Lucius, son of the devil, is roaming the halls of his family’s mansion murdering people left and right. It’s a fun idea for a game, and shockingly one that hasn’t been overdone. But does Lucius pack enough punch to warrant a purchase?
Yes and No, this is one of those games that relies on your own dedication as a gamer. Lucius is essentially a 3d point and click adventure game, think more Broken Sword 3 and less The Walking Dead/Back to the Future. From a fun, murderous rampage perspective, it’s packed with entertainment. But before being able get to the murder you need to figure out all of the tiny things the developer expects of you.
In classic point and click games this would be trial and error, clicking random objects and trying to combine things aimlessly until something works out. With the advancement of the genre we’ve begun to see more of a hint system that will eventually flat out tell you what needs to be done if you ever get stuck. Lucius sadly lacks this hint system, resulting in too much trial and error.
The reason the trial and error mechanic of this game will really ruin your day is that the whole game world is open to you. Earlier missions have you locked within a set amount of locations, so they run a lot smother but the second you hit the third or forth mission you will have a whole mansion to explore in hopes of finding the one specific item the game requires of you to progress.
Despite this though, the pay off is worth it. For every bout of frustration you get is an equal dose of relief. Once you have acquired everything and set things in motion, you feel a sense of accomplishment and your reward comes in the form of an awesomely gruesome death scene.
One of the better or more damning aspects to the game (depending on how you look at it) is the mechanic that requires you to hide your shenanigans from people wandering around the house. At first you can walk around the world and just take things, people won’t care about your interests. But eventually you will develop powers and people will be more on edge, so if they catch you doing something suspicious then it’s game over and you have to restart.
As well as all of this comes some stealth missions, a lot of these require you to use special abilities you gain early on, such as telekinesis; Smashing a light bulb near a guard blocking your way so you can run past in the darkness being one of the better moves to pull off. Sadly stealth is also hindered, such as the time I had to hide in a closet as my mother walked around outside; if I was to open the door at the wrong time she would spot me, but with my perspective locked within the closet, I had no idea when it was a good time to make my move.
Overall Lucius has a lot of strong ideas, and the pay off can be worth it if you enjoy the playstyle but I can see a lot of people disliking the execution. I would only recommend this to adventure game players that enjoy a dose of horror to their experiences. I’m certainly looking forward to what the developers pull up to next, but for now they seem to have a lot to learn, especially when it comes to hint systems.