Lithium is a game that excels in all the right areas, all the important areas and I feel like it would be a masterpiece if it wasn't so technically limited. You can feel the passion, creativity and ingenuity that went into this game and if you're sympathetic you can look past the limitations and really enjoy it. It's like the soul of a beautiful angel trapped inside the body of a hideous slimy eel.. you want to hug it and pet it, and yet you feel a bit nauseous at the same time.

Lithium is basically a survival-horror game but with a bunch of innovative twists and gameplay elements. You play the role of this strange little rodent creature: it looks a bit like a mouse or a tarsier or Ren Hoek, all big-eyed, weak and emaciated. This creature is trapped in these extremely hostile environments full of horrible surreal monsters, booby traps, spike pits, etc. The environments are post-apocalyptic in style: crumbling hallways, dirty mental asylums, dark caves and spooky alleys decorated with blood, guts and rubble. Initially you're just trying to escape this awful place (as the narrator explains) and you do so through puzzle-solving, platforming, outsmarting enemies and even stealth. You're watching through a fixed camera (like Alone in the Dark or the early Resident Evil games) and this serves to heighten the tension and build a creepy, cinematic atmosphere.

Later on in the game you find a grandfather clock which allows you to take on a completely different form: this big, muscle-bound humanoid creature who is strong, fast and aggressive (the opposite of the protagonist) and you can control this character for limited amounts of time to carry out special actions like killing enemies, operating guns/weapons or smashing down walls/doors/obstacles. During these sections you're in third-person mode and this adds a new layer to the gameplay.

The game isn't particularly challenging but it does require patience. Often the experience was reminiscent of Another World (Out of this World) from the frequent gruesome deaths, but the game autosaves often and these sudden deaths are like comical learning experiences, and it becomes quite hilarious and entertaining when another disembodied arm suddenly appears from a hole in the wall and tears your head clean off your shoulders.

But it would be dishonest to ignore all the glaring flaws in the game. Firstly there are lots of bugs. Sometimes items don't work or you'll die for no discernible reason.. there are often camera issues or control issues, some events won't trigger or levers don't work. I fell through the level into infinity on multiple occasions and at one point I thought I had bugged my save and I had to complete a level in an unorthodox manner since all the important items bugged out on me. Unfortunately there's no way to manual save (or "chapter select"); and that's a shame since such a feature would immediately address all these issues. There are other issues too: it's clear that it was made by a small, inexperienced (Costa Rican) team on a shoestring budget. There are spelling and translation errors, buggy ragdolls and the graphics look pretty ancient. The worst part is the second-last level, an absolute disastrous mess which feels like it wasn't playtested even once. There are more terrible decisions made that violate the very basics of game design, but I've addressed the worst of it. However I can say that the dev has been releasing updates, bugfixes, patches so perhaps some of these issues will be addressed.

The last thing I'll mention is the story. I thought it was just this weird creature in an arbitrary horror setting, but as the narration unfolds we find that it goes much deeper. The game actually explores the concepts of mental illness in relation to crime, violence, treatment, war and PTSD, and there's some shocking, beautiful imagery in the environments that build upon the themes. By the end, through the narrator and strange notes/files scattered throughout the game, we eventually grasp a broader picture of what is happening in this world and there's a jaw-dropping plot twist towards the end (which I won't spoil).

Despite all the issues, the game does a wonderful job of creating this unique and haunting atmosphere. The story, sound, music and art design are creative and brilliant. I really feel like this was an ingenious, wonderful game and if they had a slightly larger/more experienced staff then it would have been a masterpiece. I'd love to see a bigger studio do a remake of it because I feel like the game is almost there, it just needs a couple of professionals to go over it briefly and tidy up the loose ends and address the bugs.

It's hard to give a strong recommendation for this game and I understand why it has such a poor rating on Steam. But if you're willing to have some patience with the issues there's actually a creative, thought-provoking, dark and gruesomely-fun masterpiece hiding underneath the rough exterior.