RoomBreak (aka RoomBreak: Escape Now!!) is a 2011 episodic Room Escape Game by Korean developers gameday for the iPhone and iPad.
In a unique twist, each of the five episodes has an independent storyline with its own protagonist and genre: you'll play through a domestic drama, a murder mystery, a government spy thriller, a Two Fisted Tale and a conspiracy thriller. A sixth episode with a more conventional Locked in a Room setting was later made available as Downloadable Content.
Aside from the vignette-style storytelling, RoomBreak sets itself apart with its Life Meter. Each action you take is Cast from Hit Points, so if you try to brute force your way through each room by combining everything you see, it's Game Over. At the end of each level, you're graded based on time taken and life remaining.
slowbeef, along with several guests, did a Let's Play of the game in 2013 (compiled here
), though he only went as far as the beginning of Episode 4. A later LP by slowbeef and Diabetus as part of Retsupurae would be uploaded by the channel in 2016, this time covering the entirety of the first four episodes.
RoomBreak contains examples of the following tropes:
- Agents Dating: Agent Call turns out to have already reached this stage with the cute little number who serves as his Mission Control. The two are engaged as of the start of Episode 3 (not that the player would be expected to know this) and occasionally take the time to flirt and compliment one another as she guides him to safety.
- Alien Invasion: Episode 4 begins with a UFO appearing over the Statue of Liberty, and the protagonist is called in by the U.S. government to investigate. The extraterrestrials thankfully have come in peace, hoping to broker a peace treaty with humanity for the continued preservation of those who live on the earth and in outer space.
- Allegedly Free Game: The base game is free and supported by in-game advertising, but hints are given through microtransactions and a sixth episode is available as paid Downloadable Content.
- Ancient Astronauts: Episode 4 deals with an ancient, scientifically-advanced, and seemingly Greco-Egyptian civilization (the protagonist discovers both a Sphinx and the Antikythera mechanism) that appears to be of alien origin, or at least connected to it. They seem to have been wiped out by a nuclear explosion caused by the alignment of the planets and sent a decipherable message to mankind in attempt to prevent them from sharing the same fate. We think.
- As You Know: Agent Call and his Mission Control discuss their engagement and upcoming marriage this way.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: Agent Call at least looks the part, being a CIA agent and all. He even opens up his episode by capping a man in the head, though we later learn it was a botched assassination.
- Batman Gambit: In Episode 2, Dr. Alice pretends to break Keith's hypnosis and places him in a version of her office with an easy means of escape and a fully-loaded weapon, counting on Keith, a suspected murderer, to not only make a break for it and attempt to kill Alice, but also confess to his previous crimes. Incredibly, it works.
- Bittersweet Ending: Episode 1 ends with its protagonist finally coping with the tragic death of his wife, thus enabling him to step outside and get on with his life for the first time in who knows how long.
- Bragging Rights Reward: The hidden golden keys, one per room in every episode.
- Clear My Name: Keith, the protagonist of Episode 2, is the prime suspect in a criminal investigation. He agrees to subject himself to Dr. Alice's brand of hypnotherapy and sort through his memories in order to prove his innocence. He ends up failing.
- Copy-and-Paste Environments: Episode 1 has you escaping from the same apartment room five times, albeit with different (and harder) puzzles each time. Justified by the mundane setting and conflict, as later episodes have much more variety.
- Creator Cameo: gameday's logo appears as part of a puzzle in Episode 3.
- Cutting the Knot: At least Once an Episode you'll open a locked door through unconventional means, whether it's breaking it with a hammer, shooting out the lock with a double-barreled shotgun, or blowing it open with dynamite.
- Dead All Along: Juliet. Episode 1 is about her widower coming to grips with the reality of her death, and moving on.
- Fanservice: gameday's female characters deliver handily in this department.
- Juliet wears nothing but a towel for most of the first episode.
- Dr. Alice sports a look expected more of a Hot Teacher/Hot Librarian than a tenured psychiatrist, and the panning shot of her during Episode 2's ending inexplicably has her shirt unbuttoned, revealing a generous amount of cleavage.
- Similar to Dr. Alice, Agent Call's Mission Control fiancée wears an unbuttoned shirt, only she happens to be quite a bit ampler in the chest department. The ending of the episode shows that her CIA uniform also includes a short skirt, calling attention to her derrière.
- Five Stages of Grief: The protagonist of Episode 1 is going through Depression after losing his wife, Juliet. After completing the episode, he reaches Acceptance.
- Her Heart Will Go On: Agent Call's fiancée doesn't seem too torn up about the fact that her lover died on the job. In her defense, the mission was a top priority, so she may simply have been compartmentalizing and not allowing any grief she felt to be shown.
- Idiot Ball: One that's grabbed before the game even starts, at that. Agent Call and his Mission Control partner are caught by surprise when all of the building's doors are locked as part of security measures they apparently overlooked. Of course, without this gaffe, Call wouldn't be locked in a room.
- Modesty Bedsheet: Juliet wears one (and a pillow across her chest) constantly, except during the intro and ending of Episode 1.
- No Name Given: Most characters are never referred to by name, including the protagonists of Episodes 1 and 4.
- Our Presidents Are Different: The U.S. president, who appears in Episode 4, is a President Unmodified version of Barack Obama.
- Pixellation: During the Twist Ending of Episode 3, the scene where your Mission Control stabs the Big Bad in the stomach is censored in this way. Unfortunately, due to the combination of the censorship and the way both characters are placed, it gives the scene some unintentionally sexual implications.
- Psycho Psychologist: Growing more and more frustrated with Dr. Alice's insinuations about the dubiously incriminating messages that appear on the windows in his dream world, Keith accuses her of trying to get him to confess to a crime he didn't commit via gaslighting. While the ethics of her methods can indeed be called into question, Keith admits in Room 5 that he was not only guilty of murder but a serial killer (or "series killer").
- Recursive Translation: gameday are independent South Korean developers who translated the game's script into English themselves. Surprisingly, the result is not a Translation Train Wreck, though there's more than enough spotty grammar, awkwardly structured sentences, and odd word choices to go around. Good luck trying to make sense of Episode 4 with this in mind.
- Shout-Out: A poster of The Beatles plays a part in a puzzle early in Episode 1.
- Spell My Name With An S: Due to the title font, expect to see RoomBreak spelled as two separate words.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Near the end of Episode 3, Agent Call tries to make a Bedsheet Ladder out of curtains in order to escape the multi-story complex he's been infiltrating. Other far more insane puzzles have gone off without a hitch, but this one works about as well as it would in Real Life, and The Hero Dies as a result.
- Tattooed Crook: Keith has tattoos on his arms extending from his forearms to his wrists, and his actions as the episode progresses show he's anything but unassuming.
- Twist Ending: Each episode has one.
- Episode 1: Juliet died of a Soap Opera Disease before the game started, and the various room breaks are her husband trying to deal with his grief over losing her.
- Episode 2: Keith was the murderer and a "series killer" the whole time and brags about his crimes to Dr. Alice before killing her with her own shotgun. He flees the scene only to find out he's still under hypnosis and has just confessed everything to a still-alive Dr. Alice and several policemen.
- Episode 3: Agent Call dies believing that his Mission Control Love Interest has betrayed him, but at the last minute she reveals herself to be The Mole and stabs the Big Bad in the stomach, retrieving the MacGuffin for the CIA.
- Episode 4: The alien invaders actually want to make peace with humanity. By the end of the story, the aliens and the U.S. government are on amicable terms, leading to the incredible scene of Barack Obama and a grey shaking hands at a press conference.
- Villain Protagonist: Keith in Episode 2.
- Waistcoat of Style: Agent Call's target in Episode 3, presumably a Corrupt Corporate Executive, wears one of these.
