Save Room – Organization Puzzle

Developer: Fractal Projects | Publisher: Fractal Projects | Release Date: 2022 | Genre: Casual / Puzzle / Indie | Website: N/A | Purchase: Steam

Fans of games with limited inventory space, such as Resident Evil 4, will be very familiar with the process of having to stack everything as efficiently as possible to make the best use of that space. Some players love this “Inventory Tetris” and treat it as a mini-game, while other players breathe a sigh of relief when presented with an “auto-sort” button. Anyone falling in the former category will be glad to hear that Fractal Projects has created an entire game out of this process, called Save Room – Organization Puzzle.

As the name suggests, Save Room – Organization Puzzle is a puzzle game that is all about organizing your inventory. It also doesn’t try and hide the fact that it is very much based on the inventory system of Resident Evil 4. Instead of any semblance of a story players are presented with forty levels where the goal is to simply fit everything in the provided inventory space. The items, which consist of weapons, ammunition, and crafting materials can all be rotated like Tetris blocks while trying to fit them in the best possible spot. Every item can also be examined, which comes in useful later on when crafting healing items or ammunition. The game presents players with an often irregularly shaped inventory space that is split up into a grid. This layout changes between levels, so the size, shape, and amount of space available will always be different. To the right of the inventory is a spot where players can store excess items while trying to figure out the best spot for them.

The first few levels in Save Room are a breeze and most players should be able to get through them without any trouble. However, as players progress through the levels the game does introduce a few new factors that ups the challenge a bit. First up is the ammunition, which players must use to reload the weapons in their inventory. At first, it is as easy as putting the right ammunition in the right weapon, but soon the order in which weapons are reloaded starts to matter as some use the same ammunition. This means having to keep track of how many bullets each weapon can hold and how many can be stacked. Then, when crafting materials are introduced players must keep track of which combinations create which bullets, to ensure they make enough for every weapon. The same goes for healing items, which initially consist of eggs and healing sprays that can just be consumed to regain health. A health bar is shown on the top left corner of the screen and to complete levels it must be green.

In true Resident Evil fashion players are soon given various colored herbs, which must be combined to create healing medicine. Later levels even take it a step further by handing players things like rotten eggs or rotten fish that can decrease their health. Then it becomes a matter of strategically using the health lower and health restoring items in the correct order to end a level with full health and no leftovers. It sounds a lot more complicated than it really is and most players, especially Resident Evil veterans, will know exactly what to do.

Visually, the game fully embraces the Resident Evil aesthetic and everything plays out on the inventory screen. The weapons, which consist of handguns, machine pistols, revolvers, shotguns, bolt-action sniper rifles, and rocket launchers look good, and examining them presents players with a rotating 3D model. The same goes for the grenades, ammunition boxes, and healing items. The audio is suitably moody, but the same song plays on all forty of the levels, so a few more tunes would definitely have helped. The same goes for the sound effects, which are functional, but unremarkable. The only bit of speech in the game is the “Save Room” phrase that is uttered in a very convincing Resident Evil-style voice when starting the game. Save Room is mouse-controlled and moving everything into position is as easy as clicking and dragging. Items can be combined by dragging them on top of each other, but strangely enough, it’s not possible to switch between items this way. Instead, players must first put down the item that they are currently holding before they can pick up something else. Items can be rotated to make them fit better and the grid layout makes it easier to visualize what goes where. The game does not have an “Undo” feature, though, so making a mistake means having to hit the restart button and try again. Levels are generally short enough that this is not much of an issue.

Overall, Save Room offers a decent experience and is a nice way to kill some time without taxing your brain too much. Unfortunately, it doesn’t do much to improve or change the original formula that it is based on. The game is also short enough that most players should be able to get through it in about an hour and there’s not a lot of replay value apart from a few achievements that are missable on the first time though. Thankfully, the affordable price tag means that players won’t feel shortchanged after completing the game. Save Room is not going to appeal to players who find inventory management a chore, but to those who enjoy creating order out of chaos and finding the most efficient spot for every item, this one should not be missed.