The House of Da Vinci Reviews

by Jam6jell

I was enjoying the game until I got to the part where you must aim the metal sight on the catapult at the glowing target on the wall. The idea is fine but nearly impossible to do because you need to be zoomed in on the crank that moves the catapult to move it, but then have to zoom out to see where it aimed. This would be fine if the screen was locked but it isn’t so you must swipe upwards to see the target again, which allows you to move the view of the catapult and target in any position, so you really have NO IDEA where you actually are aiming in relation to the crank! Even when you manage through infinite fussing back and forth to get it where you think it’s perfect, you must double tap on the wheel to zoom in so you can arm the catapult, and this tiny motion is enough to throw your aim off again. During the past two days I’ve shot at least 25 rounds and 3 even went straight through the target and nothing happens. Unless someone can get me a work around this is where the game ends for me. It’s very disappointing as I prefer the point of the game to be figuring out the sneaky nuances, not aiming something on an IPad.

by JustLetMePost73646#616266447

Navigating the fussy, unintuitive controls is much more difficult than any of the actual puzzles. Expect a lot of double tapping things that look like objects you should be able to interact with, only to zoom in on something that is nowhere near where you tapped. The small details you are supposed to interact with are indistinguishable from the small details you can’t interact with, so it’s frustrating to figure out what specific thing the game wants you to do. On top of that, the hint system is a complete troll. I’m at a part where it’s obvious that I need to do something with a desk. There are two inkwells that look like i should be able to focus on them, but I can’t. After a minute, I get a hint that says, “Maybe I should check the desk”. Thanks for that.

I like the art style, and the story has potential, but the controls are too irritating to make it worth going through. A sliding block puzzle where the blocks just absolutely refuse to go where I want them to sealed it for me. If you have ever played a game from The Room series and thought to yourself, “I like this, but it would be better if the controls were sloppy and frustrating to the point of being unplayable”, then House of Da Vinci is for you.

by Mynameislazy

This game makes me angry. The puzzles are solid, though not quite good as The Room, but the controls are awful and unintuitive. I don’t know if the developers just hate iPad Mini users (latest generation, iPadOS 13.5), but it seems like it wasn’t tested at all. Pieces slide the wrong direction, rotating motions stop and reverse, double-taps aren’t recognized. I don’t know if the game is intentionally blocking me from doing certain things out of order, but there are times I have to try the same thing five times in order for it to work. The latest example is (small spoiler) by the tank, combining the rod and the metal end. I kept trying over and over, I pressed the hint button which told me to do the same thing, and then it finally worked.

The camera size for the iPad Mini seems off, too. Certain parts of the puzzle or scene can’t be seen, and panning the camera is frustrating. If you’ve played The Room, your expectations are a lot higher. This will scratch the itch, but is an exercise that left me swearing at the application.

by Gatines

I was quite disappointed. Having played all The Room games, this is just like it in a sense. Same concept, different story, which to me wasn't the disappointing part since I love The Room. The graphics are quite good and it has potential except that it's full of glitches. I can't get the oculus to work. I had to go on line several times to see if I was doing something wrong but after following some videos step by step, I still can't get the darn thing to work. I kept going back and restarting the chapter, but that seemed to make things worse. I'm playing on a iPhone 7+.
Things seem a bit disjointed at times, and I found that in many occasions I couldn't achieve a certain action unless I waited for the hints which took forever and were very vague. At his point I feel like I wasted $4.99. To people thinking about downloading this game, I say if you haven't tried The Room, please get it all three of them! You will not be disappointed. Much more smooth than this one and more logical to play without using hints. The Room will be having a new game by the end of '17. I'm looking forward to that. And to Blue Brain I say keep working on the glitches. And be more original. It would be great if you could make something as great as The Room but not so identical to it.
Thanks

by Helphe

The House of Da Vinci is a very well done game, with only minor control issues every now and then. I managed to get through it in about four hours and I was impressed about just how tight it felt. The problem comes in the lack of originality. Now, I've been a fan of The Room series from the beginning, and this game is the most blatant copy I've ever seen. The Oculi that you receive in the first chapter are clearly direct rip offs of the Eye piece from all three room games. The first of the two Oculi even allows you to see inside and manipulate machinery, which is almost exactly what the upgraded eyepiece in the room does along with letting you see things invisible to the naked eye, which is also something the first oculi does. Although the second Oculi is more original, and I did quite like the time travel theme, I wish it had been used more often. Several times throughout the game I have seen many objects that look almost identical to ones in The Room, especially in the Crypt when you get a particular key that bears a striking resemblance to the Craftsman's Key from the third room game. Now, this isn't to say I didn't enjoy this game, in fact, I quite like it. I would love to see a sequel, but I would advise a little bit more originality. Maybe ditch the first Oculi or make modifications. Overall, I do recommend this game.

by Him Aye

I very much enjoyed playing this game but I do have a couple complaints. The first is that the oculi only worked about 80% of the time. I kept coming to points where I was stuck and begrudgingly used a hint. The hint would point me towards using the oculi on a specific item, but it wouldn't work. I'd have to keep clicking the oculi on and off and by the 9th or 10th time, it would finally reveal what I should have been able to see all along. That wasted tons of time and was very frustrating. Another complaint I have is that is was very difficult to turn some of the cranks and wheels. This was particularly frustrating when trying to solve trial and error puzzles where the cranks had to be turned over and over and over again. My last complaint is that I really would have liked to be able to explore objects more freely. Movements and perspectives are very restricted. For instance, there was a chest in the upper level of the time machine level. I was only able to look at the front and it was annoying to not be able to explore the sides and the top, even if it's wasn't integral to solving anything.

by Ibrad14

This actually deserves 4.5 stars — absolutely beautiful imagery, a little too dark to discern on an iPhone at times, even with brightness turned way up but amazingly beautiful in the evening hours. The sound effects are really what make this game special for me… The Room had it too! All the clandestine clicks and clacks make my heart’s ears...I mean...ears’ heart pitter-pat. Challenging puzzles, some so much so I had to search the walkthroughs but still most were easy enough to enjoy. My main complaint and reason for the downgrade is the inability to switch between devices. Why?! Doesn’t make sense that one can’t enjoy on an iPad by day and then work a bit on it as they go to bed. Lol maybe this is normal for some games but I have played a few where both worked as if connected to apples Game Center or whatever.

But major props! Would totally buy another one like this! Would love a Jack The Ripper or some time of killer/evidence investigation thing—not like the hidden object games tho.

by KupaMan

Every review is going to mention the Room series, and it's accurate. This is very much inspired by them, and it does a decent job satisfying those cravings. Most of the puzzles are clever and interesting, though some lose their logical through-line in the later parts. It doesn't feel as satisfying to solve them when the solutions are random.
There was one puzzle I needed help with -- a color puzzle, where the rotating discs were indistinguishable for somebody with colorblindness like me. It would have been nice if the textures or color direction were more distinct.
I took for granted how well The Room handled its touch controls until I played this. It's frustrating to try to pull a lever and instead toss the camera wildly every few swipes. The game doesn't put too much pressure on fast or precise control, so it's not a deal-breaker, but a little annoying.
The game is a lot of fun, even with its shortcomings. It's a good first entry in what I hope is an on-going series of these puzzle games. It's not The Room, but it's no slouch either.

by 9 Inch

It’s pretty good, the graphics are great and the game is challenging. They basically copied “the room” game mechanics, along with the eye piece, puzzle style and hint system. Although it’s a quality game, playing it came with some frustration. In many instances the objects you can interact with are not responsive enough and will only move/slide if you do it precisely from the angle they intended it to move. Some of the puzzles made very little sense to me and were not fun to solve. Also, I found the hint system to be pretty bad. It would often give you clues for thing that you’re already a head of, like you’re trying to solve some puzzle and the hint would say “have you noticed this puzzle?”. Sometimes the hint would say “maybe I should use this item in my inventory but where?” Not helpful. Also the hints would try to forward you to a certain location with an obscure description of it. For example, it would say “there was a protrusion near the golden decoration that might be movable” and I’m googling protrusion and can’t find any golden decoration on the screen. Lastly, the eye piece only works if you look at the exact spot, meaning you can’t just scan the room with it.
To sum up, if you haven’t played the room games, buy them! They are the original and much superior. If you have played them and looking for a similar game, this would do.

by Fun For Mobile

As a huge fan of the room series and their take on the "escape the room genre" I'm constantly on the lookout for similar games that can hold me over until the next room game is finally released. While this game isn't as polished it's a worthy knockoff. Every now and then some actions like turning a crank or pulling open a drawer will get bogged down or laggy. It doesn't happen too much and most occurrences can easily be fixed by zooming out and then in on the object. Although there have been a couple of instances where I didn't know what to do next because the object I needed to move, turn, or whatever didn't respond to my command and I'd end up wasting time thinking the object I needed was somewhere else. That can be frustrating but with it being few and far between I still give this game a solid four stars. There's a story and some lore for people that like that otherwise it's just you stuck in one giant room after the next. No backtracking. No need to speak with other characters to get useful intel. Just a bunch of interwoven puzzles that have so far proven to be both clever and challenging while still being fun

by Mihaal87

First let me just say that this game should not be compared to The Room. The only similarities are that there are puzzles to solve, a storyline and lenses that reveal hidden aspects of certain puzzles. That is all. Maybe the graphics, but I digress.
Any comparison to the game should be seen as complimentary seeing as they are on par with one another in terms of enjoyment.
The House of Da Vinci is a beautiful game. Great music. Models of Da Vinci's original inventions imagined as puzzles. Lots of fun and mystery.
The only issue I have with it is the complexity of each chapter. Things will be going smoothly one moment, then the next you're hit with a puzzle so complex that you start considering having to Google the answer. Then, there is a puzzle in the room that you thought you had completely figured out and therefore had discarded it from your mind, then, three or four puzzles later, you are required to return to it. This can become annoying because there's nothing at all obvious about it and you have to resort to using hints to tell you to go back and take a fifth or sixth look or literally tapping on every single object in the area.
While these issues are fairly annoying, the game as a whole is quite fun. Highly recommended. 4 out 5.

by Csburns03

So I went in enjoying the graphics and the interestingness of the story. I honestly think most of the reviews above 4 are those who haven’t played the room series. I have a 4 because I want to be fair playing the room first. It’s doesn’t match up though. The room has a natural progression you can solve without the clues if you think and analyze, which this doesn’t have. You have to muddle around with no natural progression to additional events and activities. The coloring doesn’t allow your eye to catch the clues investigate…it’s hard to differentiate anything and therefore you spend a lot of time wasted searching in vain. The clues once given aren’t intuitive, you literally don’t see the connection until the last clue very often. It is NOT a bad game at all but it is 100% a level below the room series. It will take a lot to get me to pay for the second in the series knowing I will be frustrated and lost unnecessarily. I played the room and enjoy the struggle trying not to use the clues and use my brain. It’s just not possible to get through this game without them and that’s disappointing.

by JenniPoP

I loved this game. I finished it in 6 game hours, though it was probably less as I fell asleep playing it more than once (not from boredom, but because it kept me up playing long after I should have gone to bed)! The game was challenging but doable, and I loved the fact that you can walk around whole rooms an areas; the play space felt all around bigger than those in The Room series. I did have one small glitch- in the last area, I found a miniature flying device that I was supposed to stick into a camera like machine, except it wouldn’t go. The game thought it did, though it stayed in my inventory. Because of this I could not figure out which symbols went with which tube, so I had to literally go through every combination. Luckily there were only 3 choices for 3 slots, so there weren’t many combinations, but it kind of took the fun out of figuring it out. Besides that it was a fantastic game, stunningly beautiful graphics, and just all around a great time spent. Ive been looking for a game to pull me in with the challenge and beauty of the Room, and this definitely didn’t disappoint!

by Di Vinci 1

Simply stunning, amazing, thrilling, immersive, captivating, and off the charts great. It’s the first game I’ve had a hard time putting it down even when I should be getting to sleep or taking care of something else. I was actual a bit sad to reach the end, I wanted it to keep going and going with more rooms, puzzles, etc. The game starts just a tad bit slow but once you get past the first room you’ll be hooked by what comes next. It gets better and better as you go through the game. The puzzles are fantastic and everything is extremely well thought out and planned to perfection. You folks have to make several sequels. My congratulations to you for a job extremely very well done. You have certainly raised the bar for what other developers must now attempt to achieve and offer. You are at the top of your game, keep raising the bar and offering more games like this. The entertainment value is certain a 10 and it deserves more than 5 stars.

by Missymeggie

As a fan of puzzle games/escape rooms, I really really like this game. Nice graphics, interesting story and fun puzzles kept me very entertained. The problem was with the oculi (hope I spelled that right) when it wanted to work everything was all good, but when it didn't I would wonder around questioning if I did something wrong, of course I was doing it right, but it was glitched and then I'd have to go to the net to see what I needed to do, because no matter how many times I'd refresh the chapter it still didn't work. I see that I'm not the only one with this problem and I'm playing on an iPad mini. Developers please fix your glitches!!! I'd give a 5/5 if you fixed. :D

UPDATE: I am changing my review because I was not using the oculi correctly. I am leaving my previous comments above incase this happens to anyone else. I was not aware that the oculi had two functions (well I did, but didn't understand the true mechanics) I thought it was a one button does all, not realizing you need to swipe down for the memory and up for the hidden clues. Now that all my frustrations are gone, I can 100% give this game a 5/5!!

by Tina1171

If you enjoy puzzle games, then you will like House of DaVinci. However, it's very obvious that the game is heavily inspired by and in many was similar to The Room games. Since I like The Room games very much, I also like House of DaVinci. The graphics are great and, if you get stuck, the hints are helpful. I would warn though that playing it on a smaller iPhone screen (as I am) can strain the eyes. Overall, it's an enjoyable, challenging game - especially if you're fans of The Room and similar puzzle games.

On a side note - another reviewer mentioned how helpful it would be if there was a way to adjust the brightness in the game and I wholeheartedly agree. Some switches are VERY hard to see, especially playing on my iPhone. If you have the option, play on an iPad instead. Still, I plan to keep an eye out for more games from this developer.

by Cocharlie

I've longed for the old classics that really had a good subtle story line, superb graphics, and most of all the challenges that were both appropriate to the story and challenging without being overly obtuse. THIS ONE DOES IT ALL AND MORE. The variety of puzzles and challenges is wonderful - and they fit perfectly with the theme and the graphics - and they aren't just a repetition of earlier ones that so many of the other games default to. The hints are well timed and not too obvious for those certain times when the solution just doesn't want to reveal itself. There were several times I felt the end of the game was around the corner only to find, with great joy, that the game was still afoot. This is a level above The Room games, which are a five star offering themselves. Please, please, please - send more of these our way. Thank you for raising the bar back to a most enjoyable height.

by Sopants

I have been wondering for the longest time why there weren't MORE clones of a franchise as great as "the Room." Finally, someone has filled that wide-open hole on TheHouseofDaVinci store. As a Room game every couple years isn't nearly enough.

And this team does it very, very well. Just as pretty as the Room... perhaps puzzles aren't quiiite as elegant, but they're easily more challenging. I can complete room games with few to no hints... I find it impossible here. But, the hints are there if/when you need them.

Every great game we play today was inspired by those that came before it. I'm truly shocked about how much flack these devs are getting for what nearly all devs do... take something that worked, tweak it and add your own touch. I understand rolling your eyes at the 5000th coc knockoff, but this is a whole genre that has been the exclusive domain of 1 dev for years. IMO, it desperately needed some clones.

My favorite Room was Room 1, when it was more like "the Box" than "the Room." Somehow it's easier spatially on my mind when you're mostly orbiting around a single, complex mechanism... rather than fiddling with 6, 8, 10 separate items that you constantly have to walk between. This game is probably most like the Room 2 in that regard... lots of different items across different rooms, but not as sprawling as room3 and it's huge hub world.

Top notch, high quality product that Room fans owe it to themselves to get.

by Portbarton

So, this game is JUST LIKE the room. Ok, so it is not original, but it is very well produced. The Room is the real thing, but this is just as good. Same programmers???? Im not sure about the ethics about this, but with that said, I certainly enjoy playing it. If this game was called Room 4, I would be satisfied, and that is a COMPLIMENT, as I consider the Room series to be the best iPad games out there.

Note to developer: Great work, but maybe go with an original theme next time? airplane, submarine, Romans, aliens, Disneyland? You certainly have the design and programming skills, but maybe you need some help in the creativity dept. But to potential purchasers, if you like the Room, you will like this also. A very slick game indeed.

And one thing. I first gave this game a poor rating because of the oculi bug. Except i am now not sure it is a bug. You have to push the ocluli for maybe 2 seconds "sometimes". Once you figure that out, no more bugs. I guess it could be by design, but I doubt it.

by _jbrown

Puzzling at its best! Reminiscent of the all time great The Room but has a different flare and artistry. I love a challenge and The House of DaVinci does not disappoint! I'm now 30 minutes minutes into the game and am highly entertained and engrossed completely. The graphics are excellent and gameplay is smooth and responsive. The music is absolutely perfect as it's sets an appropriate mood throughout. The puzzles are thought provoking and while indeed challenging, are not impossible. The gaming, artistry and challenging puzzles make The House of DaVinci more than worth the $5 cost. I'll be gifting several copies of this game in order to support the very capable developers. Great job and thank you developers!

I contacted BlueBrain Games Customer Service after getting stuck in game. Had a problem with the octahedron puzzle which turned out to be on my end. I cannot say enough about the fantastic customer service from BlueBrain Games. They were quick to respond and very helpful. This is a company that will go far. Very impressed!

by Ms_T1gger

Finished all of the Room Series Games and looked for something somewhat as immersive as those. Additionally, I am fascinated with Leonardo Da Vinci and what devoted from his inventions/theories. I was not disappointed. The House of Da Vinci developers gave me decent challenges with the puzzles, I looked forward to the next Chapter to continue the journey through Da Vinci’s designs. The only slightly negative critique is the darkness of the environment. While I understand the game’s developers took me through the rubble of destroyed rooms, they could add the need to light an area with torches or candles, etc. This issue is not enough for me to downgrade the game’s rating; however, some may find this irritating when searching the rooms for the subtle nuances required for puzzle-solving. Finally, even though I solved the final puzzle in the last chapter, I thought ending was somewhat anti-climatic and left me wondering if this was truly an ending or a novel method from the developers to arc into future Da Vinci games. (I will not elaborate, since doing so would become a potential spoiler and possibly stop others from purchasing this game...not positive if others share this point of view. Hopefully, this ending arcs to additional games!)