DestinyLeah
Lust for Darkness was supposed to be a great game. The makings were all there: Cthulhu in a Gieger-esque world, an underground kink club, dead bodies strewn about, monsters around every corner. More than two thousand players ran to back it on Kickstarter when it was announced, and many more bought it on Steam upon release. The graphics and sound design were fun; there are few times in my career that I will be able to describe a game as ‘Amnesia as developed by Pornhub’. That’s where the fun ended, though, as the game launched with bland puzzle design, little by way of narrative, and enemy encounters that still make me cringe nearly a year later.
Despite all of this, PlayWay has announced the sequel to Lust for Darkness, appropriately titled Lust from Beyond. The trailer tells us nothing whatsoever about the game. It is the definition of a teaser trailer, albeit one verging on tentacle porn. Nude bodies suspended in low gravity- held in place only by tentacles attached to their genitals- are marked with strange symbols seemingly cut from their skin. Cthulhu chills in the background. The graphics have gained a generation and the sound design still works well.
Lust from Beyond is a standalone story, explored from the perspective of a member of the Cult of Ecstacy. Hopefully, this time we can skip the sneaking in and get straight to the buttplugs left laying on every flat surface. Really, though, when do I ever get to type these things?
Normally, I would be all over this. Call it tempered hope: I want this game to be fantastic and make up for the level of disappointment I felt in Lust for Darkness. If the team didn’t take player feedback seriously and make some changes to their design this time around, it will be one more milquetoast horror game with bare breasts in the PlayWay catalogue. All of the elements are there for them to make a great game this time. The tiny team of fledgling developers at Movie Games Lunarium have a game under their belt this time, and they say they’ve learned a ton since they set off down this path. Give us something great this time, devs. We are all counting on you.
Interested players should keep an eye on our news page for the upcoming Kickstarter announcement for Lust from Beyond. Backers will have access to an early demo and lower pricing than the Steam release.
