Spires and The Mural

The constant crashing to desktop is a real problem, especially on older machines. It creates this strange situation where the game requires a relatively high-functioning PC in order to run, despite the fact that it is graphically unimpressive. The visuals are interesting, but they are nowhere near as crisp or detailed as anything you would expect from a game that requires so much tech in order to run smoothly.

With Neighbour defeated, we move on to the next stage of the game. Opening up RRE and clicking to continue places us in a new area with no visible connection to the tunnel we were just in. There is a heavy breathing in the background, but there is no sign of Neighbour and it slowly fades away as you explore. Just like the previous area, the room is dark and it is impossible to find your way without your cellphone torch.

The area appears to be a classroom or conference room. There are dusty blackboards on the wall, covered in chalk diagrams. These diagrams show similar variations of the same thing – multiple large things being drawn to, or revolving around, a central smaller thing. There is a pile of recording equipment in the corner. You can Left Hand several parts of the pile and cause things like LEDs to come on, tape decks to open and close, and empty decks to play. There is one deck containing a tape, and if you line up the angle just right (which is hard to do without any cursor on screen) you can play it. It contains a conversation between three people, but there are other voices talking inaudibly in the background the entire time.

“Male Voice 1: (inaudible) she do for it?

Female Voice: Nothing. She didn't (inaudible).

Male Voice 2: (inaudible – rising pitch suggests a question).

Male Voice 1: She's very good.”

Whilst playing the tape is not necessary in order to move on, once it ends there is a sort of earthquake rumble sound effect which causes dust to fall from the ceiling. This is, of course, only visible if you are using your cellphone torch at the time. There are a few tables and chairs, but you can't interact with them. The only other points of interest are a door a window.

Looking out of the window reveals that we are at the top of a very tall building at night. There is speculation among fans of RRE that this building is one of the spires seen from the window of the very first room. Below us is a courtyard, across from which there are a few other towers. The moon sitting in the sky is an ugly and irregular smear of ivory. There is a near trick where if you stand far enough to the left, you can sort of peak around the corner of the window and see the outside of where we are headed next – another tower covered in dark ivy.

Heading through the door reveals two paths, the nearest is a spiral staircase leading down, the second is a long corridor which your cell light is too dim to penetrate.

The staircase down eventually becomes a dead end, but the game plays with your expectations a bit. From top to bottom, you have to run down for about a minute to reach what you're looking for. All this time there is no indicator that you are making progress other than the hallway moving past. Each rung of the spiral is identical to the one above and entirely featureless. Even more misleading, any player who is put off by the lack of progress and attempts to go up at any point, quickly reaches the top again as if they have only been moving on the spot the whole time. However, if you do continue to go down the stairs, you eventually get a phone call. As always, when you answer it everything goes dark. The voice on the phone is a low gurgling moan and speaks each word incredibly slowly.

“The truth is not always beautiful.”

There is a jump scare when the call ends – the mural.

The moment you illuminate the area, you find yourself staring inches from a brick wall blocking your descent. However you angle yourself in the staircase, once the light comes up you are facing down the spiral. There is a mural painted on the wall which mirrors the diagrams found in the classroom, only this time the large things are jagged black shapes with angry white faces, and the small thing in the centre is a misshapen stick figure. The sudden image is unsettling, but the continuous screaming which accompanies it is worse. The puzzle is very simple, but the screaming is loud and realistic enough to cause some distraction.

You cannot look away from the mural and if you attempt to retreat backwards whilst still looking at it, you hit an invisible wall. You have to wait for your light to go out (stop pressing Right Hand), and then retreat back up the stairs in darkness. If you switch on the light whilst turned around, you find the wall immediately behind you and the screaming increases in volume to the point of distortion on most speakers. You never see the wall move, but it is always behind you when you look. It is possible to die in this section if you continue to stare at the wall for long enough. You hear breathing behind you and then everything goes to black. The solution is simply to keep running up the stairs. Once you reach the top, the wall slams into place and blocks the staircase and the mural fades away.

Strangely, returning to the classroom reveals that the blackboards have been broken and tossed around the room.