My patience has been rewarded.
I’ve been given a game that’s right up my alley. Which likely means I’ll be given some Dark Souls rip-off next, that’ll teach me for having fun.
If you’ve ever done an Escape Room and thought:
“Yeah, loved that, but what if it involved live firearms, explosions, and anachronisms aplenty?”
Then The House of Da Vinci is for you.
And whilst Renaissance Italy might be a bit derivative as a location for a puzzle game, with Leonardo Da Vinci’s workshop just adding to the “well, duh” of it all, House of Da Vinci does a good immersing you neck deep in puzzles and intrigue quickly so you don’t get much time to be cynical. As is a reviewer’s prerogative.
It’s likely a good thing that House of Da Vinci drops you into the action as soon as possible because upon close examination the plot flitters off into the night much like Da Vinci’s helicopter. If it was ever more than a sketch, or if helicopters flittered.
To make a simple thing simpler, you are someone, you are tasked with meeting Leonardo Da Vinci in his workshop, for some reason he can’t just give you the key, there’s a plot or something. That’s the main thrust that’s supposed to grab you at the start of the game. Or maybe it isn’t meant to do that, maybe it’s just a framework to allow the folks over at Blue Brain Games to create a bunch of puzzles. In that regard, it does the job. Nothing flash.
As to the puzzles, what often creates a great puzzle game is just as much the mechanics of the puzzle solving as the complexity or creativity of the puzzles themselves. In that, House of Da Vinci has a fairly simple control system, left-click to interact, right-click to go back, click and drag to manipulate objects. Done, three things. Now, they don’t always feel amazing, as with any point-and-click adventure, clicking on the wrong thing by accident, especially in a world without clearly defined hitboxes can be infuriating but for what it is, it works.
The puzzles range in difficulty from simple matching exercises to those sliding block puzzles that I’ve never been able to figure out. I assume they’re super difficult, but I also wouldn’t be surprised if I was the moron. The variety here isn’t anything you’ve not seen in an escape room but partnered with gloomy, dimly lit libraries, workshops and dungeons and you’ve a fairly intriguing setup that works well in tandem. Add on mysterious letters from Leo and you’ve a fairly compelling gameplay loop.
Musically, the game doesn’t do anything incredible, merely adding to layers of mystique with a soft undertone that lends to the spookiness of some of the set pieces.
Final point is I mentioned anachronisms above, and I don’t know if this counts but it feels closest to the right word. You can see into the past in House of Da Vinci, there’s a weird pocket watch type thing that let’s you see people’s movements in the past to solve puzzles as they did. Which honestly feels like cheating a bit but that shouldn’t detract from Leonardo Da Vinci inventing a time-travelling, scrying, watch. The way media portrays him has gotten steadily wilder ever since Assassin’s Creed 2 or maybe The Da Vinci Code.
Now on to complaints.
When I first fired up House of Da Vinci, the advertisements for the sequel games were overlayed with the menu options. I thought I’d done something wrong but upon adjusting the screen resolution everything was fine again. It’s still possible I made the error but just a word of warning if you end up purchasing this, you didn’t break it. It’s ok. As man of the hour Gianni Infantino would say:
“Chill and relax”
That’s a football joke for those who don’t follow. He’s a bad man.
In addition to graphical mishaps, the hint system is a little trigger happy, I don’t know the exact timings but after a period of not managing to solve the puzzle at hand, a chime will sound accompanied by a button you can click to get a hint. As an intrepid reviewer I decided to test this feature only to be told that I needed to find a key for a lock I didn’t have the key for. Now I’m no Da Vinci, but even I’d figured that one out. So not only do hints probably come a little quick for my liking, when they arrive, they’re not always particularly helpful.
Any other complaints I’d have would feel silly, such as some of the puzzles not being particularly clear in what you’re meant to do, but isn’t that part of puzzle?
Final thing before closing remarks, this is a bit of an old game, originally coming out in 2017, so some jank might be expected. The “Enhanced” part of the title was a re-release that dropped a couple of weeks ago. It’s not well advertised what part of the experience was enhanced outside of a sentence on the Steam page:
“We re-lit every single scene, so puzzles, mechanisms and hidden objects come alive like never before, and Leonardo’s workshop pulls you in deeper than ever.”
Maybe that’s all they did, maybe not. But either way if you fancy a go of The House of Da Vinci then it’s not going to break the bank, probably, I don’t know your financial situation. House of Da Vinci is currently on sale on Steam for £1.69, that’s 90% off, and will be until July 9th so give it a whirl before then if you’re so inclined.
I genuinely might play the sequels if they’re going cheap, each is a fairly short experience, ranging from about 6 to 8 hours so don’t go expecting a saga or anything.
All in all, The House of Da Vinci is a cheap and cheerful (not really, but it’s a saying) gameplay experience that puzzle and escape room fans will get plenty satisfaction from. The puzzles are well thought out, and the atmosphere lends well to the jeopardy of the situation even if it falls apart under scrutiny.
As to what football is on today, Portugal vs Spain baby, I expect and demand carnage.
