Rusty Lakes: Roots Review

Roots –  the tenth installment by developers Rusty Lake, is the second game in the Rusty Lake series. Confusingly, the game is set ion the same area as the Cube Escape games, but is not a part of that series. In Roots we go back to the late 19th century into the early 20th century, surrounding the Vanderboom house, with resident in the area of Rusty Lake. James Vanderboom, our protagonist, recieves a special seed from his newly diseased uncle. His death was under mysterious circumstances, and James was the only surviving heir. James gets the house – and a special seed.

Throughout the game, the goal is to help the Vanderbooms grow their family tree through the years, going through three generations – spanning 95 years. The tree grown in the Vanderboom garden serves as a metaphorical family tree, and also functions as the games main menu. James, wanting to know what befell his uncle, he sets out to learn of his fate. Throughout the game you will be doing different sacrifices – not just through murder, but all sorts of things.

Five years after James planted the tree he marries his girlfriend Mary. The two of them have three children – triplets: Albert, Emma and Samuel. James then makes a horrifying discovery, his uncle’s corpse, with evidence of his heart being used as a sacrifice. With him was his diary, whicl leads him to a secret lair where William and his brother Aldous were trying to make the Elixir of Life and Death. Naturally James recreates said potion, and tries it on his dog. The dog is unaffected by the potion, so James tries it himself, which proves fatal. James is thus buried, and his tongue used as a sacrifice. This sets the presidence for sacrifice used by the Vanderbooms throughout the game.

After the funeral Emma and Samuel wanted to pull a prank on their third sibling Albert by having a beehive fall down on him. The result was a scar on Alberts head, of which he wants to get revenge on his siblings. The three siblings go on to experience different things through the next years: Emma gets mysteriously pregnant from a flower and gives birth to her son Frank, Samuel marries a woman name Ida Reiziger. Albert later pushes the 7-year old Frank down into a well trying to kill him, revenging his bee-scar. When searching for her child, Emma cannot find him.

Being griefstruck after missing her son for so many years, Emma ends up hanging herself. Whilst hanging on the robe, her tears became a sacrifice.  Samuel and Ida then ends up having a baby boy called Leonard. Albert grows an unhealthy obession with Ida, falling in love with her despite being his brothers wife. This culminates with Albert abducting both Samuel and Ida whilst the family are playing instruments together. The triplings mother Mary is so shocked by the event that she dies. Her teeth are showing – becoming another sacrifice.

We discover, that Albert has been using voodoo dolls in order to control Ida and Samuel. Albert stabs the voodoo dolls with a pin, which in turn kills Samuel and Ida. He cuts off the button (eye) on the doll, leading to the real eyes of Samuel and Ida becoming another sacrifice. They are both buried together at the family graveyard. Fast forward to 1909 we see Albert working with alchemy. Before Ida was buried Albert has harvested some of her ovarian eggs, and are using his own semen to artificially inseminate them, and thus creating their daughter Rose.

At the beginning of World War I Leonard (the son of Ida and Samuel) is drafted to the war, and comes back four years later having lost a foot – which becomes another sacrifice. Rose turns to the paranormal, and uses an ouija board in order to communicate with William Vanderboom in order to tell him she wants to help ressurect him. Later, when passing the well where Albert pushed Frank in, she sees a message that flew up the well. The message was asking for help to get up, and Rose does just that – helping up the long-lost Frank Vanderboom. Frank goes to take a shower, and cuts off his hair, which in turn becomes another sacrifice. In the year 1926 Frank wants to take revenge upon the well-misdeed, and kills his uncle Albert. Here, Alberts brain is used as a sacrifice.

Years later Leonard discovers a treasure map, and digs up a timepiece from the backyard. Following, Frank finds a letter left by his late mother telling him to look towards the stars. He does just that, and communicates with his mother through the stars. Frank then goes to the attic, opens a chest and finds a timepiece. In 1932 Rose digs in the family graveyard and finds yet another timepiece. The following year Rose and Frank have a last-dance, where she ends up cutting her finger, the blood being the last sacrifice. With all the sacrifices complete, Rose, Leonard and Frank descents into their uncles alchemy lab, opening the gate with the three timepieces they collected. The tree that James planted all those years ago then absorbs all the sacrifices, and William Vanderboom is resurrected. He is resurrected as The Woman.

This edition of Rusty Lake is quite a bit more lengthy than the first installment in the series – and it shows. The story is quite a bit more complicated, filled with people and names to remember. That being said the story was interesting, and it delivered the same David Lynch-ish grotesqueness and weirdness we’ve come to love. Some of the puzzles can be quite tricky, and you gotta stay sharp to follow the story. Disturbing as the story is, it is set up and executed nicely.

The graphics are in the same art form as the rest of the series, which has its own uniqueness. It works well, especially for these type of games. The same can be said for the music, it is very in-tune for the universe they have created, and fits the bill. The gameplay also follows the same formula, with point-and-click events combined with puzzles. All in all, you get more of the goodness from the Rusty Lake developers. It is a mighty fine game, and any fan of the genre (or of Lynch-inspired works) should give it a go – after competing the first installment (and possibly the Cube Escape games aswell), of course.