Tech Reviews & Gadgets

A mix of Doom, Resident Evil and Mirror’s Edge, this is the scariest game of the year

Lorne’s TemptationThe first-person indie platformer released this year by Rubeki Games is terrifying. The horror lies not in its sci-fi plot, which follows a robot who leaves the safety of his homeland to hunt down a mysterious floating light that takes him deep into the astonishing depths of the unknown superstructure. Over the course of eight levels, the robot travels through cavernous spaces, along city-sized canals, and into dark caverns and the ruins of ancient, long-dead civilizations. Lorn’s Lure is awe-inspiring with its impressive terrain and incredible scale. It is in the process of moving through these spaces, in carefully flinging your brave artificial body through its hostile architecture, that you feel the fear.

The first few levels of Lorne’s Bait follow your robot as he leaves the safety of his colony – cocooned and unaware of the rest of the superstructure, of which it is only an infinitesimal part —slowly traversing narrow walkways, suspended above the unfathomable depths. Soon enough, though, the horror game’s environments shrink, and you’ll find yourself crawling through confusingly dark caves, your only source of light being a feeble flare that you can hurl into a near-empty void. A river of black silt rushed through the gap at the bottom of the cave. Through the cave walls, hidden voices seemed to whisper.

Horror novels often work by creating monsters from unknown ingredients. It gives shape to the void, gives it teeth and claws. Lorne’s Bait doesn’t require you to create a monster to chase your robot through its levels (although there are several memorable moments when your character is beset by a limited-time environmental threat). In Lorn’s Lure, everything represents your death except the narrow steel bar that keeps you alive and from frying into a pancake thousands of feet below; the entire world is a monster. Gravity, which usually brings a sense of comfort, keeping your feet planted firmly on the ground, becomes a threat here, a cloying force that threatens to drag you toward the finish line.

Many of us have experienced moments like this: sneaking off to a fire escape or onto the balcony of someone’s apartment party for a cigarette, or peering out from the edge of an unsecured roof, or leaning against the railing of a high suspension bridge on the water. You stare at your height, wondering what it would feel like to fall, the wind howling, your vision narrowing, and your heart pounding. Or maybe you’ve hiked a steep trail, jumping over gaps between boulders, all the while thinking about the possibility of not making it, shattering and unfurling along the rocky ground below.

A character holding two pickaxes looks down at a falling machine

Humans imagine these horrific visions, wondering what it would mean to ignore our deep-seated survival instincts and take impossible, death-defying leaps of faith. The Seduction of Lorne allows us to explore this twisted fantasy, allowing us to feel threatened—to feel the boundaries—and to imagine what it might mean to transcend it. It has something in common with other staples of the horror genre, such as slasher films, which let viewers explore the sadomasochistic give and take of hunter and prey, or ghost stories, which let us explore fears of the invisible, making the real, The imaginary source of that strange crashing sound on a still night.

And, like these examples — they allow us to process and exorcise the dark fragments in our psyches, these self-destructive counter-instincts; they allow us to play the vulnerable role of the final girl, or the hapless victim of an ax or a meat hook. or even the masked madman himself – The Temptation of Lorne gives us the chance to embrace our dizzying fears and experience the terrifying fall, again and again. Each new area in the game adds another aspect to the richness of horror, another way the environment may challenge you to overcome it, another way to intensify its impact on you as you navigate the vast and unforgiving structure. Dangers of fragile little bodies.

A character walks through a smoky brown area

Each new space platforming puzzle allows you to relive over and over the grim prospect of failure, mistiming your jump, stumbling awkwardly over a low wall, missing a grab, your finger slipping off a ledge, and The inevitable sharp drop, then a black screen prompting a reset, a chance to experience the horror of doing it all over again.

After numerous attempts, you finally land. You teeter on fragile cliffs on an otherwise smooth surface, on pipes jutting out from the dark void, your feet weakly touching, gripping, and, thankfully, staying firm. You stay there, not daring to breathe. An inch in any direction could trip you up, potentially knocking you off your fragile perch and sending you tumbling back into the abyss. You crawl forward and find firmer ground; after a moment’s respite, you must move on, downward, descending deeper into greater danger. There’s a sense of panic when you know you’ll push past your limits and discover new depths of horror. There is also an inexplicable urge to continue crawling toward the nightmare, to face it, and to find a way to survive.

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back to top button
×

Adblock Detected

*We Appreciate Your Visit!*

To enjoy all the features and content on our website, please consider disabling your ad blocker. Our site relies on ads to provide you with quality content and a seamless experience. Thank you for your understanding!