Did someone swipe Superlumen’s IP Desolatium? I covered the prologue a while ago as it was part of that Lovecraft binge I was going through.
It certainly captured the mood most of us are used to with Lovecraft-inspired videogames. The context was a bit more ambiguous and unsettling in places – a contrast to what I played on Steam.
Desolatium has the same layout and is no doubt best experienced as a VR game, but it’s had a massive facelift. We have the same high-quality visuals, but the approach is more of a comic book style – like a pulp fiction type. The fonts are bolder, the music a little more upbeat (in places), and there’s a lot more on the voice acting front, too.
This time you initially play as Carter Scott – an amnesiac patient trying to ascertain why he has awoken in a hospital. He’s ‘welcomed’ by a security guard, which insinuates the tone here. Of course, you could ask the guard some questions from the multiple choices, but he’s not letting on.
Exploring the environments in Desolatium are life-like once more and often a good degree of terror. There are even some early references to cult activity and conspiracy that make this engaging. I was perhaps a little disappointed with some of the voice acting then as that muted that terror a little as the talent was flat in places and not so believable. That’s a preference thing, but perhaps the more annoying element I experienced was changing sound levels. Sometimes there are subtitles; sometimes there aren’t.
Anyway, the game’s new iteration improves upon the last and has this VHS video nasty feel about it. I meant that as a compliment, as I could imagine watching this as a late-night movie and very much enjoying it. As a first-person experience, it’s immersive enough and has just the right amount of menace where I wouldn’t have played this at night, just in case I filled my pants.
There is a spelling mistake with the items you interact, displaying ‘objetcs’ instead of objects, but that didn’t bother me; it was the voice acting such as the dictaphone recording and exchanges with the doctor that felt like a Rosetta Stone skit. It’s a shame, as the infrequent score was excellent.
Desolatium has the same references that were featured in the prologue. Herbert West, anyone? It’s firmly on my radar, and I’m keen to see where the developers take it next.
