Oxide Room 104 Review

Oxide Room 104 tells the story of Matt, who wakes up in a random motel room’s bathtub naked, wounded, and unsure what has happened after a deal gone wrong. As you try to escape, you are stalked by horrible creatures. Whether it be by brute strength or calculating stealth, you need to figure out a way to escape the nightmare that is Oxide. Will you make it out alive?

Oxide Room 104 is a first person horror survival horror game where players will need to solve puzzles and survive enemy ambushes on their way to escaping. While the game does provide firearms to defend yourself, you can also approach any threatening situation by stealthing your way through it. The game can be a bit short as well; depending on your nack for puzzle solving or if you’d rather take your time and explore everything, it can take about 4 hours to complete.

In order to move around enemies, thankfully, you can crouch around and move quietly to avoid attracting enemy’s attention. If an enemy detects you, it will grab you and you’ll end up in a QTE sequence requiring you to to mash both the left and right triggers to escape the creature’s grip. Annoyingly enough, more often than hot, this guarantees death because if you ran out of bandages, you’ll bleed out and die shortly after. And there’s no melee weapons so if you’re out of bullets, you’re screwed.

One of the game’s strongest points is definitely its puzzles. While light on clue, they are overall easy to solve as a whole when you think about it and explore every inch of a room. The game also offers different ways to complete certain objectives. For example, early on, you need to reach room 203; if you have a generic bathroom key, you can go via Room 202 and enter Room 203. If you don’t have any left, you need to do a bit key hunting and figure out a different way to access Room 203.

The visuals are dark and drab; has a Silent Hill-like atmosphere. The creature design is both creepy and disgusting, albeit limited, but again, they could’ve fit very well into Konami’s flagship survival horror game; despite their lack of detail. On the audio side of things, the voiceovers are delivered drier than overcooked chicken. Every time Matt blabbers something, which is the same stuff more often than not, it will take you out of the creepy ambiance. Thankfully, you can shut him up in the Audio settings. The score is a surprisingly well crafted spooky score that’s better enjoyed with headphones.

The game is unfortunately one of those unpolished (maybe even skipped QA?) experiences that could’ve used a few more months in the proverbial oven or polished up with the help of professional game developers. The game is very dark; playing this during the day will ensure that you won’t see a few things. Also manipulating items is a annoying. For example, if you reach a locked door for the first time, Matt will try to open it and say it’s locked. If you found the key, instead of directly unlocking the door, you need to interact a second time with the door, get a new prompt to open a sub-menu with the face buttons, select the key, use the key and using the left joystick to turn the key. What happened to just selecting a key and the door is unlocked?

Early on, you’ll also thankfully pick up a flashlight; an item not present in your inventory meaning it’s an item that’s on your person. But it kind of just… disappears? No explanation, no turn on/off feature, meaning the next time you find an overly dark area or part of a room, you’ll have to randomly find things in the dark praying there’s a lamp or light switch to you show you the light. Also, guns are inconsequential. I emptied a clip into an enemy and nothing.

Oxide Room 104 is a great and interesting concept just poorly executed. The exploration and ambiance is top notch, but the lack of melee weapons and limited weaponry will result in more deaths than necessary, some rooms are incredibly dark (when with the game’s brightness all the way up) that it makes searching for items an unnecessary nuisance. This could be the closest thing that Xbox players get to a new Silent HIll. If you can overlook the game’s faults, you’ll find a creepy romp through this motel enthralling.