Lust from Beyond (PC) Review

This begins with the journey of a woman into the realm of the so-called lusst'ghaa, the dimension of eternal ecstasy, or something along these lines. She walks through a land made out of flesh, blood, arteries, bones, and tendons, with vagina-like structures and penis-tentacles scattered all around. While somewhat unoriginal, this generic imitation of Giger and Beksiński is definitely beautiful in its own twisted way. Anyways, this mysterious gal returns to the real world, with an alien "fetus" on her hand. She offers it to a priest of her sect, and then an orgy ensues, which acts as the catalyst of what seems to be like a very important ritual. Then players get a glimpse of a weird abyss, where an eldritch terror has attached its tentacles in the genitals of countless, unconscious(?) humans.

Here's the problem with this: it lacks subtlety. An adults-only, sex-themed game that blends horror with pornography doesn't need to shy away from showing too much, but this is supposed to be a psychological thriller strongly influenced by Lovecraft; a brand of terror that works best when you imply things, rather than show them. So, when players get to play as the main character, the everyman who involuntarily gets mixed in all this, you won't feel as intrigued to find out more, as you've seen too much already. Thus, most of the expected feeling of dread and mystery Lovecraft's mythos is known for is gone already, and all that's left are many 3D ding-dongs, yonic architectural details, penis-shaped levers, and gore, which don't really create the feeling of discomfort they were going for.

Note that the element of erotica isn't here to offer some thinly veiled porn. This isn't one of those pieces of garbage that plague the library of Steam, but a title that does exactly what it says on the box - it just that it doesn't do that as well as it could. Sure, parts of this adventure are delightfully dirty and disturbing; the atmosphere is pretty good, whether inside the "squishy" nether realm where sex monsters are out to get you, or inside a heavily detailed Victorian mansion, which is filled to the brim with occult books, paintings, and artefacts that add a strong layer of realism to it all, as this is truly a place where sex is the core of a religion; and, finally, the cosmic horror on offer is pretty decent, and fittingly dark and pessimistic. Sadly, that's where the good things end…

Lust from Beyond isn't a good horror game. It's an interesting occult-themed adventure, with a good amount of darkness within it, just not enough of it. It's pretty weak when it comes to the scares, especially when inside the "other" world. The place that should actually be the most frightening quickly ends feeling like just another… exotic place, where baddies might or might not appear, with its organic look quickly losing its touch. Even worse, the whole handling of the sexual theme is very hit-or-miss, with one great example being a part where the main character is forcefully given oral sex, in a scene that's supposed to make you feel violated, or at least disgusted, but the end result is actually painfully hilarious, which was definitely not the developer's intention.

Unfortunately, all these mentioned so far are actually the good half of Lust from Beyond. While not really a walking sim, it often feels like so, probably because nine out of ten tasks at any given chapter are chores, and not challenging and immersive steps towards the finale. You are in lusst'ghaa and need a key? Don't worry. You only need to do some tedious exploring in the corridor that is conveniently placed right next to the door. You've found a puzzle that unlocks a chest? Open up a cabinet or two, and the plain-as-day solution will be freely given to you. The gameplay is so boring that a certain "quest" that has you cleaning up a spot from pieces of a corpse as fast as possible so that you won't get killed by your quest-giver, is sleep-inducing, rather than terrifying.

What little survival horror there is here is laughable at best. Veterans of the genre will complete the game with no need for the many health items that can be discovered while searching around. In fact, this shouldn't include any health items, for the simple reason that you rarely need to use them. It's even hard to actually make a mistake during the stealth sessions, as there's usually plenty of space to move around danger. All that also render the simple upgrade system available obsolete, as there's not much need to increase the protagonist's health or mental stamina. Oh, yeah, this has the typical insanity meter that many Lovecraftian games seem to have, with affects ranging from screen distortion, to swapped controls, but few if any will struggle with that mechanic.

…And that's all there is to say about Lust from Beyond. Not a bad game, not a bad game. The story, the atmosphere, the horror aspect - everything is fine, but it's one of those occasions where fine won't do, since the gameplay is very boring. As a final note, this is obviously a product created with a limited budget, but the developed has still managed to offer something that looks very good, despite some obvious issues here and there, mainly when it comes to the character faces, something that yours truly doesn't really mind, to be perfectly frank. In terms of optimization, however, it needs plenty of work. This has that "Made in Unity" smell, as it's a bit system hog-ish, and can even become nauseating due to the frequent frame-rate drops, as well as the way FOV changes when running.