Steam Review Key Provided By Neon Doctrine
Survival-horror and I have always had a difficult relationship. While I love the gameplay that’s synonymous with most of the titles of the genre, I often find myself too scared to actually play most of them. Relying on jump-scares or realistically disgusting visuals, I often turn myself around and run the other way.
Lamentum though is a different story. It takes all of the great things that I love about the genre and places it within a game that uses horror differently than the majority. In your face mutilations are traded for twisted nightmarish figures and an atmosphere that’s deliciously gruesome.
Story
Lamentum takes place during the mid-1800s and has you play as Victor Hartwell, a young aristocrat who’s searching for the cure to his wife Alissa’s deadly disease. He and his wife left with no other choice, travel to Grau Hill Mansion in search of some experimental, scientific treatment by Count Edmond Steinrot. But, all things come at a price, and Victor has to learn what that is.
The story that the game lays out is extremely relatable and oftentimes horrific. The lengths that Victor goes to in order to save his wife are extremely heart-wrenching as you wander the hell-risen mansion and its grounds. Nothing is sugar-coated and while there are certainly curtains that begin to get pulled back, there’s a nice bit of ambiguity to it all. At times, it felt like nothing was off the table.
Gameplay
As you’d expect with it being a classic take on the survival-horror genre there are the normal types of mechanics that come with it. There’s an inventory to maintain, monsters to fight, and puzzles to solve. As far as items go, there are a lot of unique ones that in another game may be discarded after a single use are instead used multiple times throughout.
There are also health elixirs, melee weapons, firearms, bullets, puzzle pieces, keys, inkwells, and even some items you may not use at all. There were a handful of items I just never came across a use for. That’s not to say that there wasn’t one though. The mansion is dense in rooms and areas and it’s extremely easy to overlook something if you aren’t careful.
As for the inkwells, these are probably the most important pick-up that you’ll come across. These serve as the game’s way of letting you save. Saving is crucial of course, and luckily when you need to, it’s done in a safe room that’s free of monsters and usually right around a corner. Finding inkwells is easier said than done, so being strategic in how you save is important.
Combat can be whatever you make of it when it comes to Lamentum. For myself, I usually tried to dodge enemies as I could, sprinting for the duration that’s given. On a normal path, Victor can briskly sprint to his heart’s content, but when enemies are around he has a limited amount and once it’s out, he has to take a breathe, and that leaves him open to attacks.
Even without sprinting it’s pretty easy to dodge the enemies once you discover their patterns. I often opted to have a melee weapon in hand just in case and only used a firearm when it seemed entirely necessary. Most enemies aren’t fast but there’s always that one that’s specifically placed in the spot you need to go that needs a good taking down.
I was pleasantly surprised at how puzzles and even boss fights are done. Puzzles can be as easy as memorizing a pattern or as difficult as finding hidden messages in letters. They kept me busy for a while as one had me stumped about a day.
Bosses are puzzles in and of themselves. You don’t really fight them, but you do have to run from them and solve a puzzle at the same time. If it wasn’t hard enough to solve a puzzle, the devs decided to turn up the heat by having a disgusting huge monster chase you around. It was such a great idea and I was there for it every time.
Grau Hill Mansion is a horribly awesome place with so many different locations to explore, all offering new gameplay elements throughout. I really wasn’t expecting it to be as massive as it actually is. It can be daunting to figure out the next place to go but that’s exactly what the devs wanted and it came together perfectly.
Visuals and Audio
Where to start? If anything, you have to experience Lamentum for its atmosphere. The mansion itself is a character in its own right. From its dark foreboding halls to its bog-like gardens, Grau Hill Mansion is a true horror icon. The best way I could describe it is if Disney’s Haunted Mansion ride was adapted for adult horror fans.
There’s a ton of horrific imagery in this title and even though it’s pixelated, it still managed to make my skin crawl. The monsters are mutilated, heartless beings that often looked like they’d rather me put them out of their misery than to exist any longer.
The layers are added deeper by the game’s sweeping score that never seems to play a song that’s even slightly hopeful. The dread oozes out of every dirty pore that it has, it’s glorious. I was in awe from the time I started until its last disgusting frame.
Replayability
If the game’s atmosphere and vibe aren’t enough to pull you back in, as I said, there are a bunch of puzzles and items you could easily miss on your first playthrough. The game also has multiple endings as well. Four in fact. It isn’t too long either as my playthrough clocked in at just under 7 hours in total. I find this as a positive because there are multiple endings, which makes it easier to just right back in.
What It Could Have Done better
My only complaint I have with Lamentum is that button prompts could sometimes be a bit finicky. Say you wanted to pick something up, you’d have to be directly in front of it, you couldn’t pick it up from the side.
Verdict
Lamentum transported me to a place of nightmares that I didn’t want to wake up from. Its gameplay was spot-on and the world that Obscure Tales built was flawless. I wish there were more games in the genre like this. This was just the start-up I needed for the Halloween season and it’s sure to be in my line-up of titles to play every year. If you’re a scaredy-cat like me, you’ll especially feel right at home. While it maintains a horrifying vibe, it doesn’t traumatize you with un-needed jumpscares to make its point. This is a title that any horror fan could get into and enjoy.
