At first, To Nothing sounds like a misnomer for SuzumeDr's newest escape game. You start out in a somewhat sparsely furnished room with nothing in your hands except a black-and-white sports bag. You dump out the bag's contents and instantly all the slots in your inventory are full.
You navigate around the room by clicking the edges of the screen when the arrows appear, and clicking on anything worth investigating. You manage things in your inventory by clicking them to select them for use, or double-clicking to examine them more closely. The catch? As you go around and solve puzzles, every object in the room and in your inventory will... disappear, one by one. That nightstand by the bed? First thing to go. The TV on top of the minibar? Try not to grow attached to it. That pair of pliers? Its minutes are numbered, too. The cabinet by the door? Poof. The pack of chocolate candy? Hope your sweet tooth wasn't aching.
It's hard to be original in a well-established genre like the room escape, but SuzumeDr is definitely good at his trade. As with his previous works (Triangle, Lift for Life), the puzzles are well-designed (albeit a little obscure in one or two places), the graphics are clear but not distracting, the sound effects are fitting, and the theme's execution is simply perfect. The game's a little on the easy side, but there's nothing wrong with that. To Nothing is a game worth playing through for your weekday buzz. Just be careful, there's no telling what will vanish from the room next. Possibly even you!
Walkthrough Guide
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An Airy Walkthrough
You'll start facing a computer desk and a bed. Note the bag in your inventory; examine it and open it, then dump everything out. I'll go through everything in your inventory item by item first of all.
A now-empty bag. A magnetic keycard. A key. A corkscrew. An odd metal card with a rectangular hole. A shoelace. A remote with a dead battery (turn it over and note that it plugs in). A 5-kilogram barbell. A pair of pliers. A rope ladder. Two thumbtacks. A bag of chocolates (open them; they're a bunch of different colors).
Time to start using things. Turn right and check out that nightstand by the bed. The key opens that drawer just fine. Push the button inside and the world is now one nightstand poorer. Well, now you can access that panel on the side of the bed.
That panel's buttons look a lot like the chocolates, don't they? Try one and note what color it turns, then look for all the chocolates of the same color. There should be six, one in each row. Once they're all set, hit OK.
Hope you didn't want to take a nap. Oh, before I forget, use the thumbtacks on that poster to keep it in full view. The Ska-letons, eh? I wonder what their music is like. Well, never mind that for now. Look at that corner where the bed was.
An outlet! Plug the remote into it, then zoom out and back in again; it charged in record time. Grab it and back away, then turn right again to see the door.
The door won't open (typical). There's also a cabinet with three doors: a 5 in the top door, a G in the bottom door... and the middle door wants a three-digit code. Darn. Turn right one more time.
A TV. Use the remote to turn it on... uh... looks like we turned it off instead. Or... turned it... gone? You know what, forget it. There's something behind it, but we can't make sense of it yet. You can try the magnetic keycard on the wine cabinet, but it won't work.
Look at the computer desk. Open the laptop; it wants a card. The magnetic keycard will do. Snap it in and you'll unlock the drawers. Then look at the laptop again; it wants an ID and a PAsS now. Weird.
The drawers. The top one has half a word and a hole. The middle one has a note. The bottom one has half a word... wait! Open the top and bottom drawers and read the "ID" word in full. Write it down.
As for the note, it's a hint for that thing behind the TV... and the code for the cabinet. Go back to that thing and press the button a bunch of times. It loops after six presses.
If you watch the spinning thing carefully, you'll notice that it rotates upwards. Sketch it out; the green lines should resemble digits, and each of the three sun/moon/star symbols should correspond with an area where no green lines are present.
Pick a symbol, find the area where there's no green lines, and start reading downwards. Figure out the three digits (it's easier than it looks) and transfer them to the cabinet by the door. It opens... revealing a K and a dark area?
Wait. The other doors had a 5 and a G. 5-K-G? We've seen that before, on the barbell! Stick that puppy in front of the K and it'll sink down. Now go assess the damage in the bottom cabinet.
Another PUSH button! Press it like you're Phoenix Wright and it's a stubborn witness, and the cabinet goes away. It reveals a few things. On the wall on the left is a handle and a locked hatch; to the right is a light switch.
The locked hatch is, well, locked. The handle pulls out the section of wall, but it slips right back. So let's try the light switch. Look around in the dark... hey, that poster looks different!
You may also notice that the metal card with the hole is glowing. Hold it up to the poster (don't examine it, use it); line it up with the glowing blue area and note the letters "P-A-s-S" correspond to.
Turn the lights back on and go back to the laptop; you've got the ID and PAsS now, so put them in. Mind that it's case sensitive. Once you're done, it'll want a card again; the one you used last time will do.
It did something... and then the desk disappeared. It didn't reveal anything, though... maybe it altered the card? Try it on the wine cabinet again... success! It opened the cabinet this time!
Use the corkscrew to open the wine... what? Who puts a key in a cork? Well, go try that key on the hatch on the wall section. It opened... nothing besides an odd knob. Weird.
Hey, I just had an idea! If we could hook something between this knob and the door handle, we could stop the wall section from sliding back after we pull it out! But the shoelace is too small and the rope ladder has too much utility to waste...
How about the bag all our junk came in? Hang it on the hook, then pull the wall section out again. It'll stay; step back and admire your handiwork. There's gotta be something behind there; look behind it (click high).
SCHxD? What the devil does that mean? Well, I know those letters; they're the four card suits (Spade-Club-Heart-x-Diamond). But we haven't seen any card suits anywhere... what haven't we checked yet?
Check the corners of the room's carpet. You can peel each corner up to reveal a suit and a number. Put them all together in the equation; they're a three-digit number times a one-digit number.
Do the math and input the result. The wall section vanishes, taking the bag with it... I don't know about you, but I'm getting a little paranoid now. Hit the PUSH button that's revealed to get rid of the door, then see what's behind it.
A clamp and a drawer. Let's make something out of that clamp. Stick the metal card in it, then bend it with the pliers to make... some sort of hook. It'll be useful later, but for now take a look at the drawer's contents.
What a mess! Looks like pages from a flipbook. Use the shoelace to clean it all up in a flash. Now, take a look at the flipbook's animation... looks like a sequence for those three buttons on the wine cabinet.
Try that sequence... it works! And the button inside makes the cabinet fade away, revealing yet another button that steals away the carpet. I think this is a means to an end...
Whoa, where did that hole in the floor come from? Look down there... your rope ladder would probably be handy for getting down there, but there's nothing to hang it on and that loop is too small.
How about the hook you made out of that metal card? Snap it in place and hang the rope ladder on it. Congratulations, you've emptied your inventory! Now go down there and see what's up with that panel.
A skull and an arrow, plus four switches. Huh. Well, what is there left to toy with in the room? How about the light switch? Turn it off. There are four switch positions marked on the floor.
Like the arrow indicated, start facing directly away from the Ska-letons poster, then read clockwise from there. Once the switches are set, slap the ENTER button. Hm... what disappeared this time?
Go back up and HOLY #@&*$ THE WHOLE ROOM IS GONE! Take a look around. Take the oars from the tree and the compass and map from the rock, then use the oars on the boat.
Escape complete! Oh, and look on the back of that map for an incomprehensible message from the developers.
Posted by: SonicLover
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February 8, 2012 11:01 AM