Recent reviews by LunaLacrum

Fantastic psychological horror game that deals with various forms of trauma (all masterfully represented) and consistently makes you question what's real and what's going on. Simultaneously leaves you feeling satisfied while also leaving room to theorize and question anything and everything.

Music is also an important part of the game, all of which is not only really nice to listen to, but is integral to understanding the characters.

It's also not very hard to 100%, even if you miss some achievements along the way, because there's ample time to go back and get them before going through the ending.

Highly recommend playing this one, especially since I had never heard of it until recently, which I think is unfortunate because it deserves significantly more recognition!

This is the best horror game I have ever played. I have never played a game that so eloquently presents you with a false sense of security over, and over, and over again and then rips it away from you every time. Not only does it excel at this, but the moments where you do feel safe are as immensely fun, if not more so, than the moments where you don't.

It definitely carries gameplay elements I've witnessed in other horror games, but I think it executes them better. It has some story elements I've seen in other games as well, and I still think it presents them better, not to mention it leaves lots of room to expand and theorize on. The characters are unique and loveable and just leaves me wanting to play it again and again, despite having 100%ed it.

Speaking of which, I spent about 7 and a half hours beating the game normally and then spent another 4 or so collecting all the achievements, playing minigames, and finding cartridges. I made a few mistakes here and there and had to repeat some parts, so theoretically, I think it can be 100%ed in around 9-10 hours.

Also, this game was made by TWO people??? Actually incredible.

I'm highly looking forward to the new mode, and I truly cannot recommend this game enough.

This was a really fun addition to the Portal franchise that, in my opinion, might as well be considered canon as it doesn't change anything about the original two games, and instead brings to life a brand new story taking place in between them.

The voice acting is so fun and I loved getting to know and grow close to these two new characters. The puzzles feel appropriately difficult, akin to the first two games. The few new mechanics introduced definitely add a lot of excitement. Even the world-building feels almost as good as Portal 2, as there are some "walking simulator" sections exploring different never-seen-before areas of Aperture, as well as even some puzzles to solve without even using a portal gun!

I think this is a fun game for anybody who enjoys puzzles, but it's an absolute must-play for fans of the originals.

Subnautica had its ups and downs for me, but I would say it was an enjoyable experience in the end!

I would like to preface this saying that I don't typically enjoy survival-crafting games. I knew this going in, and probably should have chosen "Freedom" mode in retrospect, but I also know my own stubbornness would have never let me live it down if I didn't *try* to do it on "Survival" mode. The main difference is whether or not you have to worry about constantly producing enough food and water. It was a cool mechanic at first since I don't play many survival games, but it got fairly boring after the first few hours. I would say it even became especially frustrating when I would be in the middle of a specific situation I was trying to finish, and would have to take breaks just to worry about food and water instead of focusing on the task at hand. I had my taste of "Survival," and I'm glad I experienced it, but when I eventually play Below Zero and Subnautica 2, I will definitely be going with "Freedom."

My other main complaint with the game is the lack of accessibility. Again, I know it's definitely more a me-thing than something this game is totally at fault for, but I'm really bad at navigating and spacial awareness, which ends up being like 80% of this game. A mini-map could have been really nice, especially for navigating some end-game areas. I can't tell you how many times I'd spend over 10 minutes just trying to find my way back to the surface from there. On top of that, I understand Subnautica was going for a level of realism, but sometimes the world felt a little *too* big. Having to traverse 2000m, even in the Cyclops, just felt like a tedious task at many points, especially when even after bringing food and water with me, it would turn out not to be enough and then I'd have to go all the way back. Around the 45 hour-mark for me, I ended up looking up walkthroughs, just because I wanted to guarantee I would have what I needed and have no need to go through all the back-and-forth across the ocean. Holding the forward arrow key while scrolling on my phone until arriving at my destination isn't the most fun activity.

Most of those parts I didn't like hit their peak around the 40 through 50 hours, which was unfortunate because I did enjoy playing the game, and the tedium of a lot of the back-and-forth-while-trying-to-survive did make it feel like a chore to get to the end. Once I did get to the end, the game did become a lot more enjoyable again.

Despite everything I've said, there was definitely a lot to like about this game as well. Those first 40 hours or so were very enjoyable. I love the aspects of this game that are similar to Outer Wilds, in that you slowly piece together a story that has happened in this place before you, while also figuring out the solution to the game, one message log at a time. I loved getting to explore, see new biomes, and find new creatures, some of which looked cool and others scary. Getting to create new pieces of machinary to help you advance further and discover new, previously-unable-to-access areas was exciting and kept me wanting to play the game day after day.

The other main thing that does keep me hooked when playing a survival-crafting game is the ability to build and decorate cool home areas/bases, and Subnautica is certainly no exception. I probably sunk a good 10 hours over the full 56 just decorating, spread out over various sessions of course, sometimes just for fun to make my place look pretty, other times for actual survival purposes. There's a lot of flexibility in what you can do and how to build your base, so I definitely appreciate that.

Getting all the achievements wasn't bad either. There's really only one non-story achievement you would potentially miss, maybe a couple others if you speed through and miss a location or two to visit that aren't completely required, but you can easily go back to your old save and do what you missed to get them. I can't say I 100%ed the game because I didn't discover every possible thing and scanned every possible item, but I did get all the achievements so I'm satisfied with that. Scanning everything else is completely optional.

All in all, while I do wish there were some quality-of-life added, (and while I wouldn't choose "Survival" mode next time), I do think this was a fun game overall and would recommend playing it. Some parts will definitely be tedious if you're not a fan of survival-crafting games, but if you are, then it'll probably only add to the realism of it and you'll end up loving every second of it!

I played and 100%ed Firewatch all in one sitting. Took about 4 and a half hours to beat the game and another half hour to get the last few achievements. There's honestly not much I can criticize about this game.

Great story with phenomenal voice acting. It's an emotional rollercoaster, and one absolutely worth experiencing. It does an exceptional job at creating its realistic atmosphere, and even instills some paranoia and anxiety at times. The writing is perfect, from beginning to end (despite what some people say), and despite some disappointing feelings at the end, it creates the soul-crushing experience needed to fully relate to the main character.

Unfortunately, the game is mostly just a "walking-simulator," which is more of an interactive novel than a true "game" with actual gameplay elements beyond clicking and moving at times. On top of that, I don't think I relate enough to the experiences of either character (I think he's just more around mid-life whereas I'm closer to quarter-life), so as emotional as the story is, I don't personally feel as emotional as some games I rank higher. I could easily see this game being 5 stars for many people, it just didn't have the emotional connection I can relate to, and just not as many gameplay elements as I would like, but for what it is? Exceptional and phenomenal.

Taking place an hour after the events of the first game, MOaBoMOaBoM continues the story of a young girl with serious mental illnesses. It's never directly stated, however, and is instead expressed through horrific imagery and certain animated sequences, everything shown as if filtered through her own mind.

Most of the fun of this game comes from trying to uncover secrets from her past. Unfortunately, while I enjoy a good mystery, the game never seems to give you incentive to figure it out. It's more of a "do it if you want to or stop playing" sort of vibe which, although it didn't deter me, also just made some moments a bit boring to get through (especially a couple of the endings). In addition, while it is a visual novel in which you get to make choices, either option usually forces you to be mean toward the main protagonist, which does leave you feeling a bit icky. I get that that's likely the intent, to get you in at least a fraction of the mindset the protagonist may be in, but still, it doesn't feel the best. My last critique is that there is no "skip viewed dialogue" button or any sort of fast-forwarding that I could find, so achievement hunting (a task that requires you to replay like 75% of the game over each time to get different endings) is mostly made up of spam-clicking your mouse to get past the repeated dialogue.

All that being said, this is absolutely me nitpicking and I did enjoy the game as a whole! The art style is very pretty and its horror moments do get under your skin. It also had beautiful fully animated sequences, both at the start, and the end of the game which I adored. Once you have uncovered the story and have pieced together what's going on, not only does everything become more tragic, but the series as a whole starts to feel more grounded in reality. It's really moving and I'm glad I got to experience it.

Definitely not for the faint of heart, as there are loads of mature themes, and probably not for anybody who loses their patience too easily, but overall this is still a game I would recommend playing (as long as you've played the first game as well!)

Going in, knowing and understanding that the demographic of this game is for children, I honestly had a lot of fun with it! It isn’t the peak of gameplay by any means, and as someone who really does enjoy platforming in video games, I’ll admit this game definitely lacks in that area for what is, ultimately, a platformer. But I still enjoyed what I got.

The game seems to be a direct follow-up to the My Little Pony: A New Generation movie and a prequel to its follow-up series, My Little Pony: Make Your Mark. I quite enjoyed the movie, so I was already familiar with and attached to the characters in this game. You can still enjoy it if you haven’t seen the movie, but I definitely think watching the movie can help understand the story and where some of the character’s motivations might lie. There’s also definitely an element of not thinking about the game too hard and instead just letting the pretty colors and one-liners let you smile as you play, so if that’s hard for you to do, you may not get the full experience out of this. Giving myself challenges, such as making sure I would get the full 3-stars in each minigame or doing a perfect no-hit run in the flying minigame also made the game pretty fun for me. The collect-a-thon aspect of this platformer was also fun, as I re-visited the areas during the post-game to try and collect every last bit.

Very solid game for what it is, and I know I would have adored it, wanting to give it 5/5 stars if I were a small child, but it was still a good playthrough going through it even today!

Scanner Sombre was a very unique experience. I don’t know if there are more games out there like this, but this was my first experience in playing a first-person game in which you map out the “map” as you walk forward. Using lidar technology, you’re able to see your surroundings and figure out where you’re going, despite it being pitch black in the caves you’re exploring. As you walk around, you uncover more and more of the story and can slowly piece together what’s going on.

Overall, it was a neat and unique enough experience that I think it’s definitely worth a playthrough. Especially since it took under two hours to finish, it can easily be done in one sitting and is likely a game you won’t forget about. That being said, it is very much a “walking-simulator” where you get story elements the further you walk, and that’s about all there is to the gameplay. There is also one boat ride sequence that gave me chills at how beautiful it was, so if visuals are something that matters a lot to you in video games, I’d definitely recommend giving it a chance!

Donut County was a short and sweet game that I knocked out in a few hours after one sitting. It’s definitely a “cozy” game that you might find very relaxing, as most of the gameplay involves just swallowing objects into a hole you control with your mouse, while the hole gets bigger with the more items it swallows. Where this game excels is in its dialogue and characters. It is all very wholesome, and the conversations they have with one another are not just funny, but very real (try sending the duck emoji a few times). It even has a climactic ending that gets pretty involved and makes the whole game worth playing imo, even if you weren’t too interested in the levels preceding it. Achievement hunting is also fun and easy as there is a great level-selector after beating the game in case you missed any! I highly recommend if you enjoy these types of casual games!

I went into this game mostly blind, although I had heard it was very polarizing and even controversial. I feel like a lot of games get overly loved or overly hated, as that’s just the nature of the internet, so I felt like I wanted to play this game to have my own opinion it. And overall, I’m glad I did!

Don’t get me wrong, this game was gruesome, gory (cartoonish), and even depressing at times and is still about two disturbing and disgusting siblings, as I’m sure you’ve heard. But that’s the point. No, it’s not “for the sake of shock humor,” there’s a clear artistic intention behind it all. I’ve never felt so viscerally disgusted by things happening in a video game as I have with this, and I have to respect the creator for eliciting these types of feelings from it. It’s something about the non-chalant vibes given when horrifying things are happening, or the genuinely psychopathic behavior exhibited by the main character Ashley.

And yet, despite all that, the game always remains self-aware. I feel as though both fans of this game, as well as those who hate it, completely miss that aspect. There are people who don’t see how messed-up some of these things are (or degenerately enjoy it irl), and it completely goes over their head that these are NOT people that are meant to be respected or looked up to in any way. They are NOT supposed to be comfort characters. And at the same time, the people who relentlessly bash this game completely miss the point and don’t see how criminally the game portrays its main characters. It’s a great story about terrible people, not the other way around. It’s a disgusting game in the best way possible and I wish people could appreciate that a bit more.

Anyway, all that aside, I thought the actual gameplay was pretty fun! The dialogue was funny, the puzzles were appropriately difficult, but never too hard, and the world-building was exceptional. I wouldn’t really call it a horror game, but it does have some elements that could be triggering to some, so I’d still be cautious if truly despicable human beings and behaviors aren’t your thing. I had a lot of fun playing this game and I’m looking forward to playing the next chapters as they come out!