Luto Review

Luto is a psychological horror experience and tells the story of Samuel; a seemingly normal man who is stuck in a neverending loop of never being able to leave his house no matter what he does. Can you guide Sam out of this nightmare?

Luto is a walking sim where players will walk around a house trying to solve puzzles, find helpful items in order to escape the loop-ish nightmare. This game is very reminiscent of P.T., Silent Hills teaser released on PS4 10 years ago; where everything loops, but things changes as you successfully complete puzzles.

Sam can run; and I use that term loosely; it’s more walking fast. Completing puzzles will alter the environments for new pathways or clues. This game will mess with your head; not Eternal Darkness levels, but there are still situations where you’ll lose control of the game. Puzzles are incredibly cryptic.

You’ll find pictures and sketchbooks that will need scrutinizing in order to find clues on how to progress forward. This is one of those occurances where a guide will be of great assistance if you’re tired of runnning around in circles.

The game looks great as a whole; the developpers did a great job in creating this unneverving house that will have going around in circles. They also took cues from Eternal Darkness by having the game mess with you either by having the screen glitch up or manually kicking you back to the start screen. The evolution of the house is well done. On the audio of things, not much to report. It’s quiet overall creating a somewhat tense atmosphere. There’s a narrator spurting out lines that unfortunately breaks the tension. The ambiant noise and soundbytes make up for a tense experience.

Nothing majorly wrong here, but nuisances. Like the running, or lackthereof. I’ll never understand how developers work on running features in some games. Also its crypticness might turn off some gamers. While it’s fun being challenged to find clues and complete puzzles, it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. Also the narrator gets in the way of any tension building.

Luto is a tense, cryptic walking sim that’ll challenge players’ puzzling skills and patience as it moves relatively slow. The house is well designed and the game offers unique mechanics that will mess with players. Although given its sluggishness and puzzle based gameplay, this might turn off some gamers looking for some good scares and actions. If you’re a die-hard fan of the horror genre, you’ll absolutely want to play Luto. For those looking for something a bit faster and terrifying might want to look elsewhere.