Save Room – Organization Puzzle Review

I WILL fit this fish in my inventory.

If you’ve ever played Resident Evil, you know that one of the mechanics is managing your inventory (not so much in 7 and Village, but still). This acted sort of like a puzzle where everything that would categorize in going into your inventory (that being your guns, ammo, healing items, and any special item that also falls into this category) and you will need to jam everything into your limited inventory space if you want to take it as every item takes up a certain amount of space (which is dictated by a grid). So you’ll find yourself combining as much as you can, healing if you need to, and reloading just to fit in that grenade or fish that you just grabbed or making a hard decision on whether you need to chuck it or not. I really liked this aspect in Resident Evil 4, and I’m sure that is one that mostly everyone played that really took it into account and made it difficult for players (Village, while had more inventory management than 7, really barely needed you to reorganize or make hard decisions). So, when I heard that there was a puzzle game that took inspirations from Resident Evil 4’s inventory system, I had to check it out for myself. And with it’s low price of $2 I bought it right then and there. I was ready.

Brings me back to how my inventory was in RE4 at one point

This game is pretty self explanatory when looking at the game’s title, this is a puzzle game all about organization. Specifically organizing your inventory. There are 40 levels and each one will give you limited inventory space, which a lot are weirdly shaped so good luck, and you have to fit all of your items in it. Though, you also have to make sure your health bar is full (er well green) and all of your guns are loaded. Rotate your items, reload, heal, combine, and try to figure out how you need to put everything so you don’t have to leave any item behind. While a lot of the levels were easy, some of them can and will trip you up and have you scratching at your head wondering what configuration you just haven’t done yet. And when you actually find out, it is so satisfying, just like how satisfying it is in RE4 (*flashback to my RE4 inventory where I had a bunch of eggs and a fish for the longest time*).

The game does throw in more difficulty, which brings in some difficult levels. While combining herbs and ammo is easy, it does get hard. You’ll have to decide when to eat health items or rotten food (which hurts you), which gun to reload first if there’s two that takes the same ammo, and gunpowder which you have to figure out which to combine so you can get the correct ammo type. Personally, the gunpowder was the main thing that tripped me up the most.

You can also examine each item, which you don’t have to do but it does go towards an achievement.

Save Room didn’t have mouse support when I originally played, but it does now (and funnily enough it was patched in a week after I finished my playthrough). The game feels a lot better using a mouse, though it did make me wish you could switch items like you could do in RE4 (where if one item is in the way when you were putting down an item, it’ll switch them out).

Verdict

If you really liked Resident Evil’s inventory system, or just like organization puzzle games, Save Room – Organization Puzzle is a great game to pick up and play. Especially at the low price it’s at. While this does only have 40 levels, it feels like a perfect amount as leaves before you would get sick of it and it’s priced appropriately. I would definitely recommend this game to anyone that likes organizing their inventory and want that feeling of satisfaction to rush through their veins again.