Mindlock – The Apartment Review (PC)

The alarm clock pings with the tediously familiar sound of a new dawn calling, instantly reminding me that the monotony of a nine-to-five job is waiting just on the other side of a lukewarm morning brew. It’s dark out, but I, as much as it pains me to admit it, have places to be, and unfortunately, these bills won’t part ways on their own accord. It feels as if I have little choice but to stay here in this cell, emotionally, and, in some cases, physically. But, it appears that today is different; the front door is missing, and I cannot progress beyond the coffee pot. In this moment, I have nowhere to go, and until I unravel the mystery that radiates from the four walls of this eerily vacant apartment, I will remain perplexed by its existence. Mindlock – The Apartment is my new home, and I will not leave.

From its macabre exterior to its mind-boggling puzzle pieces, Mindlock – The Apartment conjures a melting pot of its own original ingredients—components that, in all cases, represent a vessel that even I can’t quite describe. In a lot of ways, it’s a humorous product, yet one that has all of the appropriate trappings of an oddly disturbing story that carries the weight of a much, much more complex form of moral dilemma. What is normality? Is there more to life than what meets the mind? Questions, and answers that are more likely to crop out of the gullet of a stranger in a bathtub here are, weirdly enough, far more common than the average point and click set piece — and I’m all for its kookiness.

The Ghosts of the Past

Mindlock – The Apartment depicts the story of Colin—a burnt out individual who, like countless others of his ilk, has spent the vast majority of his life channeling energy into the same old routines. The game, which initially sets itself up to follow these familiar patterns, takes a dramatic turn when the doorway vanishes into thin air, effectively leaving Colin to not only question his mental state and whether or not he’s dreaming, but to ask himself whether the strangers in his home are actually there to provide a cryptic answer to his unfathomable fears of being left to ponder the same fate as his restless co-workers. Conceptually, it’s a little dark, but remove several of its outer layers and you’ll find an inner shell that’s teeming with stale Dad humor, mystical characters, and not to mention a surprising amount of hair-raising puzzles.

The game itself is a bread-and-butter point-and-click adventure, meaning, from a mechanical standpoint, there isn’t a ludicrous amount to wrap your head around. Like its counterparts, the game mostly sees you interacting with set pieces around the room, and frequently combining certain items with other points of interest to create conclusive results. Also like its peers, there’s a fair amount of dialogue to chomp through, which mostly flows from a series of unique and oftentimes humorous conversations with various characters who spontaneously appear in an ever-changing complex of rooms. Aside from the occasional bit of detective work, though, there isn’t a tremendous amount of depth to the gameplay; it’s more or less the case of solving logical puzzles, and visiting one of several rooms in the apartment to unravel additional pieces of the lore and Colin’s overarching story. Simple enough, all things considered.

An Impressive Work of Art

Given the fact that Mindlock – The Apartment is, in fact, the brainchild of a single developer, it seems only fitting that I take a moment to praise a lot of the game’s finer aspects. And, to be fair, there are plenty of fantastic examples that I could submit here—the sketchbook art style, voice acting, script, and the clever puzzle sequences, being some of its most notable components. Granted, its point-and-click mechanics aren’t exactly anything to write home about, nor is the length of the game itself, for that matter. Nevertheless, for a relatively short game that touts a mere handful of hours of play, I have to say that I’m genuinely impressed by the sheer amount of content and detail that poured out of its inner shell.

I’ll admit, when I first stepped foot into the staple apartment, I pictured myself traipsing back and forth between one or two rooms, predominantly in an area where, if I was lucky, I’d have just enough wriggle room to complete a significantly smaller batch of puzzles. I didn’t think the story would last all that long; I figured, if I could solve a couple of issues, then I’d eventually wind up reaching the credit roll long before the game finally found its tempo. But I was wrong. As it turned out, that apartment—the place where the game made it abundantly clear that it was, unapologetically, the only place to see—was in receipt of a lot more. The rooms would transform; the visitors would continuously move between locations; and the puzzles, as baffling as they often were, would become memorable speed bumps for one heck of a journey.

A Solid Brain Scratcher

Puzzles are, without a doubt, the most important things you’ll encounter in Mindlock – The Apartment. As for whether or not any of them make sense, however, is another matter; the fact that you have to resort to guesswork a lot of the time exacerbates things, I’ll admit. Having said that, the game itself does offer a surpassingly useful hint system, and not to mention a hearty amount of object-activated dialogue to help shed light on some of the more complex aspects of the tougher puzzles found in the apartment. Did I need them? Regrettably, yes, though I wouldn’t go as far as to say that the frequent use of a hint spoiled the experience, or even that it made it feel any less immersive, for that matter. Perhaps, then, it might’ve been the case that I wasn’t as intuitive as I thought. Still, I was grateful for the helping hand.

All and all, I’d say you could brush up on the main story in three, maybe four hours, give or take. There isn’t any endgame content to sweep beneath the rug, either, nor are there any missable puzzles or tales. To put it simply, there isn’t any major reason as to why you should revisit it after working through its initial batch of puzzles. Is this a deal breaker? Not at all. And yet, it feels as if it’s worth mentioning, especially if you’re looking to splurge your cash on something with a little more meat on the bones, so to speak. For an indie game, though, I can’t help but believe that the price tag justifies the quality of the experience. And, you know what, I’ll gladly take that to the grave. Kudos, Roof Cut Media.

Verdict

Mindlock – The Apartment certainly brings a new meaning to the phrase ‘thinking outside the box’, I’ll say that much. Conceptually, it is indeed a bit of a strange composition, yet one that has a surprising amount of depth and vigor, despite its simplicity and on-the-nose efforts to force its audience into a deeper understanding of the subject of loss, loneliness, and social acceptance. To that end, it has a lot going for it, and I can safely say that, as far as point-and-click adventures go, the game has all of the potential to become a memorable work of art, and perhaps even a vessel for an entire saga of grander stories in the near future. I’m crossing my fingers for that, truly.

Of course, I would hate to dish out one too many spoilers here, but I have to say, if you’re interested in unconventional ideas, oddball personalities, and not to mention an awful lot of logical puzzles, then I would like to think that this, of all things, would be more than enough to scratch that itch of yours and give you something to think about. Don’t believe me? Then just ask the fedora-sporting stranger in the bathtub. He’ll vouch for me. Probably.