Lust for Darkness had a lot of potential to become something unique but failed miserably. It is lifeless husk of a game that has nothing to offer.

When the game first came out, I got excited. It was supposed to be a psychological survival horror game with some erotic twist. Because I am a simple man, this sounded great. But when I played it, it disappointed immediately.

The story was an interesting concept. You receive a letter from your wife, who had gone missing a year ago. You are told that you can find her in some mansion that belongs to the Yelverton family. On your journey you discover that this mansion is home to some cult that worships some lust God and that there is apparently a place called “Lusst’ghaa”, some alternative reality. On your exploration you discover all kinds of messed up stuff, you are being chased and your sanity drops fast. Meanwhile, you still search for your wife, which left more clues in the mansion.

Eventually, you enter the strange world of Lusst’ghaa, where more mindf*cks and weird stuff is happening. And although some events and chase sequences were sort of fun, the rest felt like a weird safari tour. Like I said, this concept could be interesting but the rest of the game in terms of mechanics, graphics, animation, length, and progressions is so bad, that it did not interest me anymore after an hour. And speaking of an hour, this game is criminally short. I finished it within three hours, and that is while I explored everything I could find.

The graphics are not great but acceptable. What kills it, is the awful and stiff animations of enemies and the environment. It looks so incredibly stiff and lifeless, I had the feeling I walked through some sort of museum, watching animatronics. Everything is scripted or “just happening” and there is almost no interaction of any kind between you and the events and environment around you. Its really bad.

In the sound department, the ambient tracks are all right, but the sound design is just as blend and lifeless as the rest of the game.

Of course, one of the reasons I played Lust for Darkness, was to see some booty and find out what this “erotic theme” was all about. Apart from some statues and people without clothes, it really disappointed. But then there was a specific room/scene of the game with a lot of people, that did, how should I put this, “things” to each other. When I entered however, I just saw twenty animatronics repeating the same movement over and over again. No different animations, no interaction with you, nothing. At this moment, I knew that all hope for this game was lost.

Besides from this, the game play itself is boring and blend. You can sneak by enemies in perfect scripted scenes, in which sneaking is the only way to progress, you collect stuff like notes and items that all feel pointless, and the progression and exploration is non existing.

The game has not much to offer and the way it is made and plays, it just feels that it does not have any reason to exist, except for some sort of tour experience trough a small and strange world. Some sort of demo that is showed off.

In the end, Lust for Darkness is a very, very short, and failed game that I definitely would not recommend for any price.