Lucidity Review

 

Lucidity is LucasArts re entry into game development. After a lengthy break(only the occasional Star Wars licensed games that were developed by other development studios), LucasArts did the re worked Secret of monkey Island with new art work. The team behind that then stared working on this title. Done very much in the spirit of indie games, simple gameplay with gorgeous artistic visuals, Lucidity is quite deceiving in terms of its innocent look.

 

 

In actual fact, Lucidity is a brutal puzzle platformer that belies the innocent child like art style. This game is really, REALLY difficult and frustrating. Lucidity’s gameplay basically revolves around the character Sofi, as she wakes up from her from her slumber, she finds that her grandma is missing. The levels basically consist of a start point and the exit in which Sofi moves across the level herself. You can’t control her movement directly.

 

 

You use pieces of blocks that you get randomly that have special  abilities like a ladder or a slingshot that flings her horizontally. Much of the frustration comes from the fact that you get these blocks like in tetris, randomly. A lot of the times, you might not get the piece you wanted. You could hold on to the one single piece and if the next piece is also a useless piece you need to place it anywhere to get the next piece etc. You can’t view the levels as a whole(or get a preview of the entire level) or scroll further up to see the obstacles in front.

 

 

Of course you could just ignore the challenges of collecting fireflies(collectible mechanic in this game) in a level(which are totally unneeded to complete levels other than to just to unlock achievements and some bonus levels). By focusing just on completing a level, you’ll reduce the level of frustration involved. Later levels do get very tough though. You’ll often need to quickly place blocks down before she plunges to her death.

 

 

It also does not help that block placement is sort of finicky. The levels themselves are just one giant block of square invisible grids and the blocks you place automatically snap into these grids. Due to this, you don’t get exact precise placement of blocks. I got pretty mad many times just not being able to place a block exactly where I want it to go.

 

 

The art and music is top notch. The levels are imaginative and pretty, and the music is fittingly charming. If you like challenging platforming games, you just might enjoy the levels in Lucidity. But for the rest, it will probably be an incredibly frustrating experience. A pity really, as they could have solved a lot of the frustration if given more time to further polish the game. As it stands now, Lucidity is a slightly above average game.

 

Rating: 6/10

 

Price: USD $9.99

 

Buy it here:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/32410/