LAMBDA end THEORY Reviews

This is a cryptic puzzle adventure game with a minimalist 8bit style and light RPG systems. I think it succeed on what it aims to achieve as it’s very focused on that goal, so if you’re in that specific type of experience (a very cryptic one) you should not be disappointed. The chiptune music in particular is very good, it participates along with the visuals to bring life to this intriguing “digital world”.

Nice and short pseudo-RPG. Four worlds consisting of around ten screens each, with most screens having either enemies, NPCs or basic puzzles. Combat happens automatically and can be influenced by mashing a button, which is not good for accessibility and ends up hurting your wrist without bringing too much to the gameplay ; fortunately, you don't have to mash as fast as you can and there aren't too many of these battles. I wasn't fan of the system, although finding power upgrades and getting stronger always felt nice. Exploration is done by walking to places and interacting with either NPCs or items in order to get a power up and a key for each zone, before fighting a boss. The puzzles that lead you to these items are good! They're very "simple" in that they can even be "wait five seconds here", but they can be a bit tricky and there's a good Steam guide to help with them. And that's about it! [b]LAMBDA end THEORY[/b] is less than an hour long, looks nice, doesn't have much to say, but makes up for it with a cryptic and interesting atmosphere. Pixleaves also developed a prequel for the game called Me && MORY which might give the background a bit more heft. I recommend giving the game a try - we need more short, experimental indie games like this one supporting those that already exist is the best way to foster a healthy ecosystem.

LAMBDA end THEORY is a short, mysterious game. And honestly I don't really want to say much more about it lest I give anything away. Playing through it kind of reminded me of playing through Cave Story way back when. Though mechanically very different both games throw you into things without any explanation or tutorials or even mention of the controls. Your dropped into this world with no idea who you are, where you are, or really idea at all, and it's only over the course of the game that you piece these things together. The music, as i'm sure you heard from the trailer, is also very good and helps set the tone for everything very well. There's so much more I want to say, but given how short the game is I think it's better for you to simply play through it yourself. That being said there are a few things I feel I should mention. Most notably is the combat. To "charge" your "attack" (neither of these things are really explained in detail) you have to rapidly mash a button, either the enter key or A button on a gamepad, so if your somebody who struggles with button mashing that may be something to take note of. From my playthrough the button mashing always seemed to be at a manageable level, but I understand that may not be the case for everyone. If you have a gamepad you can actually alleviate this a bit by using both the gamepad and keyboard inputs at the same time to make things a bit easier, but I think may also be possible to do some sequence breaking by doing this so I would recommend against abusing it. The mashing doesn't seem to be indented as a measure of difficulty, and if you character is able to win the battle they should be able to do so without having to break your arm, but again I know people struggle with this. The only other thing that may be worth mentioning is that the english translation isn't perfect, as I believe the developer's native language is french. However it was never really a big issue, and honestly the grammatical oddities almost added to the mysterious, quirky world that the story was building. There was one particularly cryptic hint that had me reach out for help, but since I don't speak french I can't actually say if that was an issue with the translation or just me not understanding the puzzle.