LUNARK Review

LUNARK is set on a distant planet ruled by a totalitarian regime and features Leo as the protagonist. Leo is a courier with unique abilities that allows him to run, jump, hang, climb, roll, and shoot through various trap and enemy field areas. By carrying his own mysterious past, it’s up to Leo to uncover he dark origin of humanity’s new home and learn the truth about himself.

LUNARK is a 2D action platformer mixed with puzzles and light combat. You’ll need to roam around levels shooting a few enemies here and there, activating switches, finding keys, and avoiding obstacles. Your main weapon is a simple gun with unlimited ammo, however, it does require a bit of a cool-down period after a few shots. If you’re close to an enemy, you can also punch it to death. As progress, you can also find temporary shields for temporary protection.

Each area will require players to turn on switches in order to progress forward. While more often than not, the doors will stay open, other circumstances will require players to move around rather quickly as the door will slowly close, meaning you need to make it before it’s closed. Boss battles are fun and tough challenges that require a bit of quick thinking by moving around and shooting in between movements.

Running around the various levels is actually fun as a whole; having to combine running, jumping, rolling, and climbing up and down offers an additional layer of challenge because it stands out from most similar 2D games where you’re impervious to fall damage. And that’s one of the game’s strengths: having to be weary about the next area’s platforming design.

The game features a gorgeous 2D pixelated visual that is reminiscent of classic 2D 16-bit games such as the original Prince of Persia on PC or the 1992 Super NES game Flashback: The Quest for Identity. It also features uniquely designed areas from mysterious alien ruins to a high-tech megalopolis. The score is a creepy, unnerving soundtrack that adds a layer of tension to the game’s atmosphere. One of the most obvious things is that every time you pick up a key or item for the first, there’s a short cutscene that plays themed to Eminem’s Cleaning out my Closet. Pretty sure Slim Shady didn’t approve of this.

The game’s biggest problem is the most important thing: the controls. Every movement feels like delayed by half a second and it’s annoying. And also the character doesn’t stop instantly when running, so you need to time things a half second away when wanting to stop running; also because if you don’t stop in time, and fall too far, you die instantly as this game has fallen damage/death. Also, there’s no checkpoint system. No matter how far you make it into a level and if you need to stop playing, you’ll restart your saved game at the beginning of the level. If you die, you’ll restart at a temporary checkpoint, but otherwise, it’s back to square one and the game doesn’t support Quick Resume.

This is quite disheartening for me. I was looking forward to reviewing LUNARK as I’ve always been a fan of the genre since the 8-bit era of gaming, but unfortunately, the execution fall flat because of the delayed input of the controls. Everything else in the game is fun, unique, and addictive, but the problematic control ruins everything else as you’ll constantly have to re-do jumps or reload checkpoints because your timing for jumping is off. Unless you want to struggle with the controls, I’d recommend waiting for a sale or for it to be added to Gamepass.