Lust for Darkness Critic Reviews

I’m so delighted to say that Lust For Darkness is the real deal. The fact that I can compare it to one of the greatest erotic thrillers of all time in Eyes Wide Shut, and not break down laughing, is in itself is a great credit to the developers. The game lacks the sheer mastery and refinement that Stanley Kubrick had over his canvas, but this is still leagues ahead of the clumsy, overly-simple idea of “horror” that most game developers aspire to.

Despite tricky subject and intention to shock this rather simple adventure game (with some stealth touches) managed to escape unintended comicality by delivering a solid, mature tale set in a twisted and internally consistent (therefore believable) world.

The amount of nudity and erotic horror themes within this game are enough to attract anyone, but sadly, the lack of gameplay mechanics and the disappointing climax are not able to keep them.

There is not an ounce of atmosphere in the middle between eros and Lovecraft that should have characterized Lust for Darkness.

Lust for Darkness is an erotic psychological horror that relies too heavily on the shock value of nudity and gore in a way that that isn't handled with any level of maturity or seriousness nor has the gameplay chops to back it up. A couple of cheap jump scares is all you'll really take away from this short budget title.

Underneath it all there’s genuinely something interesting here – it just needed to be more focussed, polished, moulded into a vision instead of left as a loose idea. The gameplay and story need working on heavily in their own way. I’d definitely come back to check on a sequel but it would be out of wary curiosity, not excitement. Still, I think a lot can be done in this space and hope to see something special come from it in the future.

Beneath Lust For Darkness' great atmosphere and creative imagery lies a very average game.

Although it delivers an abundance of horrifying imagery, the indiscriminately gratuitous Lust for Darkness falls short of delivering a truly engaging Lovecraft-meets-sex-cult experience throughout its brief three-hour play time.

Lust for Darkness kills the desire to play horror games.