The Past Within

in library

4.4/5

( 12 Reviews )

4.4

12 Reviews

English & 20 more

Posted on: May 17, 2024

user_edited

Verified owner

Games: Reviews: 23

Great co-op escape room experience

The Rusty Lake series is a household favorite here, and this was another enjoyable entry in the series. For those curious, yes you need to play the game on two devices. BUT you don't need to be online to do so, and there is no requirement for 2 GOG accounts, etc. The beauty of DRM-free is that you also don't technically need to buy the game twice, however I recommend doing so in order to support such a great dev studio. Huge props to the dev for making this wonderful game and for bringing it to GOG!

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Posted on: February 26, 2023

wrists

Verified owner

Games: 265 Reviews: 1

I loved this!

Was a bit confused but we did it! Loved it. :D

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Posted on: January 31, 2024

fahbs

Games: 353 Reviews: 89

Kind of cute, no real substance

The Past Within is a puzzle game in the style of The Room series. The twist is that you play online with a friend co-op. One of you is in the past, the other the future. Communicate with each other to solve puzzles in each other's times. Unfortunately, the puzzles really never pan out to anything but direct answers for the other person. One player sees a time written on the wall, the other enters that time in a clock. One player sees a formula on the wall, the other enters that formula into their chemistry set. That's really it. Keep going until the end. The strength of the game is that it has the art of the Rusty Lake Hotel people. They do some neat and cute things with that art. Are you a big enough fan of that art to overcome very basic puzzles? If you're happy with spending 60-90 minutes on that, shrugging your shoulders and saying "That was alright", then forgetting all about this game.

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Posted on: June 18, 2025

vb8b

Games: 6 Reviews: 1

perfect..........

perfect...........................

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Posted on: September 1, 2025

A.G.B.

Games: 823 Reviews: 84

A fun twist

This is one of my favorites of the entire franchise. Like the white door it is one of the best places to start just be aware that the challenge here lies mostly in how well you communicate with your partner. If you want a spectacular puzzle Co op I strongly recommend Portal Two. Most of the rusty Lake games will let you deduce what you're supposed to do but this is the only of them so far That does not require you to get on their warped wavelength in order to do so. One of the players is in the past which looks very much like what we're used to from the series the other is in the future where they go for 3D and have a reasonably free rotation around a cube that has something on each of the sides. You don't have to worry about figuring out which of you gets to do which since about halfway through it swaps anyway. I love that they take these big swings and I think most of the time it really works for them. It was very cool to see some of the classic elements of this rendered in three dimensions and it looks great although I do think a little bit is lost in it not having the banal pastel style that we're used to has always been a wonderful contrast to the disturbing material and atmosphere. This one does let you do one of the most repulsive things so far. It was cool to get more about Albert and Rose. There is some new lore material and as usual you won't be lost just confused which you still will be if you play every single one of these. I was quite pleased to see the return of some familiar themes such as great exploration of the fact that what we do now can really affect how the future plays out. And doing so by literally having you separated chronologically is clever. If they make another one of these I think it would be good to have multiple difficulty settings. If you only play through this once which of course many will you might feel like there's not much content for the price. And once you have gone through it all that's left are alternate Ones. Three total.

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