Lacuna

Genre: Graphic Adventure

Players: 1

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Review:

(Note: This game is included in Between Horizons + Lacuna Bundle, along with Between Horizons. It is also in the Lacuna + Encodya Bundle, along with Encodya.)

Lacuna is a Graphic Adventure released on PC in 2021 and ported to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch right at the end of that same year. Lacuna takes place in a futuristic society where three planets struggle with issues pertaining to colonization, control of valuable resources, religious persecution, and political and corporate machinations. Players take the role of Neil Conrad, an agent within this society’s version of an FBI-like agency who finds himself caught in the middle of an increasingly complex murder investigation when a visiting dignitary from off-world is assassinated.

The story here is phenomenal, mixing noir influences with a believable future that’s neither a spotless utopia nor a dour dystopia. It’s clear that most people here keep managing to get along with their daily lives, class struggles still persist, both religious fundamentalists and anti-religious bigots are forced to coexist, and purportedly benevolent rationale is used as a justification for denying colonial independence, all while the real reasons are undoubtedly due to the influence of money and power.

Lacuna does an excellent job with its worldbuilding, creating a future that’s rich and lived-in, yet its characters still come across as well-rounded and well-written, with their own personal lives, and their own individual biases. And what’s more, the pacing of the plot is excellent, with players early on really getting the sense that they’re just a few steps behind the culprit, quickly looking about for clues before the trail goes cold or another innocent is hurt.

While the game’s writing is excellent, I feel a bit underwhelmed by the game’s voice acting. Only Conrad’s voiceover is voiced, with everything else in the game only in text, and that voiceover feels just a touch on the hammy side for my tastes. On the other hand, the soundtrack here is excellent, with moody, jazzy, atmospheric piano music, as well as some synthesized music, doing a great job mixing the game’s noir and futuristic elements. For a few examples, check out Main Menu, New Home, After the Storm, and Catherine, just to name a few.

However, while the music does a great job setting the tone of this game, the graphics are arguably an even bigger part of what makes this game’s world so compelling, featuring detailed pixel art visuals with a fair amount of animation and lots of great background elements that really bring this world alive, whether it’s the busy rush of floating cars near your apartment, the constant flickering of ads everywhere you go, or even the way light plays off of the bustle of random people on the street as they walk by. All of this adds up to make Lacuna a visual delight of a game.

When it comes to the gameplay, as previously mentioned, Lacuna does an excellent job fostering a sense of urgency, and this is in part due to a few gameplay mechanics that not only do a great job making the player feel as though they’re truly playing the role of a detective, but pressuring the player to feel both the urgency of their decisions as well as the repercussions of their choices.

Progress through the game requires players talking with witnesses, observing evidence (much of it transmitted to your in-game smartphone), and submitting “sheets” containing your conclusions about the current mystery at hand – where is the killer, who helped them escape, and so on. Sometimes, it’s unclear which is your best option – should you do a favor for a witness to get information, or should you threaten them into giving it up? Both right and wrong answers will allow you to progress forward, but choosing the wrong path may result in missing out on vital evidence. Often, making the right choice will require players to carefully look over the information in their possession to come to a conclusion.

Another element at play here is that by default, many of these choices are timed, requiring players to choose how to proceed before a timer is up. While this option can be turned off, one game element that is not optional is that this game’s 5-7 hour story will not allow players to access their saved game aside from regular automatic save points. This means that after passing such a checkpoint, your previous choices are “locked in”, and you have zero capacity to go back via “save scumming” and choose differently. I’m a bit torn on this mechanic. On the one hand, I definitely appreciate the sense of finality this lends to the choices you make during the game. On the other hand, this makes seeing all of the possible conversation paths and alternatives require numerous playthroughs, and any honest mistake the player makes is frustratingly permanent.

Lacuna controls reasonably well using traditional gamepad controls, though I do feel it’s a bit frustrating that observing the environment requires going into a separate observation mode that slows your walking speed to a crawl. Also, this game seems like it could have benefitted from touchscreen support when the Nintendo Switch is in handheld mode, but no such option exists here.

While this Lacuna’s more challenging mechanics may not be something everyone will appreciate, I still think this is a game that any fan of Graphic Adventures needs to play – the worldbuilding in this game is excellent, its characters are likable, and its plot is compelling to the point where you’ll be on the edge of your seat to discover the next plot twist your investigation leads to. What’s more, it looks and sounds great, and the game’s investigation elements do a great job of making the player feel like they’re truly in the role of a detective, though the lack of control over game saves mean that if they’re a terrible gumshoe, they’ll eventually stumble due to their mistakes. As long as you’re not dissuaded by a game that makes you live with your mistakes, this is definitely one fans of the genre will want to play.

tl;dr – Lacuna is a Graphic Adventure that has players as a futuristic FBI agent investigating the assassination of a visiting offworld dignitary, with the plot growing progressively thicker. This game has superb worldbuilding, likable characters, excellent pacing, beautiful pixel art visuals, a great atmospheric soundtrack, and some great puzzles that do a good job making players truly play the part of a detective. The game is stingy about refusing to let players save as they please though, meaning any mistakes you make will be stuck with you as you progress. While this mechanic may not be for everyone, I still think that fans of Graphic Adventures should consider this a must-play game.

Grade: A-

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2021 Game Awards:

Runner-Up: Best Story, Best Graphic Adventure / Visual Novel

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