Laguna: A Sci-Fi Noir adventure review on Xbox

Lacuna is best described as a 2.5D sci-fi noir mystery with a pixel based art style and clever in-depth story, based on your decisions. All reviews (unless stated otherwise) are based on the Developer/Publisher providing myself with a review code, which i am grateful for, but does not influence my outcome.

The premise is you play as Neil Conrad a CDI Agent who’s night goes from bad to worse after a prominent murder of a visiting high ranking official. This is all it takes to plunge the solar system into war – unless you, do something about it.

The game boasts non repeating branching storyline based on your decisions, platformer movement controls, story driven mysteries and multiple endings.

Gameplay

The gameplay starts with you as little girl set on a colony base in the year 1800. This is a prologue to the main game that sets out the fundamental controls of the game and soon ends with a heart wrenching tragedy. Forward 40 years to the anniversary of the accident and you then take control of Neil Conrad, CDI agent, who is currently talking to his ex, about their child Laura.

After this conversation you make your way to your apartment to get some much deserved rest. You are then soon awoken by the news of a very important murder. This case very quickly turns your life and the whole solar system, upside down. From here the gameplay is all about asking questions, collect evidence, and putting the pieces together until the ugly truth reveals itself... or…. not.

From the outset the game makes it clear that it will not hold your hand and that your decisions are final. You can’t load form a save point and go in a different direction, so every choice you make should be done carefully. And because of this, the games intensity is ramped up. You carefully sift through evidence, chat logs, emails and news bulletins as if your life depends on it. Mostly because in some shape or form, yours or another character’s actually do. I haven’t seen a game that nails the feel of the detective process so perfectly, since Hideo Kojima’s ‘’SNATCHER’’, and if you know that game, that’s high praise.

As the story progresses, events happen which will need your detective skills In a bid to move the story along. Now they could have gone down the traditional point and click to come up with the answers, but thankfully they chose a different solution. Puzzle-solving is directly tied to the game’s narrative, so your find yourself investigating different situations and trying to learn more about certain individuals motives ,as well making educated hunches that may lead you to the culprit. 

From the beginning of an investigation you are given a sheet with a list of things you need to work out i.e name, motive and location etc. These differ per investigation, but the process is the same. The sheet has multiples options per question and its up to you to work out which answer correctly responds to each question, based on your findings.

The game does a great job at highlighting enough clues for you to learn what really happened, however, you still have to piece things together yourself, by studying the evidence you have collected. Evidence comes in multiple forms, like conversation, physical, hunches, online news reports and even bank statements. Once you have got to a scene, you will need to look around and collect the physical evidence before moving onto the other types.

You have a investigation mode by pressing Y and focus mode by clicking the left stick. The focus mode highlights items/persons that may not be easily seen in the surroundings and is more a easy prompt. Whilst the investigation mode is solely based on your own moving about and highlights items of interest relating to the case. Flicking between each other and you should be able to gather all available evidence. Evidence from conversations however, are much more difficult and often rely on you researching the individual better in a bid to get them to open up.

This is where opening up your PDA comes into play, and can be a bit overwhelming at first. There are tabs for logs which keep a track of all your conversations, clues found, news bulletins you have downloaded, Detective sheets, emails and Glossary are on the left-hand margin. The right hand side showcasing of the main details of the selected tab you have clicked on. Going through these will help you navigate a conversation better as you will sometimes be prompted to choose a correct option when conversing.

Regardless, missing some evidence or interrogating a suspect wrong, and you may indeed fail to gather some vital evidence that could impact your conclusion. Because of this, you end up deeply thinking of all possible outcomes in a bid not to come to the wrong conclusion and then dealing with the said consequences. And these consequences are very real, failure in one chapter does affect others, though the story will still come to a conclusion, just with the ramifications proudly stated in the end credits.

The ramifications of your choices aren’t solely based on investigations either. You’ll also run into characters who are facing their own troubles, and maybe willing to help your investigation or not, depending on what you decide to do for them. There is a great backwards and forwards with each choice in terms of, ‘’will you follow the law to the T’’, sticking perfectly to all protocols. Or are you a more a compassionate detective willing to bend some rules and not ignore their pleas for help? These choices popped up often and had more of an impact on my mind than I originally anticipated.

Combine this with the choices often coming out of nowhere and having a time limit answering them, this soon led me to question the impulse decision I made, long after the consequence of said decision had played out. Now you can turn off the time limit in the settings, but I would recommend sticking with it to get a more honest story. Plus you can always replay the game to see what you could have done differently with the added bonus, it will often lead to a different ending as well.

Control wise, the game is very smooth and the alternative solution to what could have been a standard point & click based function, works fantastically well with a controller. Gameplay wise, this game really drew me into to its story and the general gameplay helped me smoothly navigate it at all times.

Graphics

The games visual style is its most striking element being a pixel based 2.5D based side scroller. What I mean by that is the game allows shifting into the foreground/background in some locations for you to explore. Visually the game is chock full of small cafes and restaurants, Neon signs and newsfeeds on video screens, which are littered throughout the city. There are flying cars, and has sci-fi like residents doing their day to day tasks, each unique and visually impressive. I was especially impressed that this pixel art style is being pushed in all the right ways, with stuff like glass windows showing off your reflection.

Lighting especially captures all characters form and provides shadow based on their exact position and movement is naturally fluid. This level of detail isn’t normally seen on pixel side scrollers to this degree, and I’m very much appreciative of it being done. Because of this level of detail, I could easily be replicate the moody detective under a Neon light similar that to my favourite sci-fi thriller, Blade Runner.

When you bring up your investigation mode, you get a bubble to highlight clues, but in doing so the environment warps and curves around the surface, distorts the background details, by reflecting them off the dome. The PDA is clear and precise so you can navigate the tabs quickly to get to the area in question and the different colours used to highlight information on conversations makes the game easier to spot critical information. All these elements, showcase off the developers push to make this game the very best It can be and push the engagement to its highest levels.

Sound

The game has only one voiced character, that being the protagonist, who is generally silent throughout until a moody monologue appears, depending on the scene playing out. Because of this you get a real sense of humanity at these moments with your character, and this is solely down to the fantastic voice actor. General music is also highly enjoyable, fitting each unique atmosphere perfectly.

Every scene has been perfectly scored with an appropriate amount of hard percussion, to ensure the right amount of tense feeling. The majority of the game defaults to smooth piano melody that provides an upbeat tune for you to bounce along to. Combine this with a engaging story, be it the main quest line or side line interactions, and it really sells the games narrative and general sci-fi world.

Verdict

This leads me onto the rating of the game:-
Now I rate games in order of, avoid, on sale, great purchase and must own. My rating for Lacuna is a "Must own".

This game kept impressing and engaging me throughout my whole playthrough. It was consistently thoughtful, fun and a great sci-fi adventure game that hits the detective aspect perfectly.

The game is currently priced on Xbox at £16.74 or approx $20, and depending on skill and patience would give you about 5+ hours worth of gameplay. With multiple choices to go back and choose from to try and get the different endings, there is a lot of replay value here as well.

I really can’t recommend this enough, if you’re a fan of adventure games with a strong sci-fi story plot. It does everything it sets out to do and so more. I really hope the developers build on this and provide us with more intriguing stories, as I for one want more.