I’ve spoken numerous times in the past about the standing co-op genre, and escape room games certainly lend themselves well to it. It’s not that you can’t play these titles with strangers, but completing them with a friend or close-one inherently begets a more copacetic experience. You’re on each other’s wavelength and can communicate more freely, with the collaborative problem-solving producing a shared dopamine surge whenever your two minds successfully converge to find an answer.

Last Will is another such entry, and while you could do it alone, the undertaking functions better with another individual (though they require their own copy). The question is, is it worth double dipping? Well, you get your money’s worth, but I advise venturing forth with reservations. For a longer version of what I mean, read on!

Playing to its title, Last Will centers on your unnamed protagonist inheriting a mansion from his late grandfather. Unfortunately, Gramps was a bit crazy, as he has locked the treasure trove behind a series of room puzzles tied to a timer: fail to decipher them quickly, and the whole house will go up in flames!

It’s admittedly a unique take on the series conventions: instead of trying to slip out of a place, you’re attempting to get deeper inside. Examinable objects within the various chambers disclose details about your grandfather and his past life, with the last section, in particular, containing creepy audio recordings left behind by the sage. However, rest assured, it’s not story-heavy, and even the threat of the impending conflagration can be diminished by changing the game mode to “casual” (as I did).

Graphically, Last Will isn’t particularly strong. Like so many indie titles, it employs numerous default shapes and models from the Unity Engine without the constant polish necessary for top quality, leading to inconsistencies. The same bedspace could have a beautifully-carved desk next to a murky brick wall; a nice Persian rug in front of plasticky leather armchairs. It’s an off-putting contrast that you’re just going to have to deal with.

To its credit, Last Will at least has a decent lighting system: one of the two players carries a lantern that casts a short beam, while an assortment of multicolored effulgent sources adorn each lair you enter. That being said, the puzzle rooms themselves aren’t the most uniquely-designed. Now I get it, it’s all a part of the same house, and so expecting radical redecorations would’ve been unrealistic, even by crazy rich men standards. However, considering the amount of time you’ll be spending in this dwelling (and considering the legacy of the escape room genre in the arthouse department) the constant presence of dull browns and greys can’t help but be a negative.

Finally, I have to mention that Last Will deliberately skimps on character models. You play in a first-person perspective, but observing the other player (and they vice-versa) yields nothing more than a thin, humanoid shadow. I guess this is better than the devs crafting some ugly human model, however this was very low effort in its own right.

Sound, as is usually the case with escape room games, is very minimal. I don’t want to spend too many words talking about it because, even as it fails to truly put you in the heart of an eerie manor, it is adequate, particularly when it comes to signaling your progression. The few instances of music you hear are beautiful, being reminiscent of tragic piano melodies from the 19th century. Unfortunately, as I said, it is minimal, and you’ll often perceive the same leitmotif each time you start a new adventure.

There’s a finite amount of voice acting, restricted to those aforestated recordings of your Grandfather speaking through a phonograph. He’s fine, though maybe a bit over-theatric.

Now we come to the quality of the puzzles themselves. Last Will is divided into four Acts with four dens, each based around the concept of riddles: every chamber you enter has a set of scrolls or pages strewn about that cryptically disclose clues about how to open the exit door. Resolving these involves manipulating objects in your vicinity, whether it’s lighting candles, hitting instruments, putting toys on a table in a set order, redirecting electrical currents, or even developing a photograph.

To be upfront with you guys, I mostly had fun. The lion’s share of these enigmas are solvable through human thinking or good old-fashioned trial-and-error, and while the latter is of course discouraged, it is nice to see that it is technically an option. Some of the conundrums can be frustrating (and the presence of a limited hint system doesn’t particularly help), but that’s generally how good versions of these games go; you’re going to feel great about the majority of the puzzles whilst wanting to dropkick your PC for others.

Last Will does attempt to give replay value in two forms: one, providing different rooms for different playthroughs, and two, having multiple endings. The problem with the first is it’s all randomly-generated, meaning taking another go at things could just result in you reexperiencing the same four spaces albeit in a modified order (I don’t even believe there is enough assortment of extras in each Act to warrant four new contraptions), while the problem with the second is those endings are entirely contingent on the final chamber, which remains unchanged regardless of how many times you boot it up.

Overall, despite its technical limitations, Last Will is one of those rare instances of an escape room game actually having a fair price relative to its content. Definitely check it out if you get the chance.