Lorn's Lure Reviews

I really, really, really wanted to like this game, the atmosphere is nice, and the game seems good in theory. But the gameplay is just too frustrating to be fun. I stopped at chapter 6, that's where it got too annoying to keep playing. -Some mechanics feel really inconsistent, I often fail or succeed without having any clue what I did differently. -It's near impossible to tell which walls are climbable and which aren't. -I never fully understood what height is safe to fall from. -Related to above point, I don't like that you can't save yourself in any way if you start falling too fast. There were occasional fun parkour moments, and I liked the bits of story and worldbuilding here and there, but it was not enough to keep me going. If I wanted to play a very difficult, very frustrating climbing game, I'd just play Getting Over It. I will admit I'm often not a very good gamer, but I can still enjoy a game even if I kinda suck at it if it's good, and maybe has difficulty settings (which this game doesn't really have, I played before the exploration mode was added, and when I tried it, it didn't seem to change anything for me). So I don't think my lack of enjoyment is purely because of "skill issue" or whatever lol, but maybe someone better than me will enjoy it more. I wish there was a infinite stamina mode or something, so I could still explore the world! Edit: Also it seems that two of my chapter saves got wiped for some reason?

As a lover of Blame! and parkour platformers I honestly think this game was quite disappointing. The story/main mystery is not intriguing enough to carry a whole game. It was interesting for the first level and then got interesting again near the end. The 10 hours in the middle didn't advance that mystery whatsoever! The megastructure you spend the whole game traversing doesn't have much personality. I liked the first level and the waste tunnels (genuinely spooked me) but the design of the structure didn't entice me at all. There were no memorable setpieces or vistas. Visually speaking, the megastructure all blended together. There are some interesting parts, but not enough for 10-13 hour experience. The progression through this structure didn't feel all that distinct either. Things started to get samey and tedious. Show me something fucking fantastical, give me more scripted events showing the structure falling apart, that sort of thing. Show me a settlement built around the light of a primordial black hole or some shit! Show me intense weather events due to pressure differences between layers, show me cool shit! The worst part about Lorn's Lure is that at the very end, it gives you a grappling hook and then throws you into an overly long and terribly designed escape sequence. It's a HUGE difficulty spike and honestly soured the entire game for me. I did not finish this game because of this sequence. I'm glad I looked at the ending through a walkthrough because OH BOY if I went through that slog of an escape sequence and THEN got it by an "it was all a dream" ending, I think I would have succumbed to a case of gamer rage which is very rare for me. I have finished all the Dark Souls games multiple times over and have never experienced this level of frustration with any of them. Honestly, the more I played the game, the more obvious it was to me that the game required way more playtesting. If you're going to make a precise, unforgiving platformer, it needs to be designed perfectly. And honestly, some of the level design was complete doo doo. On the flip side, some of the level design was quite good and allowed me to achieve a state of flow. ALSO! YOU CAN'T CLIMB ANYTHING! ONLY CERTAIN ARBITRARY MATERIALS WHICH LOOK KIND OF LIKE THE ONES YOU CAN CLIMB BUT YOU JUST CAN'T, OKAY? The more gameplay mechanics were introduced, the more the feeling of dissatisfaction grew. None of them ever really achieved all that much depth and disappointed me more often than not. Overall, I would describe this game as "sparse". Not in a great, atmospheric way like for NaissanceE or Blame!, but in a "why am I playing this?" kind of way. All that being said.... Pretty damn good for a first game release. Good on ya Rubeki Also the weird ships that fly by near the castle thing literally fly into a wall but it's fine I guess

"It's a tough game, but not frustrating! Mistakes are not punished by redoing lengthy sections. Play fast or slow. Take in the sights as you traverse, or play as fast as a speed runner." Enter the last level. Total opposite of how the game has been until then. I have to give this game a NO. Which is a shame since I really enjoyed it otherwise.

The overall game is wondrous and interesting. However, the jumping 'tic tac' mechanic is so frustrating after many hours of spelunking. I am stuck and can't keep trying this over and over! I'm not feeling challenged—just defeated. I really hate the jump/wall mechanic. Everything else about this game is great though; music and sense of scale is well-done. That being said, the developer still hasn't fixed the 'tiny text' that seems to only happen on macOS. I ended up just deleting the game.

Without hyperbole, chapter 7 and 8 were the most difficult challenges I have ever faced in a platformer. And yet I made it through. How can this be? Well the answer is the genius game design. Each level starts you off by either adding or taking away a mechanic. As you slowly move throughout the level, you expertise slowly builds. By the end of it, you're doing insane maneuvers you never through possible. However, this game would not be anywhere close to as good as it is without the story and atmosphere. I chose to play one level each night (12am and onwards) in complete darkness. This felt like the right choice, the feeling of lonliness and isolation is strong, and operates a strong motivating force for making it through the levels. I cannot recommend this enough and Rubeki games has a new fan for life.

against what other people say, the last level and the third levels are my two favorites by far: the third one really feels like cave diving and exploration (if you take the caves) and it's the only level where crouching is really used to fit into places that feel impossible to get into the last one was hated by a lot of people because its really hard and there are infrequent checkpoints, and even though i'm not a hardcore speedrunner and the level was hella annoying, finally winning was so satisfying, and the swinging of the grappling hook was so smooth and well designed. using it in other levels is probably the best part, because after beating the last level everything seems so much easier and then you can work on getting faster and faster. people also complained about how the levels don't feel like they have much structure, but thats another plus for me; the lack of handholding helps you find your own solutions to the level making it super fun

First level was incredible, then each level after that incrimentally got worse. the final level is completely unplayable, its clearly meant for try hard speedrunners and not the audience the game marketed itself after. if you get lost at any point in the game then your on your own. the hints barely work half the time, and when they do work they only give you a very vague direction that you need to go that doesn't help at all in winding corridors. the tools you get all suck. the pickaxes move incredible slow on walls, and trying to catch yourself after falling is impossible because you gain speed so quickly. the grappling hooks are only given to you in the last mission, so i can't say if they're good due to the last mission sucking balls. overall if you want to get the best experience from this game, play the first chapter which you can beat under an hour even while taking your time and then refund the game. theres no point in continuing after that point because no level after that captures the same experience.

Exquisite game, engaging gameplay with good world based storytelling physically cannot put it down (glued my hands to my mouse and keyboard) First game in years that has thoroughly and properly immersed me Fuck the waste tunnels, all my homies hate the waste tunnels. Don't turn around in the caves

I have a feeling that past chapter 4 the dev went insane and handled the development to someone who never designed a level, nor played any kz_map in their entire life, levels started to make absolutely zero sense, visual clarity and logic, your climbing picks became obsolete, and it becomes even worse when you've given shift boost. I would rather play most obnoxios original Tomb Raider levels than this

I got to an area with this massive arch/bridge. I had seen it before but not up close until then. I was so mesmerized by the scale of the structure not even being able to fit on my screen that nearly fell off the map trying to take a screenshot. I caught myself on the cliff and got the biggest sense of chills looking down at the endless void of twisted pipes and dense fog. 10/10