Developer: Darkania Works, GrimTalin
Publisher: GrimTalin
Platform: PC, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
Tested on: PC
Last Days of Lazarus – Review
Last Days of Lazarus is the first game made by Romanian developer Darkania Works. In this scenario, their nationality is relevant because they definitely took inspiration from their country of origin. The game has a unique aesthetic to it with a distinctly gothic feel. It also uses pre-soviet Romania as the setting. Last Days of Lazarus sends the player on a confusing and winding adventure into the supernatural forces at work in their hometown, though themes of communism and religion are also involved in the story. While solving puzzles, you will need to get to the heart of your tragic family secret.
Story
You play as the titular Lazarus, a young man who returns to the city he was born in and left behind long ago. His childhood wasn’t the best due to an abusive father and an overly religious mother. After said mother kills herself, Lazarus gets contacted by his sister and goes down to his childhood home to pick up the pieces, trying to see if he can salvage the relationship. Upon arrival though, it turns out his sister Lyudmila went missing not long after calling him. Using an old key, Lazarus makes his way into the apartment he grew up in, only to find himself entangled with a strange power that resides there now. Things get complicated because the government seems to have some influence over said power and wants to use it for its own goals. There is also the mystery of what a local priest could have to do with it. Lazarus will have to solve a lot of riddles to get to the bottom of his family’s history and find out if he’s even able to save his sister at all.
The game does not have a lot of cutscenes, almost all of the plot is packed into the gameplay itself. This is done mostly through the character’s dialogue and by finding documents or tapes you can read and listen to. This also means some of the narrative is optional, and if you miss things, you might be left with confusing questions or twists that don’t make sense later. If you do go through the trouble of collecting everything, the narrative falls into place quite nicely and offers a satisfying mystery for the player to gradually piece together.
Graphics
As far as indie games go, Last Days of Lazarus looks remarkably good. The character models definitely have a few flaws, but they’re not the focus often so this can easily be ignored. What the game does nail is the setting, with the environments you get to explore having a unique feel to them and many small details that stand out. By looking around carefully, you can discover a lot of hidden storytelling just in what you can see and that’s very cool. The game also avoids the dark and dreary look so common for horror adventures, giving the world a more colorful design.
Sound
Despite its foreign setting, Last Days of Lazarus has full voice acting with an English voice cast. The voice acting is decent, not quite at a professional level but serviceable for an indie game and lacking any terrible accents. There should have just been a bit more emotion in the main character’s performance. The game also has a great soundtrack with a nostalgic atmosphere to it, which fits, since the game is set in a real historical era.
Gameplay
Last Days of Lazarus is an adventure game with supernatural elements. Some might describe this title as a horror game too, though it’s definitely pretty tame in that regard. There are some scares and chase scenes, and a bit of gore here and there, but overall the game is more about exploration and puzzle-solving which allows you to focus on the narrative. The actual puzzles range from extremely easy to more challenging, without ever getting so hard it becomes frustrating. They usually revolve around finding items or passwords that you can find lying around by inspecting everything. To help you, your objectives are tracked very clearly so you always have a quick reference if you forget what you’re trying to do. When you’re at a loss, wandering around and inspecting literally everything you can find will usually be the way to progress. Thankfully that was only needed once or twice.
The places you explore are pretty small too, making the game more bearable since you do need to backtrack a lot. Overall the game isn’t very long. An hour or three will do the trick unless you’re a diehard completionist. Aside from items necessary to solve puzzles or progress the story, there are also a lot of collectibles in the game. Since it’s divided into chapters, the main menu allows you to quickly skip between them after completion, meaning it’s a good incentive to go back and try to collect everything. This is also a good thing because as we mentioned before, some plot-relevant documents can easily be missed. Sometimes this can even make the plot hard to understand. Thanks to the chapter selection option, it’s easy to explore the full story and not leave annoying questions unanswered. As a narrative-driven game, the plot is the most compelling thing Last Days of Lazarus has to offer.
Conclusion
Calling this a walking simulator might be inaccurate, but it does come very close. With its complex but interesting storytelling full of religious doctrine, dark forces, and family secrets, Last Days of Lazarus draws you in quickly. It’s easy to forgive the lack of real gameplay when you’re experiencing a good plot within a stunning setting. Just don’t expect to spend hours on this game since it’s pretty short.
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