Review Insights · App Store
Rusty Lake Hotel
Rusty Lake · 1,535 ratings · ★ 4.8
4.8
★★★★★
1,535 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 16 negative reviews
Recurring phrases mined from 1-2★ reviews. The bigger the percentage, the more users have the same problem. Fix the top 2-3 in your version and you have product-market fit on day one.
1
"game"
11 negative reviews mention this · 69% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Frustrating. I love the other games in the series but this game is frustrating to no end. There’s no option to reset a room if you miss an ingredient (pigeon - blackberry, which I only found through a walkthrough because you can’t undo a move and have …" - Stupidlittlegame
2
"room"
7 negative reviews mention this · 44% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Frustrating. I love the other games in the series but this game is frustrating to no end. There’s no option to reset a room if you miss an ingredient (pigeon - blackberry, which I only found through a walkthrough because you can’t undo a move and have …" - Stupidlittlegame
3
"reset"
6 negative reviews mention this · 38% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Frustrating. I love the other games in the series but this game is frustrating to no end. There’s no option to reset a room if you miss an ingredient (pigeon - blackberry, which I only found through a walkthrough because you can’t undo a move and have …" - Stupidlittlegame
4
"walkthrough"
5 negative reviews mention this · 31% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Frustrating. I love the other games in the series but this game is frustrating to no end. There’s no option to reset a room if you miss an ingredient (pigeon - blackberry, which I only found through a walkthrough because you can’t undo a move and have …" - Stupidlittlegame
5
"rusty"
5 negative reviews mention this · 31% of all complaints
★★★★★ "fun, but incredibly frustrating. I love the rusty lake series and I have for years, and while this game has good puzzles it also manages to be my least favorite game in the series. Don’t get me wrong, it’s very fun, but it’s also incredibly infuriating that if you do thing…" - oiledmushrooms
6
"lake"
5 negative reviews mention this · 31% of all complaints
★★★★★ "fun, but incredibly frustrating. I love the rusty lake series and I have for years, and while this game has good puzzles it also manages to be my least favorite game in the series. Don’t get me wrong, it’s very fun, but it’s also incredibly infuriating that if you do thing…" - oiledmushrooms
7
"rusty lake"
5 negative reviews mention this · 31% of all complaints
★★★★★ "fun, but incredibly frustrating. I love the rusty lake series and I have for years, and while this game has good puzzles it also manages to be my least favorite game in the series. Don’t get me wrong, it’s very fun, but it’s also incredibly infuriating that if you do thing…" - oiledmushrooms
8
"games"
4 negative reviews mention this · 25% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Frustrating. I love the other games in the series but this game is frustrating to no end. There’s no option to reset a room if you miss an ingredient (pigeon - blackberry, which I only found through a walkthrough because you can’t undo a move and have …" - Stupidlittlegame
9
"whole"
4 negative reviews mention this · 25% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Frustrating. I love the other games in the series but this game is frustrating to no end. There’s no option to reset a room if you miss an ingredient (pigeon - blackberry, which I only found through a walkthrough because you can’t undo a move and have …" - Stupidlittlegame
10
"puzzles"
4 negative reviews mention this · 25% of all complaints
★★★★★ "fun, but incredibly frustrating. I love the rusty lake series and I have for years, and while this game has good puzzles it also manages to be my least favorite game in the series. Don’t get me wrong, it’s very fun, but it’s also incredibly infuriating that if you do thing…" - oiledmushrooms
11
"deer"
4 negative reviews mention this · 25% of all complaints
★★★★★ "fun, but incredibly frustrating. I love the rusty lake series and I have for years, and while this game has good puzzles it also manages to be my least favorite game in the series. Don’t get me wrong, it’s very fun, but it’s also incredibly infuriating that if you do thing…" - oiledmushrooms
12
"frustrating"
3 negative reviews mention this · 19% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Frustrating. I love the other games in the series but this game is frustrating to no end. There’s no option to reset a room if you miss an ingredient (pigeon - blackberry, which I only found through a walkthrough because you can’t undo a move and have …" - Stupidlittlegame
📋 All 16 negative reviews
Every 1-2★ review we fetched. Use the copy button to grab them all for your own analysis (paste into ChatGPT/Claude with a prompt like "summarize core user problems, group by theme, ignore bugs, focus on missing features").
I want my $2 back.
What was this mess? Are these reviews from bots? Incredibly twisted - not in a good way - and literally no story.
Frustrating
I love the other games in the series but this game is frustrating to no end. There’s no option to reset a room if you miss an ingredient (pigeon - blackberry, which I only found through a walkthrough because you can’t undo a move and have to start the whole thing over when you miss). Some of the newer responses to the same complaint says that the option is now available but I’m not seeing it.
Me angry
Bad
Impossible puzzle
I can’t get past the water bottle Levels puzzle.
No matter how much I study the walkthrough.
I hate that type of puzzle. Waste of money.
Rusty Lake is usually so good. Annoying.
No matter how much I study the walkthrough.
I hate that type of puzzle. Waste of money.
Rusty Lake is usually so good. Annoying.
Bugs
Gameplay bugs that make it impossible to progress. In Mr Deer’s room, unable to capture the butterfly with the glass jar or create rosemary - confirmed it with a walkthrough online. Hopefully the game will work eventually
Way to hard
Yes people love challenging games but your puzzles at times were to extreme to figure out. Why not have any of the characters talk like the last one could. I definitely think this game could be improved and become a great game. I liked the murder aspect of the game but to many puzzles made it longer than needed.
Bug ruins it
If you don’t play the clues in the exact order, you can’t back out, so you have to reset the entire game. Boooo!
Disgusted
Deleted after finishing one room... Pheasant. This game, although just a cartoon, caters to a desensitized society. Is it any wonder...
Help
Just paid for the game I’m on level two now the game went black. I keep closing it and restarting the game but it is still a black screen!!! What is happening??? If I can not play the game I want my money back.
First Rusty Lake fail
I am a big fan of the Rusty Lake puzzles, but Hotel is the first "premium" game I tried / paid for, and unfortunately the first with a significant bug. I solved the first room, Mr Deer, without any trouble, but I missed the rosemary and didn't realize that it would affect the number of stars earned. (Suggestion: instead of calling ingredients "optional" maybe let players know that it's desirable by adding a star on the menu page.) I reset the game so I could go back and get the rosemary - the game restarted but then will not progress beyond the opening sequence and The Lobby. I tried resetting several times, even deleted and reinstalled the app, but the same problem every time - the game is stuck in the opening Lobby. I deliver the local delicacy to the guests, and then - nothing. The phone doesn't ring and the game will not progress. And no way to get help from the developer, unless I leave a negative review like this. I regret buying this game.
Too frustrating due to lack of level or action reset
I found it frustrating that you cant undo specific actions to start an action or level over.
Example: if you dont use the knife to cut the owl portrait first and instead stab the hand, you cant retract the knife and get an ingredient at all. I had to reset the game.
Since some puzzles are somewhat tedious to replay, this makes it way too frustrating, to restart the whole game and have to redo a lot of things; in a game like this I want to experiment and make mistakes.
I highly recommend other rusty lake games but unless this is revisited and changed, I wouldnt recommend this. Try Paradise or Roots though.
Example: if you dont use the knife to cut the owl portrait first and instead stab the hand, you cant retract the knife and get an ingredient at all. I had to reset the game.
Since some puzzles are somewhat tedious to replay, this makes it way too frustrating, to restart the whole game and have to redo a lot of things; in a game like this I want to experiment and make mistakes.
I highly recommend other rusty lake games but unless this is revisited and changed, I wouldnt recommend this. Try Paradise or Roots though.
fun, but incredibly frustrating
I love the rusty lake series and I have for years, and while this game has good puzzles it also manages to be my least favorite game in the series. Don’t get me wrong, it’s very fun, but it’s also incredibly infuriating that if you do things in the wrong order (with no indication of what the right order is) then you lose the possibility of getting all three stars on a recipe. I end up just being frustrated, because I have to restart the whole game just because I forgot one tiny little thing-I have Mr Deer’s room just about memorized because of it. This could easily be fixed by just allowing the replay of the current room, instead of needing to replay the whole game.
Moth Bug
First night with Mr Deer you need to catch the moth with a glass jar. I know this because I had to lookup a walkthrough after 30 minutes of clicking everything on the screen. (That’s the main problem with this genre of games)
No matter how fast I try to be, the moth always flies away the moment I press the window to “zoom in” on it. This leaves me unable to catch the moth, meaning unable to go any further.
Nothing like trying to digress at the end of the day, only to have a small mobile game slightly stress you out.
No matter how fast I try to be, the moth always flies away the moment I press the window to “zoom in” on it. This leaves me unable to catch the moth, meaning unable to go any further.
Nothing like trying to digress at the end of the day, only to have a small mobile game slightly stress you out.
Good expect rooms cant be reset
It would be soooo much more convienent if rooms could be reset and the intro wasnt that long. also, in mr rabbits room i did the hand box thing first and without the knife i cant get the last card from the owl painting. i have already done most of the rooms and i don’t want to reset but looks like ill have to :(
Could be great....
I finished White Door and it was great, so I tried Rusty Lake Hotel. Got to Mr. Rabbit’s room and got stuck at the box on the table next to the upright, locked chest. I looked at the walkthrough and there’s supposed to be a coin or something that frees the key through the slot in the box lid. Doesn’t work, so I’m dead in the water. Am I doing something wrong or is there a fix for this? If it makes a difference, this is on an iPad 11 Pro. Thank you.
Reset issue
Game is fun, but you should have the option to reset/restart one level rather than being forced to reset the whole game.
Sentiment summary
94%
Positive (4-5★)
2%
Neutral (3★)
4%
Negative (1-2★)