Lucius Demake - Commodore 64 inspired retro badness (REVIEW)

You read about it here first. Shiver Games - developers of the demonic child simulator series "Lucius" - have recreated their original story, using the pixel ratio and colour palette of the most popular computer of all time: The Commodore 64. We don't cover too many PC games here, but the recreation is so faithful to the Commodore's graphical style, that we thought we'd give you a review.

The story is fantastical: You play Lucius, the son of the devil, placed at birth on an unsuspecting family, so they would nurture him and keep him safe until one day he'd be ready to help implement his father's evil plans. Which is right about now, as whilst still a youngster, you'll be the last one they suspect of a string of grisly murders made to look like accidents.  So your father wants souls, and you're the one for the job.

It plays just like any other charming overhead view 8-bit arcade adventure game.  You can talk to the house's inhabitants, help them out to receive gifts for good behaviour, and combine items to solve puzzles which get harder as the game progresses. Imagine if it was Zelda's job to murder his nearest and dearest, using items scattered throughout the game, but having to make it look like an accident... That is this game in a nutshell.

The inter level "cut scenes", which in the original are rather dated 3D rendered animations; in this version have been recreated as a series of beautiful static low-res images, in keeping with the game's demake theme. And accompany the story from the perspective of Detective McGuffin, who quickly realizes that the string of unfortunate accidents occurring in the family home might be the work of something more sinister. The plot is straight from a horror movie, but you play a murdering little bastard and have to assassinate each target in more and more ridiculous, but fun ways.

Solving puzzles is simply a matter of finding the correct object, and using it in the right place, or combining it with one or more other objects first. So it plays very similar to Monkey Island, except there is no point and click, you move around like in a Zelda game. Although you won't be able to choose the way you dispatch your target, and you might have to spend a little longer than you'd like trying to find the object you need next. But I enjoyed the game immensely, so much so, that once I've finished with the demake, I might have to go back and start the original old (new?) version again!

Lucius Demake is out now on Steam (Windows only).

Review by hayesmaker
twitter: @hayes_maker
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