Lumina

[b]Lumina[/b] ist ein herausragendes Abenteuerspiel, das stark an [url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/257510/The_Talos_Principle/]The Talos Principle[/url] und [url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/603800/ReThink/]ReThink[/url] erinnert. Die Protagonistin entdeckt und betritt eine verschollene Pyramide, die zahlreiche geheime Gänge und verlorene Schätze beherbergt. Doch nach nur wenigen Schritten gibt es kein Zurück mehr, denn der Eingang der gigantischen Grabstätte wird versperrt und der einzige Ausweg verläuft durch das tiefe Innere des ägyptischen Bauwerks. Auf dem Weg nach Draußen müssen 18 kreative und abwechslungsreiche Rätselkammern abgeschlossen werden. Obwohl es nur zwei verschiedene Objekte zum Interagieren gibt, entsteht nie Langeweile. Jedes Rätsel ist einzigartig und regt zum Nachdenken an. So müssen Lichtstrahlen mit wenigen Spiegeln über, um oder durch Hindernisse geleitet und zugleich mit Hilfe von Prismen in Teile der Spektralfarben zerlegt werden. Ideen werden nahezu nie wiederaufbereitet, sodass auch jeder Lösungsansatz stets neu entstehen muss. Dies motiviert ungemein und fördert aktiv die fluide Intelligenz. Da stört es auch wenig, dass meistens nur eine feste [i]richtige[/i] Lösung pro Kammer existiert. Leider sind manche Räume sehr dunkel. Dies spielt zwar der Atmosphäre zugute, kann aber auch dazu führen, dass haufenweise Zeit durch systematisches Absuchen verloren geht. Oft wusste ich nicht, ob mein Ansatz schlecht durchdacht war oder ob ich einfach nur etwas übersehen hatte. Dies ist insbesondere in den fortgeschrittenen Levels frustrierend, da dort Timing und Geschicklichkeit essentielle Rollen spielen. Zusätzlich ist die letzte Kammer überladen mit scheinbar endlosen Zwischenräumen und Unmengen an Rätseln, sodass sich gerade hier Gelegenheit für ungewollte, meistens sogar triviale Lösungen bietet. Dadurch wirkt das durchaus unerwartete Ende nicht wie eine Belohnung, sondern eher wie eine Erlösung. Dennoch haben mich vor allem die positiven Aspekte überzeugt. Es war stets eine Freude eine Kammer abzuschließen und eine neue zu erforschen!

I played Lumina in the week leading up to it's release. At first glance the game looks really good, set in a barren desert in the 1920's all you have around you is Sand, Sand, Sand, Sand and oh, that strange looking pyramid in front of you. The game has a very Talos Principle feel to it and the mechanics relate to games such as Chroma-Gun and ReThink. The early levels of the game do a good job at teaching the player the basic mechanics, without holding the player's hand and telling them what to do (which is a major flaw in a lot of modern games). Once you get 4 or 5 puzzles into the game, the complexity (and length) of the puzzles start to crank up. It wasn't until about puzzle 14 / 18 in the game where things started to get a little complicated and I started struggle. I have played through the game twice, unlocking both endings in the process. Overall I think there are a lot of things that need to be changes / improved / polished within the game and feel over-all that it's not quite ready for release yet. This could be a really good game, however I just feel it needs a little more love and attention before it's ready to play. I really liked the music for a start, as it really adds to the Egyptian Feel, however after a while, it would be nice to get a bit more variety. Here are a list of issues I had / things I thought need improving with the game: [list] [*]Doors Are Glitchy - I experienced lots of instances in the game where you can remove a laser and the door will remain open or you'll point the laser at a door and it won't open [*]Softlocks - There were a few instances where it's possible to get completely trapped in the levels (I do believe the Dev's are working on fixing these) [*]Reflection Mechanic - I just really struggled with the reflection mechanic. I didn't and still don't fully understand how it works, but I found it very clumbersome at time and hard to work with [*]Completing tasks multiple times - I felt the game punishes the player by making them complete the same parts of puzzles over and over again. I would propose a "perma-unlock" system on some (not all) doors, so that when you have to go back and forth between areas, you can free roam, rather than having to set the puzzle up again and again [*]Difficulty - I felt the main difficulty factor was the lengths of the puzzles. I found myself many times (on longer maps) having to back track to the start to mirco manage a laser angle to then be able to do something much further in level. The puzzles themselves are not that difficult (in my opinion) [*]Snakes - This is one of the worst mechanics I have come across, crossing the snakes. Surely there's a better way to do it, it's so finicky and I got so frustrated with this part. [*]Hyroglyphic Walls - It was cool to see it the first time, but after that it's boring to watch it play out each time and almost makes you not want to read / follow the story [*]The Story - I can't really say I followed what was going on. They may be because of slowness of the text on this game, but it didn't really stick in my mind. As a suggestion, I think it would have been better to have story screens to fill the void between levels, even if they are just screens of text. That way, the player had a bit of a break between levels (as there are no loading screens in this game) [*]Geometry - The level geometry isn't put together so well, and you can often see through walls, and in one puzzle, solid geometry blocks go through other solid geometry blocks [/list] All in all, I don't think I would recommend this game, especially at the current £11.39 price tag. If you want to give it a go, I'd wait for it to come on sale. From my experience, the negatives far outweigh the positive, which is a shame as the game showed signs of potential. I just think, as I said above, the execution needs some improvement [b]--VIDEO LINKS--[/b] Here's my Live review upon Completion: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/492016927 Here's my First, Blind play-through on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7WWbt6zf0xw9UjTsFpZDGabQpNEGL4wI

No ingame mouse sensitivity option. No way to turn off motion blur. And the main menu lags on every graphic setting because of the billions of snakes in the background. That's a refund right there.

Seemed a great game but seems so short for the price." Rethink" series seems similar but is longer (and I can save where I like).

Skip to 34:55 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWavz7WOGAo (Don't pay attention to the price comment, I was communicated that the price would be 15$, which is exactly the kind of price I would have expected for it) It's a good puzzle game with a few little flaws, but nothing that would stop you from enjoying it. Just get it, it's good

From Lvl 14 on it's more work than fun! Because you can't save, and the levels become veeery long. If you can't finish one level, you will have to start from the beginning, which is annoying as hell, especially because the furking snake maechanic will torture you in addition.

Honestly I was on the fence towards the end. It is severely lacking in polish, but it is a solid first person puzzle game. While a little more development time could have turned this into a much easier recommendation, I feel like it was worth my time, and I would recommend it to fans of first person puzzle games. I do feel like I need to list a number of caveats, so that prospective players know what they are getting into. - Aiming the reflectors can get very finicky - Some puzzles were only challenging because some of the necessary reflectors were easy to miss - There is a mechanic involving snakes that is very finicky and resulted in a number of unnecessary deaths - Some of the late game puzzles felt a little more long/complex than necessary, which would be fine but... - Game only saves at the beginning of levels, so if you have to bail after 20 minutes of puzzling, you'll be doing it all again on your next session Again, this isn't a Triple-A title. Its not even a Triple I title. But if you are patient with its flaws, are feeling that 'itch' for another first person puzzler, there is an enjoyable game entombed within the pyramid. Its just buried a little deeper than I was expecting.

Clunky. Hateable snake mechanic which totally disturbs the puzzle gameplay (and stops me from playing through) Prisms and mirrors are sometimes in such dark places that you just think: "how on earth is this solveable?" So sadly the find your tool and get killed by snakes mechanics are ingredients in this (I thought to be) puzzle game that totally kill my fun in playing. The game wants to be compared with Talos, QUBE and so on, I was hoping to find another game in this genre but nope, it's just too frustrating but not in the good way, where you think how stupid you are.

A great puzzle game involving redirecting, combining and/or splitting coloured beams of light. Some parts can be difficult, and will require the player to go back and optimise solutions to previous parts of each level.

Enjoyable little puzzle game, would have liked a bit more. The music is fitting and the pacing of the puzzles is mostly good. It made me a bit motion sick and a few times I jumped out of my skin so if you are worried about a tiny bit of horror, beware.