What makes this game so bad to you?

[Blazedol]

I've heard numerous reasons why people hate it- Overly complex controls, the plot, the fact that it's linear, and how it costs $25.
I'm just wondering, because it looks like a fun game, but only on your first playthrough.

[Miss Oranje Disco Dancer]

The only thing that sucks is the camera angle. Other than that it's great.

[bain711]

I like the concept of it (even though its not original).

[TGC> The Games Collector]

Because I stepped on the wrong side of some stairs and my character got stuck in the floor, unable to get anywhere.
Bugs like that sicken me... well, at least today they do, not in the mood for bugs right now.

:/ hmmz, might try the game again somewhere very much later...
It dóes seem fun to play the psycho kid from The Omen tho.

[COEPTIS]

just watch pewdsplay it,theres no real gameplay to it,so its funner to watch

[Zombine3D]

Originally posted by alcatrazsniper2:

just watch pewdsplay it,theres no real gameplay to it,so its funner to watch

or get drunk with a friend and try to play, much better XD

[GeT_Speax ツ]

i dont like the parts where u must find things, it goes on my nervs.
but if it is done, the kills are epic :)

[Bully Maguire]

who says the controls are to complex? that must be some ♥♥♥♥♥♥ with 8 amputated fingers. the game is fun

[Tom]

The thing I think people don't really get is that Lucius is, essentially, a point-and-click adventure game. Going into it with that mentality seems helpful.

[Ashabel]

Originally posted by Tom Explodes:

The thing I think people don't really get is that Lucius is, essentially, a point-and-click adventure game. Going into it with that mentality seems helpful.

My problem is that even as a point-and-click adventure, it's awful. It is a spectacular show of lazy, apathetic developers who didn't even try to make a good game, they simply cobbled some ♥♥♥♥ together and said "Okay so it has all the features, it means we can ignore quality assurance and just push it out."

1. The graphics are so bad they're hilarious. The lighting is completely bonkers, with everything presented in overbearing colored lights that completely repaint the setting. A particularly bad example of this is in the Jigsaw Ending, where Lucius exits the house and the red light source from the inside clashes with the blue one from the outside to make him look like a Christmas tree.

And let's not even talk about the perfectly still opaque solid thing they confuse for water. Frankly, it looks more like semen.

2. The sound design is completely nonexistent. The sound effects echo half the time, don't echo the other half, change in volume and intensity depending on their distance from the camera (which sometimes makes them mute during cutscenes), and simply cut off sometimes.

The music is even worse. They simply licensed a huge pile of tracks from some free website and piled them into the game to loop without sense or reason. Having a terror chase track play during a casual conversation in the office and a Satanic chorus chant loudly during Christmas dinner is something to behold.

3. And then there's the bugs. The endless numerous bugs of an engine not designed to fit the game. The bottles and clothing getting stuck in the doorways. The haphazard collision detection from the fireball. The "stealth" entirely reliant on which direction the NPC's head is turned. The way Lucius sometimes twists his head 160 degrees to look at something. The programmer was both lazy and uncaring, figuring that the game will sell on premise and who cares about the quality.


What makes Lucius bad for me is that it has a good concept, but the developers didn't even try to make it a good game. They completed the feature list without considering if it actually works cleanly and effectively, then pushed the game out for quick bucks.

It shouldn't cost 25 dollars, it should cost 5. At least that would reflect the developers' respect for their own work.

[Blazedol]

From what I've seen and heard, it kinda sounds like Lucius just doesn't want to work for your computer. Like me and Bioshock.

[Miss Oranje Disco Dancer]

Originally posted by Philomelle:

Originally posted by Tom Explodes:

The thing I think people don't really get is that Lucius is, essentially, a point-and-click adventure game. Going into it with that mentality seems helpful.

My problem is that even as a point-and-click adventure, it's awful. It is a spectacular show of lazy, apathetic developers who didn't even try to make a good game, they simply cobbled some ♥♥♥♥ together and said "Okay so it has all the features, it means we can ignore quality assurance and just push it out."

1. The graphics are so bad they're hilarious. The lighting is completely bonkers, with everything presented in overbearing colored lights that completely repaint the setting. A particularly bad example of this is in the Jigsaw Ending, where Lucius exits the house and the red light source from the inside clashes with the blue one from the outside to make him look like a Christmas tree.

And let's not even talk about the perfectly still opaque solid thing they confuse for water. Frankly, it looks more like semen.

2. The sound design is completely nonexistent. The sound effects echo half the time, don't echo the other half, change in volume and intensity depending on their distance from the camera (which sometimes makes them mute during cutscenes), and simply cut off sometimes.

The music is even worse. They simply licensed a huge pile of tracks from some free website and piled them into the game to loop without sense or reason. Having a terror chase track play during a casual conversation in the office and a Satanic chorus chant loudly during Christmas dinner is something to behold.

3. And then there's the bugs. The endless numerous bugs of an engine not designed to fit the game. The bottles and clothing getting stuck in the doorways. The haphazard collision detection from the fireball. The "stealth" entirely reliant on which direction the NPC's head is turned. The way Lucius sometimes twists his head 160 degrees to look at something. The programmer was both lazy and uncaring, figuring that the game will sell on premise and who cares about the quality.


What makes Lucius bad for me is that it has a good concept, but the developers didn't even try to make it a good game. They completed the feature list without considering if it actually works cleanly and effectively, then pushed the game out for quick bucks.

It shouldn't cost 25 dollars, it should cost 5. At least that would reflect the developers' respect for their own work.

it's a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ indie game, give them a break.

[Ashabel]

Originally posted by Blaze the Grand Bullshitter:

From what I've seen and heard, it kinda sounds like Lucius just doesn't want to work for your computer. Like me and Bioshock.

Actually, the complaints about bugs in Lucius are fairly common (and why the game has a consistent 50-point review score). Though I did suspect graphics are more the cause of my computer, but then screenshots from other people mostly look the same. It's in motion that it begins to fall apart.

The sound thing is 100% true, though. About 60% of the credits section is them listing all the tracks they licensed for use in that game. There are maybe 200 of them and the game doesn't actually que them in any pattern. It simply randomly picks and loops them as you explore.

Originally posted by ☾ Darling*:･ﾟ✧:

it's a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ indie game, give them a break.

I will not. Indie developers don't get a free pass to be uncaring and lazy toward their games just because they don't have a multi-million budget. When making games is your livelihood, you don't half-ass it. That would be like spilling coffee on a customer in a small coffee house and then defending yourself with "Well, we're not Starbucks, give us a break!".

Aquaria was developed by two people, minimum bugs. Bastion was developed by eight people, no bugs. Braid was built from ground up by two people and it works like a charm (incidentally, it also used the licensed music approach and did it well). Hell, Amnesia is also an indie game developed by a small team; it became so famous only because the developers put everything into making a good game.

Tell me why every other indie developer can do basic quality assurance on their game and these guys can't.

[Blazedol]

Originally posted by Philomelle:

Originally posted by Blaze the Grand Bullshitter:

From what I've seen and heard, it kinda sounds like Lucius just doesn't want to work for your computer. Like me and Bioshock.

Actually, the complaints about bugs in Lucius are fairly common (and why the game has a consistent 50-point review score). Though I did suspect graphics are more the cause of my computer, but then screenshots from other people mostly look the same. It's in motion that it begins to fall apart.

The sound thing is 100% true, though. About 60% of the credits section is them listing all the tracks they licensed for use in that game. There are maybe 200 of them and the game doesn't actually que them in any pattern. It simply randomly picks and loops them as you explore

You mentioned some stuff about the shadows. I've seen some screenies of the shadows going crazy, but that seems like a small mistake that shouldn't be overlooked or overreacted to. Other than that, though, I didn't really mind the style. Gave a nice 60's/70's feel for me.

About the sound, so what if they used loops? Some of my favorite soundtracks in games are just half a minute-two minute loops. But that's me, and not you. You also mentioned stuff like soudn bugs, and the sound mixing is pretty bad, at least from what I've seen, and it is psychopathy inducing at times, but I wouldn't say it's up there with Deadly Premonition.

I'm not gonna say anything about the bugs, though. I haven't actually played the game, after all, I'm just judging the graphics and sound.

[Ashabel]

Yeah, I actually played the game yesterday. I really really wanted to stop around Chapter 4-5, when the game's terrible sound design and clunky controls finally got to me. But I promised myseif I would beat five horror games this Halloween and Lucius was one of the names pulled from the hat. I grit my teeth and persevered, which was somewhat worth it because the game very slightly improves around chapter 5 (then goes downhill when you're given combustion for the first time).

It honestly is worse than Deadly Premonition because that game has a degree of consistency in its insanity. Lucius's sound design is best described as GTA's driving mode, except you have one radio station filled with generic horror tracks and the game randomly picks them out to play. Some of them are decent, a lot are bad and almost none of them actually fit the mood of what happens on-screen, because they force random satanic chanting and screeching violins even onto scenes of relative peace.

Sometmies the game does pick specific tracks for scenes, but that can be a curse. Lucifer's tutorials have this screechy tune that sounds like a chase sequence from a horror B-movie, one that doesn't end when the tutorial ends. It continues to play through the entire cutscenes and chunk of the gameplay, often rampaging through the scene's mood like a bull in a china shop.

It's not a secret that sound design is very important to horror games. The sound design in Lucius is less "scary" or "haunting" and more "obnoxious", "immersion-breaking" and "migraine-inducing".


EDIT: I should note that I really did want to like the game. I liked the concept, some of the cutscenes were wonderfully paced in places, there is actually a hint of a good game behind all the muck. But then the lack of quality assurance brings it all down very painfully and leaves you with a nagging sense of disappointment.

[76561198065928279]

Because the store page makes people think this game plays lke hitman blood money, when it's really more of a point & click.