I may have plunged myself into the depths of the accursed, to the nightmarish house of creatures beyond every mind that has seen the light, faced the impossible and the inconceivable at the same time, unable to understand the otherworldly horrors that stared me at the eye and their sounds rotted my ears, and most of all, getting spooped really fucking hard and wanting to call it quits... but I couldn't... I had to do it... not for me, no... but for the dog

I think I feel pretty confident when I say that horror is perhaps one of the most personal genres in all of media in general. Yes, I know, bold of me to say this considering how many times I’ve stated that it’s the subset of books/movies/videogames I’m the least familiar with, but for the little I have allowed myself to experience, one thing became very clear; true fear in videogames does not come from immediate danger. A Goomba hurts Mario, an Imp attacks the Doom Slayer, space-ships try to shoot down Fox’s Arwing, but fear, fear affects you. I’m not saying that immersion is not possible in games like Doom or Star Fox, but rather that immersion is an essential key factor in horror games; series like Resident Evil or Silent Hill may have characters and protagonist that are their own beings, but those games succeed because the horrors they face affects them as much as they affect us, and is when that immersion fails, that indescribable horror of turning your back against anything but a wall, when a horro game fails. And it’s understanding this when both the successes and failures of Lost in Vivo are clear as water.

This statement may vary since in the days that come I’ll be playing more horror games than ever before, but at this point at time, the time were my feeble, still trembling hands are writing this, that I can say that Lost in Vivo has one of the best atmospheres that I have seen in a VERY long while, and the best opening areas I’ve encountered in any of the terror focused games I’ve played. The adventure to rescue your adorable canine friend doesn’t take long turn into madness made flesh, the sewers twist within themselves, going down and down, each floor more rotten than the last, mor unpredictable, more… impossible. The sewers lead to the metro, which leads to a seemingly forgotten temple, which leads to the mines, and it becomes more and more apparent that this place may not be as real as it might have seemed first, but that doesn’t make it the less scary, in fact that uncertainty of illusion and reality might help it even more terrifying. The fantastic OST and sound design pulls through in way that’s deserving of an standing ovation, the quiet melodies that plague each area tense you up in a way I can only compare to the internal doubt you may have sometimes wondering if you left the oven on, and that tension can turn into peace once you arrive at a save room and that wonderful melody fills your ears, or turns into the outmost despair when an indistinguishable instrument destroys the melody and you realize… you are not alone in this room no more. I can’t sing its praises enough, Lost in Vivo ambience is absolute perfection, accompanied by a visual style that, while clearly inspired by the PSX style and specially that one of Silent Hill, as many things on this game, it doesn’t stop it from feeling fresh and original, thanks to the spectacular enemy and area design and the AMAZING lightning. The puzzles are great too; the game tends to repeat the ‘’You can go to this place, you need to go for three things and every time you do a enemy appears’’ structure, but the steps and set pieces to get there are consistently fantastic and perfectly paced (at least until after the mines) and the small notes that connect to the main puzzles are honestly really cool and clever. When it comes at creating a deep rooted fear in you, the game delivers in spades… but as it goes on, while it never loses it’s essence and still has some stellar moments, by the time I arrived at the forgotten temple, much of the magic and initial impact had sadly vanished.

The game has a prominent Spooky’s Jump Scare Mansion structure, which despite both games being made by the same main developer, is not a sentence I was not expecting to say; both games have a very clear linear progression, do break the fourth wall from time to time, and have a prominent ‘’main monster for each zone’’ type of deal; now, this itself isn’t a problem, what is when this clashes with Lost In Vivo’s particular design. The game has a far more complex narrative, not limited to lore itself, but to the main character’s psyche, to their experiences and profound psychological turmoil, so certain fourth wall breaks and some areas can feel a bit out of place, specially after the half-way point. It’s also curious that, while the game it’s linear, there’s a lockpicking system that depends on you finding the items for opening certain doors that have one use only; it’s fine to have secrets and keys scattered around, but the lockpicking being one use each feels a bit weird… and in fact can lead to soft locking! No joke, there was a point I didn’t have any lockpicks and couldn’t go back to get any, so I was… stuck, and I had to do some tuff outside the game to fix it, otherwise I’d have to start from the beginning. I have no idea how this isn’t fixed or if there’s a fix I just missed, but if you plan on playing the game, be wary of this.

And then there’s the combat, which… look, I’m all in for combat feeling clunky in exchange of creating even more dread and insecurity, a less reliable move set and weapons may invite you to not participate in it, and Lost in Vivo be going for that… and the you realize some enemies don’t do shit. And that your life regeneration is fast as hell. And just liked that, a ton of the tension poofs… It’s not all bad, there are some really interesting enemies like the Mimic that are stellar, but in general, I didn’t feel like the combat made the game more terrifying, in fact the moments where you DON’T have to fight or can’t kill the enemy are the scariest by far, and there’s a boss fight that plays very well with that, but aside from that, enemies become just minor inconveniences when you realize that with just being a but careful, you can easily survive (the fact the final area is ‘’Random bullshit, go!’’ when it comes to enemies doesn’t really help).

And the fact the game has these problems deeply hurst me, ‘cause it’s otherwise a beyond amazing experience, one that mad me shiver as much as it made me feel hope, one that made love it despite of the terror and tension. It’s a game that does some things good and does them perfectly, a everlasting bad dream that can end in a happy outcome if you face it, and has many secrets and many others to be discovered.

Just follow the barks.

You’ll feel better.