Lust for Darkness

Fans of erotic horror have been spoiled of late. Well, kinda. {Lust for Darkness} follows hot on the fiery heels of {Agony}, and both of these demonic adventures focus on violent sexual themes and depict graphic scenes that will undoubtedly prove divisive among those who see them. {Agony} might have struggled to connect with its audience despite doubling down on the horrific imagery, but is Movie Games' offering able to offer a deeper, more immersive experience?

There are a number of influences that define {Lust for Darkness}. The game plays out in two dimensions - one being a version of our world and the other a hellish reality filled with death, demons, and debauchery - and the whole thing is distinctly Lovecraftian, apparently inspired by the art of Zdzisław Beksiński, although we think there was a dash of Giger thrown in for good measure too.

The player walks through the game in the shoes of a man called Jonathan, and with very little preamble we find ourselves exploring his home, rifling through drawers while trying to work out who we're supposed to be. Then a letter arrives that tells us in no uncertain terms what we need to do next, and what follows is a surprisingly linear adventure to Hell and back.

Jonathan arrives at a mansion as instructed and discovers that the locals are having some sort of masquerade ball. It's here that we also discover the game's very limited insta-fail stealth system, whereby an enemy sees you and you're hit with an immediate game over screen. After being repeatedly spotted as we stalked through the grounds we learned the patterns needed to advance and get the gear required to enter the building. It's not long thereafter that the gloves come off... and the clothes. In fact, the only thing that stays on in this game are the masks, and pretty soon people are shagging all over the place, with nimble naked bodies gyrating everywhere you look.

Without wanting to spoil the story, we soon confirm that someone we know is on the premises and we need to rescue them. And so off we go in search of our friend, stepping over the lustful bodies of cultists engaging in hanky-panky, stopping only to marvel at sculptures depicting sex, twisted genitalia, bestiality, and other such things. Again, {Lust for Darkness} is not for the faint of heart.

As we explore we're joined by Jonathan's thoughts, but the trouble is neither the voice acting nor the script are particularly convincing and we had a hard time really connecting with the character in a meaningful way. He's just... bland and under-developed, and none of the other main characters impressed us much either. Some of the dialogue between NPCs isn't terrible, but it's hard to find anything that really stands out as worthy of praise.

We could have probably lived with the poor narration and writing if the world itself had been more interesting to explore, but despite the fact that you can open draws aplenty and pick up stuff like statues, the game's biggest flaw is that most of these interactive elements fail to really enrich or enhance the experience. There are a few tidbits here and there that expand your knowledge of what's going on, but we never felt like we were getting drawn into the world and the wider story wasn't really explored to our satisfaction. Instead of unravelling a deep and compelling narrative, we're instead spoonfed someone's Lovecraftian wet dream. And that's about as fun as it sounds.

Given the enigmatic nature of the sex-crazed cult and the mysteriousness of the inter-dimensional setting, it's disappointing that we're not given more detail to get our teeth stuck into. Instead of nuance and substance hidden just under the surface waiting to be discovered, we're given gratuitous sex and shocking gore. {Lust for Darkness} relies heavily on horrific imagery and brutal sexual content, but this unbalances and undermines nearly everything that Movie Games is presumably trying to achieve in terms of narrative.

There are some light puzzles to contend with, both in the mansion and in the grotesque otherworldly dimension that you regularly have to pass through, but nothing is particularly clever and most of the time it's just a little friction to slow your progress. Again, the puzzles feel like they were bolted on once the art direction had been settled, and not nearly enough was done with the inter-dimensional travel. Over the years we've seen how cleverly portals can be utilised as part of a narrative experience, but here it's yet another under-developed mechanic that could have been put to much better use.

The only thing that feels fully formed is the art style, and it's clear that this violent blend of erotica and hellish imagery was the driving force behind the project. Some of the scenes are visually rich and full of detail, and the atmosphere is heavy and impactful at times, which makes it even more of a shame that exploring these spaces is usually devoid of tension. The limited stealth mechanics could and should have been much better implemented and used more regularly, a move which would have added more bite to these sections of the game.

We're not going to mark {Lust for Darkness} down because of the graphic content, because there are going to be people out there who love this sort of thing and, at the end of the day, who are we to judge. We are, however, going to complain about the lack of quality that veins through nearly every aspect of this grotesque first-person adventure. There's an interesting concept lurking somewhere in this otherwise undernourished erotic horror game, and had the studio built on the unique art style with meaningful stealth and puzzle mechanics, complimenting that with a more interesting and immersive world to explore, we might have something positive to say. The art style is certainly the chief strength of {Lust for Darkness}, but even that will only truly appeal to a niche community of people. If you hadn't guessed, we're not among them.