Lacuna – A Sci-Fi Noir Adventure

I've played about one third of the game, ocassionally over a period of 10 months. That says quite much about my level of investment, and I don't see myself ever finishing it. When I feel that way about a game, it's either because I don't understand it, or because I don't get to do anything interesting. Lacuna checks both these boxes. The gameplay is all about walking around, finding the next person to talk to or the next object to interact with. You don't get to do anything particularily interesting. And the story doesn't really hook me either. Then comes the part that I don't understand... The game itself. During the game you gather clues, and I've found them all so far (I think). One thing I don't understand is whether you can fail to find them all, of if there is some system in place that doesn't allow you to proceed before you have done so. Either way, it feels quite much out of my control. The second thing I don't understand is what you are supposed to do with those clues. At one point you are asked to submit forms where you describe the murderer, and all you have to go on are those clues. So I did, and I filled in everything, and submitted them... I used all the data I had available and was pretty confident that I had a correct description of the murderer. Then a cutscene played out, and it turned out I got it all wrong. Fantastic. Do you get to retry? No, of course not. You cannot choose where to save. The game does so for you. Did it matter? Not at all. The murderer was found despite my failure. The whole game just feels like nonsense. I don't know what matters and what doesn't. The story continues anyway, and your action doen't seem to affect the outcome. But I will never know...

A pretty clever detective adventure with a short runtime and some decent (albeit simplistic) investigative mechanics. In many ways it reminded me of the play style and attractive retro look of Tales Noir (fka Backbone), which was released around the same time. The choices you're presented with here do actually have effects on the rest of the game and the story, with some areas and interactions only available if you do things one way or another. It's interesting enough to warrant at least one replay. There's a lot of running around, but the nice pixel look (and ability to sprint) makes the repetition less tedious. Saves are strictly automatic and they overwrite each other. They tend to happen after you've made decisions, so there's not a lot of opportunity to quit and reload just to "see what would happen" without having to do a full replay. That's a little unfortunate, but in a way it makes sense since you may not know the effects of something until further down the line. You can rush through a replay in probably 3.5 hours, but after that you'll probably just accept that there are some things you'll never know.

If you like reading and making informed decisions, this game is for you

Very unique and interesting, I have only played through the game once but it hints at branching possibilities and endings which I have not investigated. Quite short and a little nitpick that I have is backtracking to your apartment/train stations. The detective work is quite cool, you really have to pay attention when drawing conclusions. The setting is also quite intriguing, not very elaborated in this short game but I wouldn't mind exploring more of it in future installments.

I thoroughly enjoyed this game. I had steered clear of it because a review I read made me believe there were minigames involved that required quick responses. I don't care for that type of gameplay. Then Lacuna was on sale and I figured why not try it as the reviews had been good. Great decision. The story is well written and detailed. The method to collect and use data to solve various scenarios was great. Nothing is handed to you. While the "sheets" are not difficult you do have to pay attention, explore and read. The music was wonderful. Very atmospheric in that I felt I should slip into a jazz bar, have a bourbon and smoke a cigarette. I liked the art work and found the various city scenes as great background. Controls were simple and nothing required great dexterity. It has replayability as I missed some clues and did not get all the achievements. I highly recommend this if you want to feel immersed, want to do some thinking and a bit of reading and want to like the main character. I've already wishlisted the next game by Digi-Tales called Between Horizons. Well done!!