In Rusty Lake's creepy point-and-click adventure Cube Escape: Birthday, also free for iOS and Android, the year is 1939, and it's your ninth birthday... at least, you think it is. Everybody at your party seems to be having a good time, but an ominous letter hints that not all is well. Click around to interact with things and move around the room, and click an item in your inventory to hide it for use. Some objects can be dragged around with the mouse, but the cursor won't change to tell you what you can interact with, so be sure to check everywhere and try everything. When you're carrying a lot of items, you can click the little white arrow that appears in the bottom right corner to expand and collapse your inventory. Don't expect a whole lot of help... like most of Rusty Lake's games, Cube Escape: Birthday is more than a little surreal, and you'll have to think outside the realm of everyday logic in order to proceed.
By now, if you've played the rest of Rusty Lake's Cube Escape games, you know what to expect, which is to say something at once dreamy, weird, and unsettling if not outright nightmarish at times. Playing the game does feel like being trapped in one of those strange dreams where everything is just slightly off, and things get more twisted the farther you go, though you're the only one who seems to notice anything is wrong. Cube Escape: Birthday does a great job of making you feel off the whole time you're playing, though that otherworldly logic still occasionally gets in the way of the gameplay. A few of the items have uses that aren't even hinted at so that you wind up falling back on an "everything and the kitchen sink" approach to clicking around the area with everything in your inventory, so some puzzles could definitely have used some better nudges and hints. It has a lot of clever puzzles that become frustrating by being a little too obscure or fiddly in their mechanics. It's a shame, because when Cube Escape: Birthday gets roaring along, it's creepy, startling, and imaginative in all the right ways. Expect it to add more questions than it answers, but if you like your games dark, mysterious, and more than a little odd, Cube Escape: Birthday is as unmissable as all the rest, even if you'll need to spend some time trying to figure out what it all means.
Cube Escape: Birthday (iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch)
Cube Escape: Birthday (Android, Android Tablet)
Can someone give me a hint about what to do with the
flags
?
@restless:
Each one is a completely separate puzzle. You can
drag the flags around in each screen
You'll know when you get each one correct.
Yaaay Rusty Lake! So excited!
So near yet so far.
What is the gum for ?
Do you need to find cheese for the mousetrap ?
What's with the cat ?
So many questions. And what about the machine ?
I think I have all but one of the pieces for the machine.
I think I am missing something to do with the clock
Great variety of puzzles - so near yet so far.
@GlixD, I was stuck where you were for a long time before I looked up the way forward.
You have to use the gum to catch bait for the trap.
It's certainly not the cat. What else is around? Maybe something that showed up recently?
The fly. The stupid fly sitting on the corner of the sink.
@ Chris Ingersoll
TVM - onward I go.
Thanks but I haven't seen the fly this whole time, I have the gum set up on the corner but no fly
I love Rusty Lake, but they can be so frustrating.
So far...
I did all the flag puzzles.
I got the bolt and cable for the machine.
Got the needle for the gramophone.
Got grandpa ice and gin.
Got the gum and put it on the sink.
Played with the Rusty Lake Theater poster. Got nothing.
I even turned on all the burners of the stove, hoping that might help.
I've not seen a single fly. Can't find a record to play, either. I have matches, screwdriver, and the knife. Just walking in circles for now.
@Thorzdad, you need to solve the:
theater puzzle next. Little help:
You need to match symbols
by getting three of the same symbol consecutively lined up in any building column. Each time you do so, you the 10 in the poster will count down. Do it until the 10 reaches 0, and the puzzle is solved
Thorzdad...
For the theater poster:
You have to play like tetris and match 3 blocks one on top of another 10 times. You will then get a record that falls out from behind the poster.
For anyone who fully completed Rusty Lake Hotel:
There is a use for the secret code in this game.
Put it in the snowglobe. The code is:
1894
the code for the snow globe may be different for people. Mine was 1966.
to get the code use the stamps
spoiler>
Me too! Going to start over and see what happens.
You can use both codes in the snow globe.
@Thorzdad, @hothothoth
The fly appeared after
a visitor arrived.
This might have been triggered by
successfully serving the cake.
Harvey's okay!
I'm very happy.
I solved it the first time through successfully, but found a bug the second time through.
When I got the bubble gum it appeared in my inventory as the first battery, and it took forever to realize it was actually the bubble gum. When I gave the battery to Mother, she chewed the bubble gum, and the battery disappeared from my inventory. Never figured out a way to get it back.
My code was the same
Although the stamp for '9' looked very similar to an area on the '1' line as well.
The fly appears
only after you open the cabinet with the teapot.
Are there any jump scares in this one? Being a rusty lake fan and a total scaredy cat is a silly combination I know :P
I think I've acquired all the items for the machine, but it is still not working. I can still take one item back out of the machine... so maybe I have to do *something* to/with that item first? Can someone give me a hint?
If you have all the parts installed, you'll know.
IIRC, those parts are: Two wires/cables, a bolt, a shard of glass, a watch, a silver dollar, and two batteries.
@baileydonk: You need seven items, two identical.
Sorry, eight. I would have deleted that if I knew how!
Ah, thank you. Looks like I'm missing
a second cable.
Maybe it's something to do with the clock??
That was the hardest thing for me to find...I wound up using the cheat video. It was in
the oven, after it had blown a fuse or something.
@Jazz
There are at most two jump scares. Both are necessary to progress.
The first one
comes from seeing who is at the door. I was mildly startled, but it might count as a 'scare' to others.
The second one
comes from cleaning off a window. That one made me really jump.
Why cant' I vote 5 mushrooms everyday?
I definitely appreciate being told where the fly ended up. But now I can't find the second battery. So. Stuck.
Hi there, so where do you find the
shard of glass
? And @Oniya what do you need to
clean off the window to get the second scare?
Thanks!
@pvanheus
If you just poke at the window, you'll answer both of your questions.
Click on it with your pointer and drag around until the jump-scare.
The shard of glass comes from the broken window
More specifically re: window,
Draw a tree in the center pane, just like the drawing on the wall.
@Chris Ingersoll
I guess I must have done that by accident. XD
Oy. There's way more to it than just
"draw a tree on the window".
To put it another way, here's a huge warning, which I purposely will not hide behind spoiler tags: don't put the kettle on the stove yet! I will spoiler-tag the reason:
The kettle is used for fogging up the window, for which purpose it MUST be put on the left-hand burner; it won't do a darn bit of good if you put it on the right-hand burner. And once you put it down, you can't move it. Or at least I certainly haven't found a way.
In fact, I think this is a design flaw in the game.
OK, so I was wrong. I was missing a crucial step.
Don't forget that this is 1939. The stove doesn't have an automatic igniter; heck, it doesn't even have a pilot light. When you turn the knob, that stuff you see is apparently the artist's visualization of gas flowing, not flames. (Of course, gas is not exactly visible like that, so if you're as confused as I was, I don't blame you.)
All of which is to say, light the stove with the matches already.
Best ever, Rusty Lake. Great job.
Especially because you spared the kitty both times :)
Walkthrough
The Celebration
1. Father
1. Take the knife from the drawer under the record player.
2. To cut the cake, the first two slices should leave you with three candles on each piece. The last two should cut the cake into 9 pieces.
3. Take the piece of cake and give it to the father.
4. Take the needle.
2. Mother
1. Check the mail as she suggests.
2. Take the bubble gum from the record player.
3. Give the bubble gum to the mother.
4. Use the knife to blow the bubble she makes and take the gum.
3. Grandfather
1. Drink
Check the cabinet on the wall, next to the grandfather to find some gin.
2. Ice
1. Click on the balloon on the birthday present.
2. Take the balloon from the kitchen floor and fill it with water.
3. Put the balloon in the fridge to get some ice cubes.
3. Music
1. Check the “Rusty Lake Theatre” poster on the wall.
2. Match three of the same cubes 10 times to find a record.
3. Put the record on the record player and use the needle on it.
4. Once the music starts, check in with the grandfather and take the stamp from his chair.
The Birthday Gift
1. Gas Tube
1. Take the matches from under the kitchen sink.
2. Use the matches on the broken oven and take the gas tube.
2. Batteries
1. Take the key from the broken vase, on the cabinet.
2. Unlock the top locker in the kitchen and take the kettle.
3. Fill the kettle with water and boil it.
4. Use the boiled water on the footsteps at the front door.
5. You’ll find the first battery under the “WELCOME” sign.
6. The second battery can be found in the broken pot, next to the phone.
3. Watch
1. The Snow Globe
1. Put the gum on the sink’s edge, where the fly lands.
2. Take the fly and put it on the mouse trap.
3. Come back to find a fish cot in the trap.
4. Feed the fish to the cat.
5. Take the key from the cat poo on the ground and unlock the bottom locker in the kitchen.
2. The Code
1. On the letter you received earlier is a stamp with a triangle on it.
2. The second stamp you took earlier from the grandfather.
3. Check the dead father to find a postcard with the last two stamps on it.
4. Put the stamps in their respective places on the painting on the wall.
5. Check the postcard to see the correct combination of symbols for the snow globe which is
1966
4. Glass Piece
1. Check the drawing on the wall, above the cake.
2. Go to the window and draw the same tree in the middle then click on it.
5. Cable
1. Take the screwdriver from the bottom drawer under the record player.
2. Use the screwdriver on the round switch next to the door to find a cable.
6. Silver Coin
Close the box next to the dead father. You’ll find the coin on top of it.
7. Bolt
To get the bolt you need to solve the three flag puzzles.
1. Equation flags
3x4=12
2. Flags above the cake
From left to right:
Star; blue with red lines; yellow with blue lines; green with red dots; red with yellow waves; 6.
3. Flags above the record player
From left to right:
Blue and red; red with a star; red and blue with a star; blue, yellow and green; yellow with a green cross; yellow and green.
4. Put the three flags above the fridge and take the bolt.
A Second Chance
1. Put all 7 parts in the birthday gift and take the blue cube.
2. Put the blue cube on the clock on the wall and click on it.
3. Take the coin from the birthday gift and put it on the box next to the father.
4. Take the gun from the box and give it to the grandfather.
5. See who’s at the door.
Of course any review of the Rusty Lake games is incomplete without mention of the incredible voice actors. Where do they find these amazing talents? Especially the voice of Dale. That guy sounds like a brilliant, handsome, generous genius. IMHO of course.
okay I've read the comments and spoilers and all, and I found the answer to the flag puzzle above the cake, but can anybody tell me where to actually GET that answer? I can't find any hint. All the other puzzles are logical, but this one...?
ugh, just about fifteen seconds after posting.
the number of the symbols on the flags. one star, two stripes, three stripes, four dots... simple as that.
Is... is that
Mr. Rabbit
from Alice is Dead? Because if it is, that just made my day. It even makes a twisted sort of logic here, which is the only sort of logic in Rusty Lake, right? right?
Besides, we never did find out how he maybe undied at the end of part 3. Dun Dun DUN.
The theatre is open to the public...
I keep crashing at the window. I know what to do there, but my app (iPad user here) kicks me out as soon as I see the window or put a finger on it. The processing power of touch seems to bug it up a lot.
I can never finish these without walkthrough...
Here's some hints before you try the walkthrough:
General hints
always listen to your elders
four puzzles in the room can be solved without external clues or objects
did you check on the back of the envelope?
If clicking does nothing, make sure you don’t have an object selected at the time. Some puzzles won’t work if you try to interact with an object.
THE FAMILY
Grandpa keeps asking you for stuff. Did you find anything else you could offer him?
Flags: think simple patterns
Tetris: look at the symbols. Keep things neat.
You don’t need matches to light this cake…
MORE PARTY GUESTS
Wow, one of the bullets went right through the oven.
You should make sure it still works!
Is there anything you could use to catch the fly?
Notice how it always lands in the same place.
The window’s fogged up now and you can even draw on it...
...but isn’t something missing from this picture? Let’s fix that. [Warning: JUMP SCARE]
It’s awfy cold out there today.
What could you do with hot water?
We’re not catching mice in this mousetrap.
Did you catch anything else to use as bait?
Update