GamesActionI died more than 1,200 times in this panicky first-person riff on Celeste’s platforming and it’s now one of my favorite games of the yearWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
GamesActionI died more than 1,200 times in this panicky first-person riff on Celeste’s platforming and it’s now one of my favorite games of the yearWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Rubeki Games)
I knew I was afraid of heights going intoLorn’s Lure. It’s a fear that I’ve always mined for thrills in games, climbing high towers and leaping off them for the adrenaline. Of course I was going to play a sci-fi mountaineering adventure through the bowels of an impossibly massive brutalist megastructure. What I was not prepared for was discovering that I might also be afraid of the dark. And tight spaces. As Lorn’s Lure constricted into a choking warren of pitch black tunnels, it taught me new and exciting forms of dread.
I was least prepared to discover that over the course of its eight massive levels, Lorn’s Lure evolves into a twitchy, panicky first-person Celeste, full of air-dashing, wall-jumping and precise stamina management. Realizing that, I shouldn’t be surprised that I died over 1200 deaths (approximately 110 per hour) before the credits rolled. And I’ve only just begun unlocking the optional ‘simulation’ levels—equivalent to Celeste’s brutally tough B-side stages. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Pleasantly haunted
There’s 10,000 opportunities to die here, alone in the darkness. While there’s no monsters or combat, gravity and hubris are powerful enough antagonists. Fortunately you’re a robot and good at math, so deaths are framed as failed simulations. Goof up, and you immediately rewind to your last solid foothold, trying fiddly jumps as many times as needed, keeping frustration low outside of a few endurance segments. That doesn’t mean that it’s easy: Lorn’s Lure pushed me hard, and I had to take a few breaks to cool down. But the tension and ever-changing environments kept me coming back once I’d caught my breath and centered myself.
Image1of7(Image credit: Rubeki Games)(Image credit: Rubeki Games)(Image credit: Rubeki Games)(Image credit: Rubeki Games)(Image credit: Rubeki Games)(Image credit: Rubeki Games)(Image credit: Rubeki Games)
Image1of7(Image credit: Rubeki Games)(Image credit: Rubeki Games)(Image credit: Rubeki Games)(Image credit: Rubeki Games)(Image credit: Rubeki Games)(Image credit: Rubeki Games)(Image credit: Rubeki Games)
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(Image credit: Rubeki Games)(Image credit: Rubeki Games)(Image credit: Rubeki Games)(Image credit: Rubeki Games)(Image credit: Rubeki Games)(Image credit: Rubeki Games)(Image credit: Rubeki Games)
(Image credit: Rubeki Games)(Image credit: Rubeki Games)(Image credit: Rubeki Games)(Image credit: Rubeki Games)(Image credit: Rubeki Games)(Image credit: Rubeki Games)(Image credit: Rubeki Games)
(Image credit: Rubeki Games)
(Image credit: Rubeki Games)
(Image credit: Rubeki Games)
(Image credit: Rubeki Games)
(Image credit: Rubeki Games)
(Image credit: Rubeki Games)
(Image credit: Rubeki Games)
(Image credit: Rubeki Games)
(Image credit: Rubeki Games)
(Image credit: Rubeki Games)
(Image credit: Rubeki Games)
(Image credit: Rubeki Games)
(Image credit: Rubeki Games)
(Image credit: Rubeki Games)
(Image credit: Rubeki Games)
(Image credit: Rubeki Games)
(Image credit: Rubeki Games)
(Image credit: Rubeki Games)
(Image credit: Rubeki Games)
(Image credit: Rubeki Games)
(Image credit: Rubeki Games)
(Image credit: Rubeki Games)
(Image credit: Rubeki Games)
(Image credit: Rubeki Games)
(Image credit: Rubeki Games)
(Image credit: Rubeki Games)
(Image credit: Rubeki Games)
(Image credit: Rubeki Games)
(Image credit: Rubeki Games)
(Image credit: Rubeki Games)
(Image credit: Rubeki Games)
(Image credit: Rubeki Games)
(Image credit: Rubeki Games)
(Image credit: Rubeki Games)
(Image credit: Rubeki Games)
While I was stubborn enough to navigate through the whole game under my own power, there is a hint system that will point you to the next key location you’ll need to climb to, but don’t expect much else in the way of help. Some of the jumps the game demands in the later levels are incredibly precise and high pressure, even once you’ve figured out exactly what the game is asking of you. That brain-teasing is what hooked me. Lorn’s Lure likes to present you a distant, visible destination and a tangled mess of outcroppings, pipes and flat concrete walls (which you can traverse with your climbing picks at the cost of stamina) between you and it, and then leave you to figure out the path.
Falling down
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Lorn’s Lure Official Release Date Announcement! - YouTubeWatch On
Lorn’s Lure Official Release Date Announcement! - YouTube
Lorn’s Lure Official Release Date Announcement! - YouTube
It’s just a deeply compelling experience. Lorn’s Lure got its (climbing) hooks into me and has been one of the most distinct games of the year so far. Better yet, it might be one that grows over time. The developer has mentioned plans to roll out a level editor once any post-launch bugs and issues are hammered out. I’m not sure if user-made levels will be able to recapture that anxious thrill of barely making narrow jumps across yawning chasms, but I’m excited to see them try, and for my fears to be tested once more.
Lorn’s Lure isout now on Steam, and I hope you join me on this downward spiral.
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