Lumo is a game all about nostalgia. Based on arcade adventure games from the late 80s and early 90s like Knight Lore and Head Over Heels, Lumo is all about exploration in an isometric world. While mostly fun and enjoyable, Lumo’s loose controls make some puzzles incredibly difficult, and not in a good or fair way.
One of the goals for Lumo is to encourage exploration and experimentation. Thanks to there being no lives or important timers, players can wander around stress-free, exploring every nook and cranny of each room. There’s plenty of reason to explore as well, with many different kinds of collectibles for players to find.
Most rooms in Lumo involve a simple platforming segment or puzzle. These typically only take a few seconds each to solve, or a few tries if you mess up your jumps or timing. Progressing through levels, especially early on, is quick and fun. This feeling is important, because Lumo never really tells you what you need to be doing, nor is there any kind of story driving you forward.
The big problems arise when puzzles or room segments become unfair. This isn’t because the puzzles are particularly tricky or anything. A prime example involves one room where you must push three pillars made out of ice around a patch of ice. The goal was simple enough, line up the pillars from tallest to shortest, then jump up the pillars to get to the next door. Because the controls for Lumo aren’t as tight as they could be, and because the slightest bump sent the pillars flying to shatter against a wall or each other, the puzzle ended up taking well over a half hour to complete despite only taking a few seconds to solve.
Because Lumo is made to look like an isometric game, all of the rooms are viewed at an angle. This makes it difficult to judge the depth of objects and walls. When platforming requires you to move around in a 3D space without allowing you to see from more than one viewpoint, things can get difficult. Again, this normally isn’t too much of an issue, but some rooms push the controls too far, forcing you to play with exact precision based on the locations of objects you can’t fully see.
It should also be mentioned that Lumo features a top-notch soundtrack from artist Dopedemand. The ambient beats provided the perfect score to keep me relaxed, but also engaged and inquisitive enough to keep on exploring.
When Lumo is good, things are great. Puzzle solving is fun, platforming is difficult with the floaty controls, but easy enough to navigate for the most part and wandering around exploring is a blast. When those specific problem rooms pop up and ruin your flow, Lumo feels like you’re stuck in a Groundhog Day-type loop, forced to do the same thing over and over again until you finally get it just right.
Lumo is available now for the PS4 and PC. An Xbox One and PS Vita version will be released soon.
So what do you think? Do you want to go explore all that Lumo has to offer? What other long-lost game genres would you like to see revived? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
