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The Spectrum Retreat

Check-in to The Spectrum Retreat for a stay you won't forget. Manipulate your way to the truth in this captivating narrative-driven puzzler.

Community

Critics

Storyline

You awake at The Penrose hotel, a peaceful yet unsettling refuge from the outside world. All is not as it seems, and 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.

Screenshots

Mostly Positive

297 Steam reviews

Review History

Reviews

297 total

≥h

Steam User 7311STEAMRecommended

First-person puzzler with great storytelling. The puzzles are the right level of challenging and are satisfying to complete. Only takes about 4 and a half hours to play through. Too short for full price but well worth it when you find it on sale for 70% off.

Mar 27, 2026·5h·Verified

Steam User 7215STEAMRecommended

Fine little puzzler, I liked it overall.
But the women in your ear starts giving guidance on where to go way too soon and frequently. Lemme look around, relax! Also the last puzzle room was a little annoying because there were no saves inbetween so if you make a silly mistake (or dont notice that's an abyss and DIE) you gotta restart it :')
Overall nice tho, and the story was solid too. One room with the hospital bed was... upsetting. Turned the sound off while i was in there :')

Mar 15, 2026·6h·Verified

Steam User 1718STEAMRecommended

[b]Chromatic Logic & Quiet Mysteries – The Spectrum Retreat’s Thoughtful Escape[/b]

[i]A clean, stylish first‑person puzzle adventure where colour‑based mechanics and environmental design make every solution feel “of‑the‑moment.”[/i]

[b]Puzzle Concept & Core Loop[/b]
At its heart, *The Spectrum Retreat* blends exploration with colour‑based puzzles that feel built around elegant logic rather than random challenge. You traverse an eerie hotel where movement and interaction hinge on manipulating coloured panels and pathways to create new routes and align systems. The puzzle loop rewards observation, deduction, and pattern recognition more than reflexes — you pause, consider, and solve.

[b]Mechanics & Colour Interaction[/b]
The central mechanic revolves around colour swapping and connectivity. Each coloured plate or barrier isn’t just aesthetic — it interacts with movement, access, and progression. Switching hues to alter pathways or unlock doors becomes second nature, and puzzles evolve gradually in complexity as new elements are introduced.

[b]Exploration & World Flow[/b]
The Retreat’s level design ensures you’re always moving toward the next logical problem. Rooms interconnect in ways that feel intentional, and environmental cues help you deduce solutions rather than blindly guess. Backtracking is rarely busywork; instead, it reinforces learned mechanics and builds confidence as you piece together the hotel’s mystery.

[b]Atmosphere & Presentation[/b]
Visually, the game strikes a clean balance between sterile modernism and unsettling mood. Ambient sounds, minimalist UI, and calm pacing make the world feel introspective. It’s the kind of puzzle adventure where the space around you informs the answer — not just the mechanics on screen.

[b]Replayability & Depth[/b]
Whilst the puzzles are largely linear in order, their logic depth and variety invite thoughtful replay. Rediscovering how early mechanics once seemed simple after mastering later challenges is genuinely satisfying.

[b]Verdict – 10/10[/b]
The Spectrum Retreat turns colour‑based logic into a polished, thoughtful puzzle experience that rewards smart play and careful observation — a standout for players who love intelligent environmental puzzles.

Mar 4, 2026·7h·Verified

Steam User 6846STEAMRecommended

1. Геймплей и механики (2 балла) = 1,25 балла

Глубина и вариативность механик (0.5)
0,5 балл: Множество интересных и разнообразных механик
0.25 балла: Слабо реализованные или обыкновенные механики
0 баллов: Плохо реализованные, скучные механики
Оценка: 0.25 балла

Баланс сложности (0.5)
0,5 балл: Хорошо сбалансированная сложность
0.25 балла: Есть дисбаланс в некоторых моментах
0 баллов: Большой дисбаланс, ломающий механики или геймплей
Оценка: 0,5 балл

Отзывчивость управления (0.5)
0,5 балл: Удобное управление и контроль
0.25 балла: Наличие некоторых проблем в управлении и контроле
0 баллов: Плохой и неудобный контроль в игре
Оценка: 0,5 балл

Инновации или уместность заимствований (0.5)
0,5 балл: Уникальные и хорошие механики
0.25 балла: Стандартные, но хорошо реализованные механики
0 баллов: Плохо скопированные механики без интересных изменений и идей
Оценка: 0 баллов

2. Сюжет и нарратив (1.5 балла) = 0,25 балла

Качество сценария (0.5)
0,5 балл: Глубокий, интересный и непредсказуемый сюжет.
0.25 балла: Шаблонный, но с хорошими моментами сюжет.
0 баллов: Скучный и бессмысленный сюжет.
Оценка: 0.25 балла

Развитие персонажей (0.5)
0,5 балл: Яркие, меняющиеся и запоминающиеся герои.
0.25 балла: Статичные, но харизматичные персонажи.
0 баллов: Скучные, незапоминающиеся и картонные НПЦ.
Оценка: 0 баллов

Влияние игрока на историю (0.5)
0,5 балл: Игрок полностью влияет на сюжет и имеет выбор
0.25 балла: Игрок имеет иллюзию выбора и не виляет на сюжет
0 баллов: Абсолютно линейный сюжет без альтернатив и выбора.
Оценка: 0 баллов

3. Графика и визуальный стиль (1 балл) = 0,75 балл

Техническое исполнение (0.5)
0,5 балл: Высокое качество графики и высокая детализация без серьезных багов.
0.25 балла: Качество картинки на высоком уровне, но есть графические баги.
0 баллов: Слишком устаревшая графика/наличие большого кол-во графических багов.
Оценка: 0,5 балл

Дизайн (0.5)
0,5 балл: Красивый, завораживающий, запоминающийся и уникальный стиль.
0.25 балла: Приятный стиль, но шаблонный.
0 баллов: Ужасный, скучный/неподходящий игре дизайн.
Оценка: 0.25 балла

4. Звук и музыка (1 балл) = 0,5 балла
Саундтрек (0.5)
0,5 балл: Шедевральная, красивая и запоминающаяся музыка.
0.25 балла: Хорошая музыка для фона, но не запоминающаяся.
0 баллов: Ужасная/неподходящая музыка для игры.
Оценка: 0.25 балла

Звуковые эффекты (0.5)
0,5 балл: Качественные, реалистичные и атмосферные звуки.
0.25 балла: Обыкновенные качественные звуки.
0 баллов: Низкокачественные/неподходящие игре звуки.
Оценка: 0.25 балла

5. Продолжительность и реиграбельность (1 балл) = 0,5 балл
Длина основного контента (0.5)
0,5 балл: Игра не надоедает до самого конца.
0.25 балла: Игра надоедает под конец/игра очень короткая для геймплея и сюжета.
0 баллов: Игра искусственно затянута/много лишних растягивающих раздражающих моментов.
Оценка: 0,5 балл

Дополнительный контент (0.5)
0,5 балл: Наличие интересных второстепенных событий/квестов/иммерсивных взаимодействий.
0.25 балла: Обычные коллекционные предметы/записки/ненужные вещи.
0 баллов: Полное отсутствие какого-либо дополнительного контента.
Оценка: 0 баллов

6. Техническая стабильность (1 балл) = 0,75 балл
Оптимизация (0.5)
0,5 балл: Игра стабильно работает без падений фпс/лагов/фризов
0.25 балла: Игра иногда подлагивает/фризит/имеет резкие скачки фпс.
0 баллов: Постоянные фризы/лаги/скачки фпс/вылеты.
Оценка: 0.25 балла

Отсутствие критических багов (0.5)
0,5 балл: Полное отсутствие/очень редкие проявления багов.
0.25 балла: Периодические баги в ходе прохождения игры
0 баллов: Баги ломают игру/требуют стороннего вмеш
Оценка: 0,5 балл

7. Многопользовательский режим (0.5 балла) = 0,5 балл
Баланс и поддержка (0.5)
0,5 балл: Интересный и честный матчмейкинг/в игре не нужен онлайн режим.
0.25 балла: Скучный и проблемный онлайн режим (наличие читеров)
0 баллов: Устаревший и не актуальный онлайн режим (но он необходим для игры)
Оценка: 0,5 балл

8. Интерфейс и удобство (0.5 балла) = 0,5 балла.
Эргономика меню (0.5)
0,5 балл: Интуитивный, удобный и качественный интерфейс.
0.25 балла: Запутанный интерфейс, но можно привыкнуть.
0 баллов: Ужасно сделанный и неудобный интерфейс.
Оценка: 0,5 балл

9. Ценность за цену (0.5 балла) = 1 балла

Соотношение цена/контент (0.5)

Субъективная формула:
Цена часа = P/T
P = цена в рублях.
T = потраченное время для прохождения игры (с учетом доп. контента).

Субъективное правило: «Если игра дает 1 час игрового времени за каждые 50 рублей (или меньше) – она стоит своих денег»
Игра была куплена за 89 рублей.
Расчет: 89/5,3=16
Следовательно. В среднем, каждый час стоит 16 рублей. Очень дешево для кол-ва контента в игре.

0,5 балл: Низкая цена относительно количества контента в игре.
0.25 балла: Игра слегка дороже относительно количества контента в игре.
0 баллов: Цена слишком дорогая относительно качеству и количеству контента в игре.
Оценка: 1 балл
Примечание: Более чем в два раза дешевле правила цены.

10. Доступность и настройки (1 балл) = 0,75 балла

Настройки сложности (0.5)
0,5 балл: Множество разных параметров сложности для каждого/игре не нужно настраивать сложность.
0.25 балла: Есть только "легкий/средний/тяжелый" без тонкой настройки.
0 баллов: В игре нет необходимых настроек сложности для баланса.
Оценка: 0,5 балл

Локализация и перевод (0.5)
0,5 балл: Полная официальная озвучка и качественный перевод.
0.25 балла: Переведен только текст и отсутствует качественная озвучка.
0 баллов: В игре нет никакой официальной локализации/перевод только любительский.
Оценка: 0.25 балла

Финальная оценка игры: 6,75 / 10

Jan 28, 2026·5h·Verified

Steam User 9319STEAMRecommended

I had already played this game before years ago and it thoroughly captivated me so much that I wanted to play it again many years in the future. The game was just as fun as it was before and it was very interesting to play. If you are the type that enjoys mystery playthroughs with puzzles, then you should definitely get this game, it is 100% worth it.

Dec 27, 2025·5h·Verified

Steam User 0057STEAMNot recommended

From what little I got to play of the puzzles, they seem alright, but boy oh boy is everything surrounding them unpleasant.

Bizarre, nauseating low-framerate feel to the graphics, even though it says it's performing well over acceptable FPS. No change at all even when turning the graphics down or trying what few tips I could find to fix this. This alone makes the game barely tolerable...

But then there's also the forced walking sections in between chunks of puzzles. Man, these are bad. You're wandering around these identical hallways, and for some reason your speed is capped to lower than when you're doing puzzles, and then you've got the woman talking in your ear non-stop, repeatedly telling you you need to go to so and so new location. This gets old REAL quick when the hotel hallways look so much the same and you can get turned around easily, and she just keeps reminding you over and over like every 20 seconds HEY YOU NEED TO GO HERE and you KNOW, but you physically CANNOT move any faster and don't know where this room is.

Already makes a bad impression right off the bat with the first walking section, where she first starts talking to you and says "go to the elevator". I remembered exactly where the elevator was and headed directly for it, but since the speed is capped so much I still got to hear her remind me HEY GO TO THE ELEVATOR at least 3 more times while I was walking directly to the elevator as fast as physically possible. Then right after that she tells you "now look for a door that looks different than the other hotel room doors"...ok sure, the doors have these geometric symbols on them, so surely I'm looking for one with a symbol different than the rest right? Nope...after wandering around finding nothing, she then says "actually what I meant was a door with something different looking NEXT TO IT"...ok...why didn't you say that the first time, but whatever...off we go looking for that door. Turns out that what you were looking for was a door with a big keypad next to it, which is very easy to spot once you find the right hallway its in, but it's just like...why would you not just say that? Just say "the door with the keypad". They try to handwave this constant vagueness away with some BS about how they can't reveal too much of your memory to you too fast, but wtf does something like a door with a keypad next to it have to do with that? I'm gonna get traumatized because I remember this door has a keypad next to it so you have to tell me about the door in the most deliberately obtuse way possible? It's just badly contrived and stupid and between this and the framerate headache it's not worth bothering with.

Dec 18, 2025·1h·Verified

Steam User 3507STEAMRecommended

Specyficzne i ciekawe, ale trzeba mieć na to odpowiedni moment i nastrój.

Dec 4, 2025·1h

Steam User 5776STEAMRecommended

This is a fun game...love the puzzles very much a portal type game...and just as fun.

Nov 29, 2025·1h

Steam User 6559STEAMRecommended

Another chamber-based physics puzzler. Which is fine as I love this style of game. The puzzles are good although, by the end I felt that the game mechanic had been stretched to its limit. And the story that builds through the game was intriguing. However, the story-based, walking-sim activities and the chamber-based puzzle activities, didn't really go together. But all-in-all I enjoyed it; it's not in the Portal or Talos league, but it's a solid 7/10.

Nov 22, 2025·11h·Verified

Steam User 2545STEAMRecommended

It's a puzzle adventure that sprinkles a bit of philosophy into its narrative. It doesn't break new ground, and the pacing can feel sluggish at times, but there's a quiet simplicity to it—neat and unpretentious.

Oct 20, 2025·2h·14

Steam User 7647STEAMRecommended

The Spectrum Retreat is a bizarre game that is quite uneven, and yet it’s somehow captivating. I will have to split the game into two parts: the exploring part and the puzzle part. Why the split? Let me try to explain it to you.

Let me start with the puzzle part of the game. Puzzles are based on simple mechanics; you have a device that lets you use colors. They let you pass matching-color barriers and teleport. At some point, you will be introduced to room rotation, which will spice things up a little bit. In my opinion, puzzles are fun, and I liked that those puzzles were gradually getting harder. Yes, there is one section of the game that can be frustrating, and that is level 5. If you get stuck at that level, then you will have to press the restart button. It's a quite long level, so it may be frustrating and tedious. Let’s now talk about the exploration part of the game.

You wake up in the hotel (I know, scary), and you have no context on who you are, where you are, and why there are some weird robots talking to you. You'll get a call from Cooper; she will tell you that you’re put here not by your will and that she will help you. At the beginning you may feel confused, so naturally you will try to unravel the mystery. You will realize that this game has a repeating-the-day motive. You will repeat the day and do the same thing, and then you go explore, and I feel that the game here is… uneven. Let me start with the positive side of this part of the game. Firstly, the atmosphere in this game is amazing. It sometimes feels like you are in a horror game, but this is not a horror game; it will never try to scare you, and it doesn’t have jump scares. It tries to make you feel uneasy, and every time I was walking around the hotel, it looked and felt like I was in the hotel from The Shining—especially the ballroom, which feels like it was inspired by The Shining. Every day, I was intrigued with the mystery behind the hotel, and I wanted to see more. Unfortunately, The Spectrum Retreat is not focused on exploring the hotel. Exploring sections are short, and it's more like a quick break from puzzles at times. There are some cool ideas with environmental storytelling, but it doesn’t use the full potential that I think this game has. Exploring feels tedious because your character is slow. You don’t have a sprint button, and I sometimes wish it had or that the character was a bit faster. The Spectrum Retreat slows you down, but I have yet to get an idea why it does it. It doesn’t build suspense; it sometimes ruins it. To be fair, even though I have written these negatives, I still didn’t regret it. Why? Let me answer it with one word: story.

You have probably seen that some reviews tell you that the story is a bit of a letdown (especially the ending), and I disagree with it. In my opinion, the story of The Spectrum Retreat is intriguing and asks you certain philosophical questions about identity, memories, free will, and trauma. It’s not an easy task for me to talk about it without spoiling it much, so let me tell you this. When you’re in the puzzle rooms, there will be some weird, glitchy furniture with documents on them. Study them, listen to some memories, and when you are at the final choice, don’t think about the choice itself. Think about the idea behind the choices and how your character got to this moment. Maybe I’m overanalyzing stuff, but in my opinion this is a quite tragic game that tells us that the most scary thing is that we sometimes wake up and don’t know who we are. To be fair, puzzle sections feel a bit detached from the story. I understand the logic behind them, but it is quite confusing when at one moment you’re in an art deco hotel and then at the other moment you’re in a more futuristic room. I wish puzzle rooms were connected to the story, that they had some theme behind them (the glitchy furniture parts of the room were not enough for me). Only level 5 felt like it was connected to the story, and I wished there were more levels like that. I understand why people find the story quite mediocre or that it is not up to par with other games with this kind of motive, but I think otherwise. I think it's a clever philosophical game.

Should you play it? I think you should try it, especially if it’s on sale. If you’re just looking for a good puzzle game, then this game will give you some decent puzzles. If you’re looking for an amazing story and want to unravel a mystery… then you should be ready that it may not meet your standards. It’s an uneven game in this aspect, and the ending can be quite anticlimactic, and you wish it gave you more context… on the other hand, I quite liked that it doesn't reveal some secrets. It lets you build your interpretation and theories.

Oct 13, 2025·3h·3

Steam User 4560STEAMRecommended

nice puzzles and a really well told story

Oct 3, 2025·11h·Verified

Steam User 3604STEAMRecommended

ᅠ ᅠ

Jul 27, 2025·5h·2

Steam User 6599STEAMRecommended

This is a pretty difficult game to beat, tbh. I don't know the people who says it is "easy" -- are you trolling or something? This is not easy, it requires high IQ to make it fast.

Personally, I take +22% than the average to beat.

Jul 18, 2025·19h·1

Steam User 6450STEAMRecommended

It is a decent enough first person puzzler to recommend playing, even though I have some nitpicks to its structure.

Due to the nature of the puzzle elements, it is very easy to 'brick' yourself inside a puzzle without any indication, having to restart the whole puzzle. It's usually not a big deal, as the puzzles are pretty short, but the last puzzle of the game spans a few pretty big rooms with no checkpoints, so if you mess up with a puzzle piece, get stuck in the jumping physics or accidentally walk off the edge due to the floaty walking physics, you have to restart the whole thing again. Redoing what you just did is not a very satisfying experience.

The endings kinda follow the same pattern - you have to redo the whole game over again to see the other ending and get the achievement for them [spoiler]despite the only relevant choice being at the very very end.[/spoiler] Yeah you can speedrun the game in about an hour when you know the puzzle solutions, but still, kind of annoying that you have to do that instead of just loading a checkpoint (the game deletes your save file after completion).

Still, the puzzles are novel enough and the story, while pretty predictable and not very innovative, was interesting to follow. If you like first person puzzlers, you will enjoy this game.

Jul 12, 2025·5h·2

Steam User 6521STEAMRecommended

This is a good puzzle game.

Jun 10, 2025·10h·Verified

Steam User 5431STEAMNot recommended

What an OVERRATED puzzle game. Possibly the worst I've ever seen. NEVER pay full price. Fortunately I got a key for just 2 bucks (and I still feel like I overpaid)

After completing 8 rooms there's barely any progression in complexity and puzzle elements and it's BORING.

The story is not interesting and the voice of the guide is extremely annoying. She thinks the more you hear her make different noises the better she performs, so she's huffing and puffing and moaning with a heavy brit accent. Hell no.

Using the mouse to look feels TERRIBLE. How do you move mouse movement so rough? The game runs at stable 165hz and walking is smooth, but camera movement using the mouse feels like 20 fps. My eyes hurt.

No detailed graphics settings. No anti aliasing, no anisotropic filtering, no screen modes, no vsync control.

Apr 30, 2025·1h·1

Steam User 3805STEAMRecommended

Кайфарик

Apr 27, 2025·6h·Verified

Steam User 3435STEAMRecommended

Very good puzzle game. I was recommended to me by ChatGPT when I asked for games like Portal or Talos. I was not disappointed. Good puzzles and moving story. Only thing that I would add is more puzzles. Definitely recommended if you like puzzle games.

Mar 23, 2025·11h·Verified

Steam User 1653STEAMRecommended

"The Spectrum Retreat" jest grą, co do której mam mieszane uczucia. Z jednej strony oferuje naprawdę interesującą historię, której efekt wzmacniają wspaniały voice acting, profesjonalnie wyreżyserowane wydarzenia oraz niezwykle kreatywne otoczenie, jakim jest hotel Penrose. Również zagadki, chociaż wykorzystujące proste i znane już mechaniki potrafią czsami zainteresować wytrawnego gracza gier logicznych. Niestety, jest również ta druga strona. Strona, do której należy duża liczba zagadek powtarzających do znudzenia ten sam schemat, zagadek, które zawierają znacznie więcej okazji do softlocków, niż powinno się w takich grach akceptować, zagadek, które zawierają błędy i glicze sprawiające, że musimy je resetować, co potrafi być frustrujące szczególnie pod koniec gry, kiedy to stają się one dłuższe. Jest dla mnie jasne, że autor zaczął tworzyć tę grę od pomysłu na fabułę, a dopiero później zdecydował, że nie będzie to walking simulator, ale gra logiczna. Niestety, widać również, że nie jest w tym polu mistrzem i choć należy docenić dużą liczbę różniących się od siebie zagadek czy łączenie mechanik, aby stworzyć zaskakujące i przykuwające oko kombinacje, całemu temu aspektowi gry, który odpowiada za jakieś 75% czasu gry, ale zapewne jakieś 20% zaangażowania w nią, brakuje dopracowania, jakiego byśmy się spodziewali po grze tak zdominowanej przez łamigłówki. Podjąłem jednak decyzję, że wystawię grze ocenę pozytywną. Cena gry odbija jej faktyczną wartość, a twórca, który w głównej mierze pracował nad nią sam, wyraźnie poświęcił jej wiele uwagi, doprowadzając do perfekcji niektóre jej elementy, nawet, jeżeli całość jest ledwie 6/10.

Mar 16, 2025·9h·Verified

Steam User 0726STEAMRecommended

It's not hard to figure out the basics of what to do, however, knowing what to do and completing each level are two different things. It takes a shift in thinking as the levels get more complicated. It kept my interest though due to the puzzles, even though the story behind is forever not going anywhere. Hopefully all will be revealed later.

Mar 8, 2025·24h·Verified

Steam User 6698STEAMNot recommended

Started off in a cold hotel with no real direction, then after finding a random table and entering 1 code, it switched to a weird color puzzle game, that just got more and more difficult. Identity crisis. Horrible.

Mar 2, 2025·1h·4·Verified

Steam User 2077STEAMNot recommended

Would Mowgli train to be a wizard if there was a restaurant which serves Bagheera rice and run by Ala-deen the Tin man?
Its like hairy went : OK the beast and no the beauty.
Its like someone likes a movie, which will probably never run in the theatres again and persons who actually like it and wants the movie in another galaxy is the pirate. ( ya man even CD/DVD's are sold out or not available)

Jan 31, 2025·3h·Verified

Steam User 8164STEAMRecommended

Now you are thinking with colours

Jan 14, 2025·3h·2

Steam User 5080STEAMRecommended

5/10

Lots of filler between puzzles, the story was alright for such a short game. There are a surprising amount of soft-locks in the game so expect to go through some levels a few times from scratch (especially the last level which is multiple puzzles stuck together).

Jan 7, 2025·3h·Verified

Steam User 4800STEAMRecommended

Very good game! Not too long and not too hard, great for one or two playthroughs. A bit expensive, but if you can buy it on sale it's definitely worth it!

Jan 6, 2025·9h·Verified

Steam User 3198STEAMRecommended

Terminado en unas 4h, sólo me falta un logro que es volver acabarlo y elegir el otro final, pero salvo ese final que no ví, puedo decir después de jugar y terminar muchos juegos de puzzles en 3D, que este lo que vienen siendo los puzzles son bastante fáciles, cada vez que acabas un piso (hay 5) siempre hay que hacer lo mismo, ir a dormir a la habitación, responder una llamada, hablar con un tipo del hotel en la puerta, bajar al restaurante, comerse otro video más, y subir al siguiente piso. Esto todo piso tras piso se me hizo demasiado repetitivo, por el resto recomendable por su precio y conceptos diferentes en los puzzles.

Sep 29, 2024·4h·Verified

Steam User 8825STEAMRecommended

Love the design and atmosphere. Exactly what I'm looking for in a first-person puzzle/mystery.

Sep 16, 2024·9h·Verified

Steam User 8883STEAMRecommended

👍

Jul 7, 2024·3h·1·Verified

Steam User 4941STEAMNot recommended

This game has too many soft locks that make you have to restart the puzzle. It's tedious, but didn't bother me too much until the last puzzle which is a longer one that has soft locks every step of the way.
Its a puzzle game that punishes you for playing.

Jun 19, 2024·6h·10

Steam User 7357STEAMNot recommended

No checkpoints at 5 stage final puzzle. It represents several normal puzzIes in a row. In case you did something wrong you need to start all over from that first one (5-10 min repeating puzzles thatt you solved already). Don't even want to know what inside the head of designer who made this decition, I'm sure it is sad and spooky picture.
Also want to mention female voice. Actress acts horrorbly, she overacts, constatly making sound like somebody strangulates her or she has covid in last stage.
If fix problems above - the game would be al least not bad. It is very easy to ruin nice concept.

Apr 24, 2024·6h·11·Verified

Steam User 9976STEAMNot recommended

Plays like a worse version of Superliminal with the wake-puzzle-sleep routine. The story-line is irrelevant to the puzzles and plays out too slow and boring to be of any interest. Walk speed is less than half of what it should be. Overall very mild. Could've played into the horror a bit more. Hated the forced gender roles and the fakeout twist of the player potentially being a murderer, even though the wife was played as a villain for most of the story. Would've been better with just the puzzles, but those weren't that interesting or challenging either.

Subtitles were good to add, but aren't formatted well - there needs to be a dark box behind them to make sure the white text stands out against the majority white backgrounds. There's too much text on screen at a time (I had to stop gameplay just to move the camera to a place where I could read the text), and the text doesn't flash disappear which makes it hard to tell when the text changes.

Apr 18, 2024·14h·9·Verified

Steam User 8501STEAMRecommended

A short and 'simple' puzzle game greatly enhanced by an intriguing story.

Apr 15, 2024·5h

Steam User 7385STEAMRecommended

fun atmosphere. too small brain for the puzzles though

Mar 21, 2024·3h·2

Steam User 3416STEAMNot recommended

Meccanicamente e visivamente è fatto davvero bene, ma se parliamo della struttura puzzle e del come ci si arriva tra esplorazione e altro e davvero facile e noiosa davvero tanto, e alcuni intrecciamenti di trama sono inutili e superflui

Mar 18, 2024·7h

Steam User 8543STEAMRecommended

An okay puzzle game with a strange disconnect of it's main story environments from the puzzle rooms, as if the two concepts were merged halfway through development.

Regardless, worth playing on sale

Mar 17, 2024·4h·Verified

Steam User 0895STEAMRecommended

This is sort of like 2 games combined into one. The puzzles are decent, and if you are a real puzzle-head they will be enjoyable. But the real star is the story. This way that the mystery unfolds and the manner in which they tell the story are excellent. That part was good enough to be a stand-alone game. I truly enjoyed this. None of the puzzles are super-hard, but they are not easy either. A medium level of difficulty for the puzzles. But the story experience is wonderful.

Feb 3, 2024·7h·3·Verified

Steam User 6485STEAMNot recommended

really slow story with easy puzzle

Jan 25, 2024·3h

Steam User 1308STEAMRecommended

Este juego es increíble, la historia es muy buena...Sobre todo el final, por lo menos yo no me lo esperaba. Es un juego bastante único en su jugabilidad e historia. Amo como me hace pensar con los puzzles. Increíble.

Jan 24, 2024·8h·Verified

Steam User 2638STEAMRecommended

пазлы хороши,но загадки в отеле — слишком быстро дают отгадку 6/10

Jan 24, 2024·8h·Verified

Steam User 1086STEAMRecommended

As much as I like this game, I would have to agree with some others. If you think you enjoy the aesthetic and want a relatively short puzzle game, go for it, but I say go for it when it's on sale, and if you have a decent to good computer.

First-person walking puzzle game.
The story is intriguing (sort of simple, though), but expect to take your time because of how slow the game makes, and sometimes expects, you to move. Atmospherically, it's wonderful, but the pace is a little off.
The puzzle system is, in my opinion, good. I've never really understood the comparisons to Portal, though. The concept is nice, but it can occasionally get repetitive, and softlocks and restarting are to be expected for some rooms, especially if you don't know exactly what you're doing right off the bat.

There is a branched path ending, but note that there are no manual saves in this game, and to see the other, you have to replay through the whole game again... or just watch a playthrough, but that won't net you the other special achievement.

For me? 7.5/10.

Jan 7, 2024·6h·2·Verified

Steam User 5562STEAMNot recommended

The Spectrum Retreat is a narrative puzzle game where the narrative is underwhelming while at same time the puzzles are tedious, repetitive and annoying. I don't understand why would you make a puzzle game where the already tedious puzzles are incredibly easy to soft-lock and not include any form of undo or quick save, this doesn't make your puzzles more difficult or fun, it just makes them annoying.

There is another part to the game outside of the puzzles, this is slowly and i mean slowly wandering around back and forth through a hotel searching for a door code. These sections are frankly dreadful and the worst part of the game but they can all be skipped if you look up the code for the section. Being able to skip these even in a 1st playthrough is probably unironically the best part of the game, they're that bad.

5/10.

Jan 4, 2024·6h·Verified

Steam User 3978STEAMRecommended

I like the game mechanic. I don't like how slowly you walk.

The puzzles are interesting. A little simple compared to some puzzle games, but complex enough to still be satisfying. While walking around outside the puzzles the scenery looks amazing, but the speed of walking can be painfully slow at times without a "run" button.

The puzzles were mostly logic based, and not execution based, until floor 5. Then even though I figured out the solution, I failed several times which forced me to redo the same sequence over and over, just to retry the final bit. I hate long puzzles like this that don't have a checkpoint between each of the puzzles that make up the larger puzzle. It's not fun, and I had to turn it off because it was frustrating me in ways that the earlier puzzles did not.

When I picked it back up a few hours later, I realized what I was doing wrong, and the solution was easier than I thought.

But the one remaining gripe is having to play through the entire game a second time just to get 1 achievement for picking the opposite option at the very end. No, copying the save did not work to allow skipping to the end to get the last achievement. 6.3 hours for my first play-through. I'm hoping the last achievement doesn't glitch for my next play-through… UPDATE: took a little over 2 hours to play through a second time, and I still had to redo floor 5 a couple times, but the final achievement worked.

Favorite quote: "The main elevator. Should be upstairs." Which is counterproductive in real life, and just serves to artificially lengthen the time it takes to get to/from the lobby.

Even with the annoyances, I still do recommend this as a decent puzzler game!

Puzzle games that I recommend:
Portal / Portal 2 / Portal Stories: Mel
The Talos Principle / The Talos Principle II
The Entropy Centre
The Turing Test
The Swapper
Baba is You
Q.U.B.E. 10th Anniversary / Q.U.B.E. 2 (QUBE 2)
Relicta
The Witness
ReThink
Gravitas
The Spectrum Retreat

Puzzle games that I do NOT recommend:

Superliminal
Magnetic: Cage Closed
Magrunner: Dark Pulse
Human Fall Flat
Manifold Garden
Antichamber

Dec 27, 2023·9h·Verified

Steam User 3629STEAMRecommended

Одна из моих любимейших головоломок, причем цепляет не
уровнем сложности а именно своей подачей. Я бы назвал
ее "приятной головоломкой", т.к разгадывание пазлов перебирая разноцветные кубы - сильно расслабляет. Большая часть пазлов ультра-лайтовые но есть весьма интересные и даже парочку вполне себе сложных , особенно финальный пазл-босс.
Из минусов подмечу похрамывающую подачу отеля "все-таки разработкой игры занимался всего один человек" и если часть с оформлением головоломок у него получилась на крепкую 10-ку ,то с отелем явно ощущается легкая недоработка что в сочетании не вредит повествованию а общая концепция самой истории, вполне себе.

Nov 26, 2023·5h·17·Verified

Steam User 6817STEAMRecommended

Interesting story, good puzzles and pretty scenery. Would like a sprint option or just a faster walking speed option. The only thing the was really annoying was the character Cooper constantly telling you to go to where the game wants you to go while you are exploring the area and looking for the blue glowing cubes. Maybe if she started telling you go to every 20 mins and not 5 would be better. Overall I would recommend it to anyone who likes puzzle games.

Nov 21, 2023·7h·2

Steam User 7561STEAMRecommended

What an amazing game. I loved the puzzles and I've gotten both endings along with all the achievements. The story is great; however, the subtitles are small along with the crosshair on the center of the screen. It's like I know what to do, but I have to be very precise with where I select inside the circle of the crosshair. If the crosshair could be larger, it will be a lot easier for me to interact. Plus, I have a visual and hearing disability, so I do rely on the subtitles to read; however, during the ending scene, the text is very difficult for me to read even with the shadows that accommodate the text. If I want to apply Web Content Accessibility Guidelines to this game, I would say there is insufficient color contrast of less than 1.45:1, so instead of facing the manager while outside, I had to turn around to place the subtitle against the ground. In real life, that would be considered rude to turn around while talking. This violates WCAG 1.4.3 AA.

Some objects that flicker (WCAG 2.3.1 (A) Three Flash Threshold) can cause seizures for those who have epilepsy or suffer from seizures. If you do suffer from bright flickering objects, do not play this game until you seek advice from the doctor. I have never been a nurse, so I cannot be of much help.

This game features mechanics that rotates the room in different directions. If you get motion sickness once the rooms start rotating in different directions, this game is not for you.

If you have short-term memory loss, the game requires you to remember the codes for each floor. Do write the codes down for each floor so you won't have to remember them.

I know Web Content Accessibility Guidelines do not make sense in video games, but when it comes to web development, I do care so much about accessibility. I'm not an accessibility expert, so that's all I can provide for this review. Anyway, the puzzles are fun and I enjoyed it the most.

Nov 10, 2023·25h·Verified

Steam User 7067STEAMRecommended

kinda good puzzle were kinda good but punished you for messing up good story overall

Oct 27, 2023·4h·1

Steam User 5057STEAMRecommended

1. Hello, this will be a short review in both Hungarian and English. Point 1 will be in English, point 2 will be in Hungarian. Let's get started.

2. Hello ez egy rövid kis értékelés lesz magyarul és angolul is. 1. pontban angolul lesz, 2. pontban magyarul lesz.

1. So, I might be biased about the game since it was the very first story game I ever played.
No spoilers: I enjoyed the game. It's not a long game, if you really want it you can get out of one sitting, but the atmosphere the game has is impressive. It's not horror, but you still don't feel good in a hotel where there are only robots.
I took the game out in 3. My first encounter was around 2020, when Epic games gave the game away for free and then I played it for the first time. Recently, I was bored and had an extra 12 euros, and I bought it because I like Steam better than the Epic. And since I wanted to maxx, I took him out twice. About 4.5 hours if you read the story and just walk around, but if you walk you'll be there in 2.5-3 hours, so it's not that long. It's an iconic game for me, but I think that's just me.So I can only recommend it, it's worth it, you'll get a pretty special experience for your money.

2. Szóval, lehet hogy elfogult vagyok a játékkal kapcsolatban, hisz ez volt a legelső sztori játék amivel valaha játszottam.
Spoiler nélkül: Élveztem a játékot. Nem egy hosszú játék ó, ha nagyon akarod egy ülésből kiviszed, de az atmoszphéra amivel a játék rendelkezik az enyűgöző. Nem horror de mégse érzed magad jól a hotelban ahol csak robotok vannak.
A játékot 3 vittem ki első találkozásom kb 2020 tájékán volt akkor andta az Epic games ingyen a játékot és akkor játszottam vele először. Most az utobbi időkben unatkoztam és volt fölösleges 12 euróm, és megvettem mert a Steamet jobban szeretem mint az the Epic. És mivel maxxolni akartam ki vittem kétszer. Kb. 4.5 óra ha olvasod a sztorit és csak úgy sétálgaszt, de ha szaldsz megvagy 2.5-3 óra alatt, szóval nem valami hosszú. Számomra ez egy ikonikus játék de szerintem ezzel csak én vagyok így. Szóval, én csak ajánlani tudom ennyit megér, egy elég különös élményt fogsz kapni a pénzedért.

Oct 15, 2023·7h·Verified

Steam User 0926STEAMRecommended

I like this game, the story is quite fun, it has great speedrun potential

Sep 30, 2023·9h·Verified

Steam User 5232STEAMRecommended

This game was full of clever color based puzzles that I mostly enjoyed. There are some weird UI things where you have to stand in exactly the right position to get certain buttons to press (mostly the elevator). The last level is very clever, but, since the game doesn't save except at the beginning and end of puzzles, I almost didn't finish the game. All other levels are split into several smaller puzzles so it saves every step of the way. The last level is arguably one of the biggest levels in the game and it's not split into individual levels, so no save points. It took multiple solve sessions for me to do this... I just had to look up a walkthrough to get me to the point I had solved to every time, and it was very frustrating. Otherwise, I thought the puzzles were super clever. One other notable point is that the subject matter is sad and might hit very close to home for some people (many people) BIG SPOILER AHEAD[spolier]it is discovered throughout the course of the game that due to politics and crappy insurance a child died and his parents were left in medical debt and their marriage was in disarray. there's more, too, but i think that's enough of a spoiler[/spoiler]
Overall I enjoyed it but the finickyness of the UI and the last level being all oen big puzzle makes me wish i could leave a mixed review.

Sep 18, 2023·12h·Verified

Steam User 5260STEAMRecommended

Absolutely fantastic game. Brilliant puzzles that at points made me scratch my head. Highly recommend to any body who loves puzzle games!

Sep 17, 2023·5h·Verified

Steam User 0244STEAMRecommended

On the positive side the game is solid. The graphics are all top notch on every floor, the musical score never gets old, and the puzzles always keep you guessing. I can tell this game was made with love and care by the devs.

On the negative side was the plot. Maybe I have a sudden case of ADHD or something, but I could not figure out what was going. [Warning, minor spoilers ahead] I read all the papers and tried to put the pieces together, but I didn't even know what the main character's name was until late game. So my thought process goes a bit like this...

I am trapped in a brain simulation?
Okay, some girl is trying to help me escape.
There is campaign paperwork everywhere, oh I am a senator?
I am clearly someone very important.
The girl I am talking to care enough to help me out of this place. She must be my wife?
No? She is just a random person that doesn't know me?
I see paperwork that says Robin on it. OH, I am a kid named Robin?
Now there are medical bills, Robin is sick?
Am I Robin and my parents can't get healthcare?
Or am I the parent who can't get the healthcare?!
Why doesn't a Senator have good healthcare??

A normal story - Plot point A, Plot point B, Plot point C, Plot point D, Big reveal!
This Story - Plot point D, Plot point C, Plot point Q, Plot point A, Big reveal!

Still, not a bad game. Just confusing.

Sep 1, 2023·6h

Steam User 3990STEAMRecommended

es un buen juego para los amantes de los puzzles

Aug 17, 2023·10h

Steam User 9096STEAMRecommended

y mira el juego esta buenardo yo le meto un 8, me hizo acordar mucho a portal.
buen lore, si biern los puzles se sienten medio repetitivos me gusto el final

Jul 21, 2023·8h·Verified

Steam User 0430STEAMRecommended

WHY DOES MY PHONE LOOK LIKE A ROACH MOTEL TRAP CAW CAW????

THIS GAME IS WALKING SIMULATOR NON HORNY ATOMIC HEART CAW CAW. NOT MUCH TO SAY CAW CAW, LOOKS GOOD ON A HIGH REFRESH RATE MONITOR CAW CAW.

EVERYTHING HAS THE SHEEN OF PREY 2017 CAW CAW

Jul 11, 2023·3h·2

Steam User 6196STEAMRecommended

The Spectrum Retreat is an amazing puzzle game the likes of Portal with a darker more adult story. The atmosphere is a liminal space, an empty hotel apart from the staff and you the character. With this in mind the game has a horror element that while not terrifying does provide a sense of dread as you make your way through each level uncovering the reasons for your stay at the Spectrum Retreat. I loved it!

Jul 8, 2023·6h

Steam User 8613STEAMRecommended

This game is so much fun to play. You uncover the interesting story line throughout the game and play challenging levels. The game can get confusing from time-to-time but overall highly recommend! 10/10 <3

Jun 28, 2023·122h·Verified

Steam User 1008STEAMRecommended

Gostei até.

Jun 24, 2023·1

Steam User 5333STEAMRecommended

História - 5/10
Gráficos - 7/10
Jogabilidade - 8/10
Som - 9/10
Nota Final - 7.2/10

Jun 17, 2023·5h

Steam User 1024STEAMNot recommended

I played up until the breakfast section before floor 4 so i can only comment on stuff up until that.

The puzzles are decent, the introduction is does it's job well.
the puzzles just don't get any more complex than adding another color, they do get a lot longer which makes them feel more like a chore

Now the reason i stopped playing,
at the breakfast section before floor 4 you have some flashes which are intended however they shouldn't soft-lock me in a black screen. Yes i googled this, yes i tried running the game in windowed mode and yes it still happens. i just cant be bothered replaying the same section just to get soft-locked again

Jun 1, 2023·2h

Steam User 9190STEAMRecommended

Quite a chill puzzle game. Nothing too impressive, but quite quaint and cozy.
You are stuck in what seems to be a timeloop and are now given the opportunity to break this loop but hacking the mainframe by completing some colour-puzzles. Not too hard really.
As far as I've read, the primary negative thing people have, are the movement speed. Tbf, I believe this speed is alright for the first playthrough, when you listen to the story. Definitely tedious for the second playthrough (necessary for the final achievement)

Recommended?
Yes ✅️
No

Story
Amazing
Great
Good✅️
Poor
Bad
Not much of a story really

Graphics
Realistic
Great
Good✅️
Decent
Poor
Bad

Playtime
Tiny (<1 hour)
Short (1-5 hours)✅️
Medium (5-15 hours)
Long (15-30 hours)
Longer than 30 hours
DLC without additional playtime

Replayability
Low✅️
Medium
High
DLC without additional playtime

Completionist
Unmissable
Easy, but missable✅️
Decent
Hard
Impossible solo
Well, Good Luck
No achievements

Mature content:
Nudity or pornographic content
Violence
Horror
Foul language
None✅️

Value vs. Price
More value
Perfect
Less value✅️ (maybe like a 5-7$)

Steam Deck Compatibility:
Works great out of the box ✅️
Works with a bit of tinkering
Doesn't work well
Haven't got it working at all

May 23, 2023

Steam User 8571STEAMRecommended

Juego sencillo de puzzles para pasar el rato. La historia se me hizo buena. Sólo hubieron algunas veces que me quedé atrapado en una sección así que tocó reiniciar todo el puzzle (aunque no son muy largos excepto por el último que te tocaría reiniciar TODO si llegas a tener algún problema).

8/10

No es un juego que te va a dejar marcado pero tampoco aspira a eso. Cumple su propósito de entretenerte unas cuantas horas si eres fan de los puzzles. Lo jugaría de nuevo para conseguir su otro final pero dentro de varios años.

May 18, 2023·6h·Verified

Steam User 2773STEAMRecommended

TLDR: if you like FPS puzzles and you have played the better rated ones, it scratches the itch. If you are not into the genre, there are other titles I'd rather recommend.

So, here's the deal. It's a VERY mild recommendation, bordering on not recommending. The game is not great and threre are better first person puzzlers out there. I have played most of them I think. At least of the straight puzzle ones. It's not terrible either and you get fund for the asking price.

There are things that work and things that don't work.

First - things that don't work: The game has two separate parts - puzzle levels and a hotel. The hotel part is a chore, at least at the beginning. There are some codes you have to find before every puzzle set. When I figured out that's what I should do, I straight just googled the door codes because it seemed like a waste of time. After that, the puzzles and mandatory commute take about 3 hours. As length goes it's all right. There is no rewind, just starting over. A bit frustrating part is that you can get stuck and have to restart, however you sometimes don't actually know that's the case.

The puzzles are repetitive - combine colors to pass barriers in a certain order comes to mind as something I have had enough of in the ~2 hours of doing the actual puzzles. The fact that the [spoiler]last level [\spoiler] had many ways to fail a scenario and you had to redo the whole thing was really frustrating. Not that it was hard to get back to the same section, just not great.

I did have a gamebreaking bug several times towards the end when the screen would just stay black and I had to restart the game several times to get it to work.

The puzzles are not super hard but there were a few good ideas. Absolutely frustrating was one where you had to change color of an object but you did not know the object could change color...

The things that work - The game overall is competently put together, voiced well, looks nice.

I am glad it tries to be at least a little bit different with the story/world. Fine, it's not Talos principle and doesn't explore anything important but it's fine.

Some of the puzzles in the later sets had some good ideas.

Apr 16, 2023·4h·Verified

Steam User 4051STEAMRecommended

Jogo muito bom. Enigmas não tão difíceis, mas bem satisfatórios e a história foi bem boa

Mar 26, 2023·10h·Verified

Steam User 5576STEAMRecommended

10/10 в мире концептуальных идей разработчиков. Я безумно люблю игры, которые на всём своём протяжении держат игрока в неведении, что тут вообще бл*ть происходит.
Я бы сказал, что по ощущениям, это похоже на Stanley parable, The beginner's guide, The Silent Age и другие КОНЦЕПТУАЛЬНЫЕ игры.

По поводу головоломок: мне понравилось. Я читал обзоры других пользователей, более искушённых к трудным задачам в игре, но мне геймплей Спектрума пришёлся по душе на все 100%. Решение загадок НЕ лежит на поверхности, но это и не аддиктивная игры, в которой нужно убивать время, чтобы понять логику новой локации.
При этом удовольствие от прохождение каждого нового уровня присутствует)

Одно единственное замечание: Я на самом деле боюсь представить, сколько времени я бы потратил на последний этаж (5), если бы не воспользовался гайдом. Слишком замудрённый уровень, так ещё и перезапуск откидывает на самое-самое начало.

P.S. если ты, как и я, подрачиваешь на ачивки, то в этой игре они зарабатываются очень приятно. Идеальная игра выбивается за ~7-8 часов

Mar 5, 2023·8h·Verified

Steam User 7472STEAMRecommended

Nice puzzle game. The balance in difficulty is brilliant. It is hard, but not too difficult. So, I didn't need youtube for solving, which is nice. Nice game for fans of Portal or other puzzle games.

Jan 21, 2023·18h·Verified

Steam User 6180STEAMNot recommended

This game is slow, I mean really really Fn slow. Like a walking simulator for quadriplegics.
The graphics are fine, the voice acting is pretty good, but the speed of the game is so so MFN painful.
If you're like me and love these type of puzzle games you're probably gonna get this on sale, but buyer beware you will curse the day as you crawl down halls, wishing you could run, asking why doesn't the CTRL key work, why cant I run.

Dec 29, 2022·1h·3·Verified

Steam User 4966STEAMRecommended

It's a good game if you can get into it.

Dec 25, 2022·7h·Verified

Steam User 4272STEAMNot recommended

I can't really say I'd recommend it

Dec 24, 2022·7h·1·Verified

Steam User 6823STEAMRecommended

Nice puzzle game with an easy premise but that can be challenging at last levels. Story is also pretty good with a interesting twist at the end. It lacks on music though. I did like it enough to get all the trophies so, recommended indeed if you like this kind of games.

Interesante juego de puzles, con una premisa de barreras y colores que está muy interesante para los amantes del género. No es difícil, aunque los últimos niveles pueden ser desafiantes. La historia está entretenida, mantiene cierto suspense y da un giro al final algo perturbador. Las mecánicas son buenas, los diseños de niveles, la ambientación es más que decente, pero flojea muchísimo en el apartado musical... ni apenas música ambiental tiene, que aunque ayuda a la concentración, también puede hacer los paseos algo más aburridos. A mi me encantó y lo disfruté porque adoro el estimulo mental de este tipo de juego. Por lo tanto. Recomendado, desde luego. A jugar

Nov 16, 2022·9h

Steam User 3566STEAMRecommended

I completed this game originally on Switch this year. I had to get it on PC as well because it is exceptional. I love puzzle games. More specifically, I love first person puzzle games. Even more specifically, I love sci-fi first person puzzle games. The Spectrum Retreat is up there with The Witness, The Turing Test, The Talos Principle, and Q.U.B.E. and you should totally buy it if you like any of those games. Sure, the whole untrustworthy narrator and "are you being lied to or not?" story hook is as old as dirt at this point, but this game is great regardless. The puzzle mechanics are excellent. It's amazing all the clever puzzles that the devs came up with using only color absorption and diffusion. I am biased because this game does everything I like games to do, but beyond that, it is actually a really solid first person puzzler.

Update after completing the game: This PC playthrough took me 3.8 hours, but this is the second time I've played this game in less than a year. I still love this game, but I will be more honest, now that I've completed it a second time. Honestly, I understand the criticism about there being no sprint button. When you first realize all the walking you'll be doing, you will curse the dev's decision to not include a sprint button. Eventually you get used to it and the core of the game (doing the puzzles) really does not require a sprint button at all. Now, regarding the parts where you are NOT doing puzzles. Yes, they are repetitive, but they tell an interesting and very emotional story. The repetitiveness is, however, baked into the story. You're in a simulation (this becomes clear very early on) and your guide tells you that in order to keep it all going, you have to "repeat the cycle." It's very interesting and clever, but I get why people say it's repetitive. And the final "floor" (Floor 5) is absolutely amazing. HOWEVER, you can fall to your death and have to restart the ENTIRE PUZZLE which is purposely a very long puzzle. In this playthrough I fell once and had to start over and it's just kind of lame that it's such an obnoxious penalty. Still, overall, TSR is a fantastic game.

Nov 3, 2022·4h·4·Verified

Steam User 5764STEAMRecommended

I can very much recommend this game to anybody who likes puzzle games. The puzzles are well designed and innovative and actually challenge you to use your brain. I enjoyed every second i have played this game despite a few graphical issues at the end.

Story: 9/10 (such mystery)
Puzzles: 9.5/10 (very big brain)

Oct 28, 2022·8h·Verified

Steam User 4606STEAMRecommended

Average game, some puzzles were good, some bad. Softlocked myself at least 10 times. Mid story.

Oct 12, 2022·3h

Steam User 9235STEAMRecommended

Eh, it's okay, but only just.

The good:
- Promising concept, with more resources a lot more could have been made of it
- Good visuals and voice acting
- Excellent music, so good that I wish there was a DLC with the soundtrack included
- The puzzles are not too difficult, certainly not compared to the Talos Principle, the Witness, the Turing Test etc. Some people are put off by the possibility of irreversible mistakes that require one to restart the puzzle. I think you can get used to it, given that the puzzles are not that long, and the designer left in some slack in each puzzle.

The bad:
- In the context of the narrative, the puzzle sections feel like an annoyance. Splitting them into episodes of at most 5 consecutive puzzles each would have helped, I think.
- Despite what reviews say, the puzzles feel disconnected from the narrative. Possibly because the environment is so different from the rest of the hotel, and also because your mission control abandons you completely during these sections. Compare Portal, Talos, the Turing Test etc., where the puzzles integrate with (or exclusively form) the environment and are discussed in a lot more detail by the characters.
- The game feels underdeveloped overall, though this is excusable given that it's the first published effort of such a young (at the time) designer

Aug 23, 2022·6h·Verified

Steam User 1454STEAMRecommended

A thoroughly enjoyable puzzler with good voice-over narration. I struggle to find logic puzzle games with a good story, and this one hit the spot. I did find myself wishing there were more areas to explore, more clickable things to find, and less unnecessary backtracking, but for a small developer, I'm impressed with the quality of this. The puzzles were a little easy for the first three levels, with more genuine challenges in the final two levels. It's a good sign that I wanted this game to keep going. hope the developer will make a sequel!

Jul 16, 2022·11h·Verified

Steam User 7516STEAMRecommended

This review is specially made for those who like to get all the achievements and have this game in their backlog (minor spoilers ahead).

[b]Description:[/b]
The Spectrum Retreat is a mix between a puzzle game and a walking simulator.
The core mechanic is based on switching colors and interacting with objects and buttons. Later a few different mechanics are added in the other levels.

[b]Achievements:[/b]
[b]How many:[/b] 15 Achievements, only 2 can be missed.
[b]How much time:[/b] It took me around 8 hours, for two complete playthroughs, but using a guide will probably reduce the time to 6 hours, if you ever get stuck.
[b]Game difficulty:[/b] Easy, if you’re used to puzzle games. Guides are available.
[b]Achievement’s difficulty:[/b] Easy. Only two are missable, one requires an optional task that you probably won’t miss, and the last requires reaching the end two times. [i] Savescumming[/i] won’t work.

[b]Overall opinion:[/b]
I recommend this game if you like puzzle games and don’t mind some repetitive walking parts (part of them can be avoided, if you look for the door codes in a guide). It’s a short game, but the graphics and soundtrack are great and create a very intense ambiance. The story will also keep you interested and wondering what really happened and who is the main character.

[b]Join and follow my group Ribbon Hunters for more suggestions and reviews of easy indie games to get all the achievements:[/b] https://store.steampowered.com/curator/42556190-Ribbon-Hunters/

Jun 23, 2022·8h

Steam User 4983STEAMRecommended

no entendi mucho la historia pero me gusto xd

Jun 9, 2022·9h

Steam User 3779STEAMRecommended

The game is pretty good, the mechanics for the puzzles are very creative and the soundtrack works very well with the setting of the story and its narrative. Although, you should know there are some bugs and errors (which I'm 100% sure are not my computer's fault) like the game crashing after some loading screens or one time very early on I lost my save file out of the blue. Still recommend it.

Jun 7, 2022·7h·Verified

Steam User 3499STEAMRecommended

this is one of those games i play through every year, it's just that good.

May 22, 2022·18h·Verified

Steam User 3665STEAMRecommended

The Spectrum Retreat is a puzzle game, where you play as a man named Alex as he woke up in a mysterious hotel run by robots. Later he receives a call from a woman named Cooper saying that something's wrong, and it is better if he were to escape. To escape, he must find 5 door codes for special rooms on each floor, which lead to a series of test chamber-like areas, and solve them.

The main puzzle mechanic here is basically carrying colors. You will have a handheld device that absorbs the color of a glowing cube, which makes forcefields of the same color go inactive, but those of different color will activate. Later, there will be teleportation, where you can only teleport to teleporters with the same color, and gravity pads, which rotate the levels. The goal is to reach the elevator at the end of each chamber. Like you'd probably expect, these puzzles start off really easy, and become harder later on.

The probelms with the puzzle mechanic is that firstly you only have autosaves, no manual or quicksaves, and that you can easily get softlocked. Luckily, a restart puzzle option is available, but its really annoying when you make one small mistake or accidentally fall into a pit and you must replay from the beginning of the puzzle. Personally, I would love to have more exploration-based puzzles, like the ones where we search for the door codes, and less test-chamber ones since the former feels more natural and the hotel is nicely designed.

The Spectrum Retreat is a pretty okay puzzle game with an intriguing mystery story, but gameplay and puzzles feel a bit repetitive. I see many people comparing it to Portal, but the only similarity I see is the puzzle genre and usage of test-chambers. It lacks the "natural, environmental" puzzle-solving like the ones we get to see quite a lot in Portal 2. It's not really a bad and boring game, and still worth a try if you like puzzle games.

Apr 25, 2022·8h·5·Verified

Steam User 0702STEAMRecommended

A surprisingly complex story puzzle game- like Portal, but more subtle

Apr 16, 2022·31h

Steam User 2854STEAMRecommended

A well-polished puzzle game with a great story!
It will probably freeze a few times, particularly on certain unusual transitions.
A restart unfroze it for me.

The ending is [spoiler]not as ambiguous as I think the devs intended... [/spoiler]
It [spoiler] makes it clear that Alex usually gets to the choice by himself. Without help, this likely results in him becoming the same person again. However, since Cooper interrupted this cycle and accelerates his potential escape, the memories don't re-surface in the same natural way. I think this means that leaving in this cycle has the highest chance of the best possible outcome. Going back in (the other endgame choice) would eventually lead to Alex choosing to leave of his own accord - exactly the same person as he entered as. [/spoiler]

Mar 13, 2022·6h·3·Verified

Steam User 0699STEAMRecommended

Spectrum Retreat is a story-driven puzzle game. It's not as funny as Portal. The puzzles aren't as good as Portal. It's more repetitive than Portal. But it does tell an emotional, profound and somber tale. The music is likewise melancholic and sets the tone.

Puzzles do increase in difficulty as teleporters and gravity are introduced. Some are a little complex, but nothing too brain-straining.

The first hour seemed like the game would fall flat due to it's repetitive, almost Groundhog Day style story-telling, which I could only play for an hour at a time. But by the end, I was gripped by the narrative and Spectrum Retreat exceeded my expectations. Recommended.

Mar 8, 2022·4h·2

Steam User 6286STEAMNot recommended

So first the game sends you up and down this empty hotel, but then you finally get to the puzzle part, right? Right. Except the "puzzles" are all some trial-and-error nonsense about color swapping. So I finished the first stage of like 6 puzzles and the game sends me back to my room. Next day, a new type of puzzle, right? Wrong. More trial-and-error color swapping. All interspersed with flashbacks to the protagonist's life.

I didn't have enough patience to get through the second batch of puzzles, especially since I suspect the next ones are all gonna be the same. Even if not, I don't want to go through the current ones.

This game goes to the trash pile.

Feb 15, 2022·1h

Steam User 2392STEAMNot recommended

This game tries to be 2 games at once. The puzzle aspect of the game is novel and entertaining enough, but the other half of the game is a walking simulator in a mystery/detective context. They should have been 2 separate games and they would have benefited from that. As of now, the puzzles are OK, the colors are a nice mechanic. The rest is slow, not as mysterious as it pretends to be, and unnecessarily dramatic. It just feels disconnected. Stopped half way through because any mistake forces you to restart the puzzle room, and it's quite frustrating. I watched the rest as a youtube let's play (to see the story unfold) and don't regret stopping.

Feb 12, 2022·3h·2·Verified

Steam User 1483STEAMNot recommended

This game will help you appreciate how good other narrative-based puzzle games are by comparison. The puzzles are mostly tedious and have absolutely nothing to do with story being told. And the story, incidentally, is quite weak.

I might still have recommended this game to fans of the genre if the game didn't constantly allow me to softlock the puzzles, with no quick-save or undo. The puzzles are already repetitive, but it reached boiling point when I had to replay the first two thirds of the final level three times. I finished this game out of spite alone.

Jan 22, 2022·6h·8·Verified

Steam User 7835STEAMNot recommended

Story and puzzles up to where I'm at were OK. I was interested in the game and kept coming back to play, but I think I'm going to stop stop at the level 4 puzzles where the room starts flipping around/rotating so that walls become floors, floors can become ceilings. I got terribly disoriented in these puzzles additionally found level layout difficult to understand what I needed to do.

Unlike some other reviews I found the difficulty curve pretty good for the game and liked it up to where I am. It did start off easy, but puzzles were generally engaging for me. Like some reviews mention, I did have to be careful about the order of doing things because it was possible to move puzzles into failure states and have to restart, but I felt like planning the whole thing ahead was part of the puzzle process. I wasn't getting thrills solving the puzzles, but I made it through a bunch of them, so they must've been ok up to the point I stopped. Unfortunately I had very difficult time with the room rotation puzzles - especially dizzying and disorienting for me, so stopping now.

Overall, iI's an OK game, but not a game I'd probably recommend, but if you're good at puzzle games there may be something interesting for you. Voice acting is generally pretty good, and game is well done. Not one I'm going to finish though. (For context, I generally enjoy puzzle games like the Talos Principle, QUBE 1 and 2, the Swapper, Turing Test ... also enjoyed the Witness but was unable to finish it. So this is kind of game I generally enjoy.)

Jan 10, 2022·5h

Steam User 8744STEAMRecommended

Хорошая головоломка, рекомендую.

Jan 7, 2022·9h·Verified

Steam User 6000STEAMRecommended

Love the puzzles. Right up my alley. The story line fits well.

Dec 31, 2021·62h·Verified

Steam User 4399STEAMRecommended

“El retiro del Espectro”, es un juego de ingenio del 13 de Julio del 2018.
La mecánica principal se centra en bloques de colores, intercambiables para evitar, o lograr pararse sobre puertas de diferentes colores. Eventualmente, tendremos la oportunidad de usar estos colores para teletransportarnos a niveles superiores, usando paneles colocados específicamente. Durante estos puzzles, se nos revelan fragmentos de la luctuosa trama.
El juego fue desarrollado por Dan Smith, desde los 15 años, durante un período de cinco años. El juego se hizo notable por la corta edad a la que Smith pudo desarrollar el juego y conseguir un contrato de publicación.

Dec 19, 2021·13h·Verified

Steam User 4885STEAMNot recommended

Quiero hacer una reseña completa pero debo empezar por añadir lo siguiente: Un juego DE PUZZLES que te obliga a jugar de nuevo TODO desde el principio para poder ver un segundo "final" alternativo (Una escena de 15 segundos) no mola nada.
Al juego le faltan ajustes gráficos para que no vaya a 10fps cuando quiera, tiene un Desenfoque de movimiento que al parecer ha mareado a algún usuario que ha tenido que dejar de jugar, y no se puede desactivar. Los puzles y la historia, el aspecto más importante del juego, no están mal pero no son nada del otro mundo. Tiene bastante BackTracking en un ciclo que se repite más veces de las que le gustaría a uno, para ir descubriendo una pequeña zona nueva con un acertijo demasiado evidente y sencillo.
Después entras en los puzles reales del juego, pero a diferencia de otros títulos de puzles que no tienes manera de "bloquear o atascarte" (conocido como Softlock) en este juego puede ocurrir bastante a menudo, y reiniciar el puzle implica perder todo el progreso en el mismo, que a veces es BASTANTE tiempo, y se vuelve muy frustrante y repetitivo. Por otro lado, la historia, tiene una forma interesante de enseñar en vez de contar, aunque a veces se hace demasiado evidente, pero en general no tengo pegas al respecto, puede gustarte más o menos pero es la que es. Por último, el logro final de obligarte a jugar dos veces el mismo juego me asquea muchísimo. [spoiler]Además el trolleo del pozo en la última parte en el último puzle es imperdonable.[/spoiler] No recomendado.

Dec 14, 2021·9h·2

Steam User 2139STEAMRecommended

An intriguing mystery/puzzle game. You know not who you are, why you are there, or what is happening around you. As the same day repeats over and over again, you are called by an unknown female, who tries to help you uncover your past, present, and who leaves the possible future... in your hands. The puzzle mechanics on their own are wonderful. They are well integrated, build well on each other, and create a complexity that was always hard (towards the end of each newly learned trait) and always rewarding when solved. For a short 4 hour game, I was very pleased with this game.

🍤 🍤🍤🍤🍤🍤🍤🍤🧀 🧀
8/10 Shrimps

Dec 12, 2021·4h·Verified

Steam User 5583STEAMRecommended

The Spectrum Retreat is a good first-person puzzle game, with some mechanics similar to Portal and Q.U.B.E..

The best part: the level design is quite good. On the other hand, the exploration part (you need to search for keys to access the next level of puzzles) is pretty mediocre. Also, the optimization of the game leaves much to be desired, and the story is no big deal either.

In any case, if you like the genre it is an interesting option for the quality of its puzzles (buy it on sale, it lasts about 5 hours).

✪✯✪✯✪✯✪ [h3]6.4 / 10[/h3] ✪✯✪✯✪✯✪
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2680492291
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2680492396
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2680492487

Dec 12, 2021·5h·11

Steam User 4197STEAMRecommended

Very enjoyable game. Liked the challenging puzzles. And what makes another good game is not knowing how the story will end.

Dec 6, 2021·11h·Verified

Steam User 1312STEAMRecommended

Great use of puzzles and brain power with beautiful graphics and a telling story. It's twisted AF.

Nov 26, 2021·10h·Verified

Steam User 2122STEAMRecommended

Spectrum Retreat es un juego de puzzles, no dura mucho (menos de 7h con tu tiempo para equivocarte y pensar) pero tampoco lo querría más largo porque se haría pesado. Si te lo tomas como lo que es tiene su encanto, la música ambienta bien y la historia por detrás tiene su filosofía, pero sin plagiar a otros juegos del estilo como Talos o Portal. Podría haber ido más allá en casi todos los aspectos; gráficos, variedad de puzzles, jugabilidad (los controles para acertar a los cubos son exasperantes a veces, y en más de una ocasión se me ha buggeado por no poder saltar bien) Pero sin más aspiraciones y por un precio bajo, puede entretener un rato. Le doy un 6,9.

Nov 24, 2021·7h

Steam User 5119STEAMRecommended

This game is two pretty good games pasted together to make something that's sadly a bit less as a whole than its individual parts.

The virtual hotel story with Cooper trying to help you out is fascinating and I'd like more of that game, but it feels sort of pasted on next to the really stellar puzzle game. It WANTS to be Portal and it doesn't do a terrible job. I enjoyed the heck out of it. Just could have flowed together a bit better. Alas.

Nov 15, 2021·7h·1·Verified

Steam User 1662STEAMRecommended

Short but great. Very Portal inspired. Has some story twists I was not expecting.

Nov 15, 2021·7h·Verified

Steam User 4279STEAMNot recommended

This game is not very well executed. The puzzle design is pretty bad - frequently forcing you to restart puzzles based on actions you took at the beginning with no way to know they were wrong. Puzzles never got harder, just longer. The writing was cliched and hamfisted, and the pacing was too slow in between puzzles as well.

Nov 10, 2021·4h·1·Verified

Steam User 1690STEAMNot recommended

A few hours of color matching puzzles interspersed with some slow walking and a take-it-or-leave-it story. The puzzles can be challenging and fun to figure out, but there are many ways to hit a failure state. It's not a problem when a puzzle only has a few steps. When you can be several minutes into a puzzle and end up getting rid of a color you need, it's very frustrating.

I wouldn't recommend it as an experience worth the time and money with everything else that's available around it. But I liked the ideas on display here and I hope that Dan Smith comes back even better for his next game.

Nov 6, 2021·5h·Verified