, but it's never capitalized on.

See all 10 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 2
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 2
  3. Negative: 0 out of 2
  1. GBG_Jason
    Jul 19, 2018
    8
    You’ll awaken in the hotel with an upbeat android at your door informing you that your breakfast is served in the hotel’s restaurant. If theYou’ll awaken in the hotel with an upbeat android at your door informing you that your breakfast is served in the hotel’s restaurant. If the fact that the hotel is suspiciously vacant didn’t raise a red flag for you sooner, a few ominous phone calls and creepy text messages will allude to the fact that not everything at the Spectrum Retreat is what it seems. You’ll soon be navigating through the hotel’s restricted areas, attempting to bypass a number of security features in an effort to escape with the mysterious caller on the other end of the phone being your only aide. Is she trying to trap you or free you? You’ll have to venture deeper into the strange resort to find out.

    The gameplay leans heavily on the walking sim genre, with the game split between two segments: open areas of the hotel which will expand organically, and the restricted areas which work similar to the trials from the Portal franchise. In the hotel, you will need to explore and interact with objects to locate the key code needed to proceed through the many locked areas, which will transport you into the second phase, which uses your phone to absorb colors and place them in white areas, akin to the portal gun from the previously mentioned franchise. Completing these actions is essentially adding or removing power to specific barriers or floors that block the path forward. These make up the majority of the puzzles and are challenging just enough to keep you immersed in the game world, are rarely taxing, and leave the story to be the main draw to push forward. Finding the codes needed to access these hidden areas is actually a bit more involved and difficult than the puzzles themselves, with the answers often being hidden in plain sight. Finding the first door code actually took me longer to complete than the five rooms that followed in the restricted area, and it was plainly written on a do not disturb door hanger on the next door down the hall.

    Death isn’t much of a thing at the Spectrum, since failure results in you starting the area over almost immediately. While most of the puzzles can be completed in a minute or so, some of the more tedious brain busters require you to backtrack to and fro within the puzzle, which makes starting over a bit of a chore due to the slow walking speed our character exhibits, lacking a proper sprint or run option.

    There are some light horror elements tucked away, with a few of the automated servants popping in when discovered in an area you are not supposed to be in causing the occasional jump scare. Their smooth featureless faces with the perky automated voices resulted in me never feeling as if I was alone within the hotel, despite not displaying much of a visible threat. Throughout the journey, the game world or your phone would stutter as if there was a glitch in the matrix.

    The visuals are a mixed bag, with the hotel areas looking astounding, with detailed textures on the tile floor or carpet and small details throughout that make the desolate hotel feel as if someone was just there, leaving their empty bottle or cup for the staff to pick up. I spent a great deal of time just exploring the layout of the area taking in the sights, looking for the small number of collectible glowing cubes that add to the mystery of who or what is running the hotel. The restricted areas are far less interesting to look at, with dark metallic looking walls that make up the entirety of the world aside from the assets the player is meant to interact with. This resulted in me rushing through these areas simply to get back into the hotel to unravel the mysteries that it held.

    The controls work as they should and are extremely accessible, with most actions being assigned to the trigger button, with the sticks being used to look and move. I found the look option to be a bit clunky, but passable as pin point accuracy is rarely required.

    Clocking in at a little less than three hours, there isn’t much to see here once you’ve completed the game, unless you wish to search out the additional cubes that I mentioned previously. Being a budget priced game, it is worth the cost of admission. With only a total of nine collectibles, most players will find these within the initial playthrough, as most are included in linear areas that are required to be explored and emit a blue glow, requiring little effort to locate. With Portal seeming to be a dead franchise, players who need a rogue AI to complicate their life will enjoy checking in to The Spectrum Retreat.    … Expand
  2. Xbox_Alive
    Oct 2, 2018
    7
    There is a decent amount of content for you to get to grips with and the amount of variety present in the 80 levels will no doubt keep youThere is a decent amount of content for you to get to grips with and the amount of variety present in the 80 levels will no doubt keep you satisfied. I loved the art-style that was present in the game because at times the different colours are beautiful and it really does make the gameplay stand out.
    The controls which are obviously very important in a game like this thankfully hold up really well throughout and I didn’t come across any problems here. It definitely features that addictive one more game style and even though it does become a little bit too difficult it does do a good job of easing you in gently. A little bit of a story would’ve been a welcome addition for me because I think it would’ve fitted in with the game’s mysterious style excellently. As I said earlier the game can be a little too difficult at times so expect to experience some frustrating moments from time to time. I really enjoyed the colours in the game some of the traps present in the levels can be a little difficult to see at times. I must admit that being precise and doing perfect runs in game’s does make me become frustrated quite quickly, but even though that’s the main feature in Spectrum it didn’t frustrate me enough to stop me from returning to the game time and time again. I think that’s mainly because the game eased me in gently instead of throwing me in the deep end straight away and whilst I haven’t completed the game perfectly yet I still enjoyed what each of the 80 levels had to offer. Another aspect of the game that kept my frustration levels down was the controls that have been implemented. Thankfully these controls remained tight and responsive throughout my time with the game and even though this game suffers with a few shortcomings this aspect alone means the game does more than enough to get a thumbs up from me and fans of these specific game’s will no doubt find a lot of enjoyment here.    … Expand

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