Developer: Movie Games Lunarium
Publisher: Movie Games S.A. & PlayWay S.A.
Platform: PC
Tested on: PC
Lust for Darkness – Review
Lust for Darkness is the first title of the Polish indie studio Movie Games Lunarium, published by Movie Games S.A. & PlayWay S.A.. It advertises itself on its erotic themes, with obvious visual references to movies like Eyes Wide Shut and American Beauty. Combined with Lovecraftian horror themes and a great looking Giger-style alien realm, this game will pique the interest of many gamers who like their horror games to be atmospheric and dark. This game was funded using a very successful Kickstarter campaign, reaching the funding goal many times over.
Story
The game starts when you wake up in a cell. The door is open, and as you make your way up the stairs, following a trail of candles, you’ll end up in a bedroom with some.. interesting sexual devices. As you turn around, you’ll suddenly get jumped by a strange horned man, then end up in your cell again. The real game starts after this, where you play as Johnathan, a man whose wife went missing one year ago. You still miss her but almost gave up on her ever returning, until you find a mysterious letter addressed to you. This letter leads you to a mansion, and as you go on you’ll discover the mansion is the gathering place of a strange erotic cult. Cultists wearing black robes and ornate masks are everywhere, awaiting a ritual which will open the realm of Lusst’ghaa for them. Luckily Amanda, your wife, arranged a disguise for you so you can infiltrate the mansion where you’ll be able to meet with her, but then you’ll learn that you’ll first have to find a child in order to get her to come home with you. But it isn’t that easy: the master of the mansion is toying with you as a cat plays with a mouse, trying to mentally break you.
Graphics
The graphics are very nice. The mansion is atmospheric and fits the mood of the game very well, and really resembles the mansion and atmosphere in the movie Eyes Wide Shut. The statues everywhere depicting nude men, women, strange creatures or sex scenes are very cool, and very well designed. All cabinets and drawers can be opened, and all objects picked up and inspected. Most of it is not needed for the gameplay, but the attention to detail is exquisite. The realm of Lusst’ghaa looks awesome! Very Giger-esque alien-like, with organic looking textures, objects and hallways.
Sound
The soundtrack fits the mood very well, the music really builds suspense. The voice acting is good, especially at the intro scene. There’s not that much talking during the game, seeing as you mostly walk around by yourself. But the protagonist sometimes talks to himself when finding clues. The voices fit the characters very well, especially the villain has a really cool slightly unnaturally deep voice. Some cultists will start talking to each other as soon as you get near to them, which works well to listen in to the whole conversation, but it’s super obvious since they are silent before you get close.
Gameplay
Lust for Darkness is first-person horror adventure game, with a few puzzle and stealth elements, and an erotic theme. This game is mostly a walking simulator, as the story you follow is quite linear, and you can’t do much except for walking around, crouching, running, and picking up objects to inspect them.
There are a few puzzle elements in this game, but the puzzles are all rather easy to solve: you’ll have to rotate objects to complete them, or find keys to open chests (usually very nearby). There was one puzzle which wasn’t immediately clear how to solve, but that one was possible to complete by trial and error.
In the beginning you’ll have to sneak into the mansion where most of the game takes place, and you’ll do that by staying out of sight of the cultists walking around. They can see you, but don’t seem to be hearing you, so you don’t have to be quiet, just be quick and you can cross behind them while sprinting. If you get caught, it’s game over, and the game will reload at the last checkpoint. In the Lusst’ghaa realm you’ll occasionally encounter demon-like monsters. Usually they see you as soon as you see them, because often they will stand right before you as you walk into a corridor or pass through a doorway. They will kill you as soon as they reach you, so you have to run like hell to lose them in the hallways. It’s kind of cool to run like crazy in the twisted labyrinth of Lusst’ghaa, but as a gameplay element, this gets old rather quickly.
In Lusst’ghaa you have a mask which will reveal pathways and doorways for you which you won’t see otherwise, but this mask will have an effect on your mental state if you use it, so you can only use it for a very short time. However, it’s usually pretty clear when you need the mask to reveal something, because the graphics for the hidden pathways are generally similar to each other, and easy to recognize. The mechanic is pretty cool, and is especially fun then you’ll need to use it in the heat of a chase through the twisted labyrinthine hallways of Lusst’ghaa, with a deadly demonic creature right on your heels. Usually, as soon as you’ll use one of these hidden paths you’ll be safe from whatever is chasing you, but you’ll only have a split-second to use the mask and get away.
You don’t have a way to fight the creatures you encounter, so when you get a quest to defeat one of them, it’ll take you a while to discover how. During this time you’ll mostly run around, trying to stay out of reach (which isn’t that hard) and seeing what happens while the creature is casting its spells. Eventually you’ll see the effect of the spells on the environment, and after that you’ll just do what is most logical at that moment, until the games solves your problem for you and the creature is attacked by another.
The story is interesting in its premise, but it isn’t much more than décor for a cool cultist-filled mansion and a great looking alien realm. The story itself is rather thin and the reasoning and motivation of the characters isn’t thought out very well. You shouldn’t think too much about ‘why?’ when you are playing this game, because your question will be left unanswered.
The game can be finished in about one to two hours, so it’s rather short. However, if you’ll walk around and enjoy the environments, explore all cabinets and be amazed about the funky erotic statues and weird sex toys you’ll encounter, you can easily spend much longer into this game. It would have been cool if there were more puzzles or more story elements in this game, since the environment is so pretty and easily big enough to fit more gameplay.
Conclusion
This game looks awesome, and it’s clear that lots of work and attention have been spent on the environments and objects you’ll encounter. The soundtrack is suspenseful and fitting to the atmosphere, and the voice-acting is good. The gameplay, however, isn’t that exciting. You’ll go around exploring to progress in the story, and along the way are a few simple puzzles, and a few instances where you’ll either need to sneak around and stay out of sight, or run like hell from monstrous creatures. The story is quite thin, and could have used more context and reasoning. Especially a look into the mind of the main villain would have been interesting, since he just seems to go around being evil because he just simply is that way. The game is rather short, so if you’ll like to experience a great looking world with many interesting objects to explore, this is a good game to get. But if you are here for an interesting story or engaging gameplay, you’ll better look elsewhere.
Lust for Darkness - Review,
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