It's not a complex formula — cute characters + logical puzzles + intuitive controls (provided you pick the right ones) — but, as Lumo shows, it is a winning one.
Lumo has a heart. It’s filled with a charming aesthetics, classic retro style gameplay, fun references to other franchises, and just offers a solid good time for platforming fans.
I highly enjoyed Lumo to be quite honest. Ok, the controls aren't the best, but, they are no where near how bad people are making out them to be. The main story is around 3 to 4 hours (or 100 hours depending on how many times you die). I did a full walkthrough/playthrough if you'd like to have a look >>> ****/playlist?list=PLddV430oRXwXoELouXxgfizZi_zr7W8GU
Made by the developers behind the wonderful "Oddworld" remake, Lumo is a simple yet fun puzzle platformer that appeals to all ages. I found some minor frustration in the controls, but the overall charm and level design more than made up for it. If you're a **** gamer who grew up on simpler games, or a new gamer looking for a fun, simple challenge, it's not a bad way to spend 20 bucks. Make sure to adjust the control scheme to one that works best for you. And explore, there's secrets everywhere.
It's not a must-have, but it's fun and engaging. It might feel a little bit outdated these days, but if you're looking for a dose of nostalgia, then it's a great choice.
Lumo is full of well thought out puzzles, but it lacks certain gameplay touches that could have pushed it into being a great game. My main gripe is that the jumping feels awkward and, coupled with perspective issues, means you can fail a simple puzzle dozens of times.
Lumo was a fun, rewarding experience sprinkled with some problems. I HIGHLY recommend switching the control scheme to the middle (+) option, as I believe they've shot themselves in the foot with their default option. Any complaints about controls can be easily fixed by simply switching this option.
Being an isometric platforming puzzle game a lot of complaints are on the camera, which are warranted and WILL give you frustration as its sometimes hard to read where objects are in relation to yourself (depth perception). I feel like you won't be on any single puzzle long enough to frustrate you into quitting the game or "throwing your controller". They had a great idea using the L1 and R1 buttons to slightly move the camera and even quickly pressing R1 and L1 can give you a "3D" feel. Only problem is that you can't use it in most rooms, especially later into the game.
This game deserves better than a 5.9, it's a fun game with rewarding puzzles and for 20-30 dollars is a great pickup to beat in a weekend. The story is stupid.
The appeal of this game may vary depending on your age and location. This is my attempt at an honest review.
I guess you can categorize this game as a puzzle/platformer/adventure-game. It's about 3-4 hours long and consists of four levels. Since it was free on Playstation Plus this month and me being a fan of puzzles I decided to give it a go. Being a 24 year old Swede, I feel like a lot of the references this game made were lost on me, although there were a couple of shout outs to things like Pac-Man, Ghostbusters, Lord of the Rings and Raiders of the Lost Ark which I enjoyed.
Things I liked:
+ The atmosphere. The soundtrack sets a really cozy tone to the game. The music was probably my favorite thing about this game. Kudos to dopedemand. Great score, mate!
+ Controls. Simple control scheme. Not a lot you can mess up here and I felt the character controlled well. Great choice of the creator to include different control schemes. The only time I had problems with the controls was in the bandit shooting range room. Too unintuitive. I kept shooting them darn kids!
+ Secrets. Just like a good metroidvania, this game has a map and lots and lots of secret rooms and collectibles. Stuff like that is always fun for my curious exploring mind.
+ Silly humor. It's very silly. I don't know if it's because the game is from England, but I got that kinda British vibe from the silly moments.
+ The Warp Zone. Trippy. A nice change of pace that switches up the gameplay.
+ Main level design. I don't have a lot to say about the main levels themselves. They felt pretty normal and did what they were supposed to. The only time I struggled was when I didn't realize a room had a third door passage and got lost for maybe 20 minutes, so that could have been more clear.
Things that needed improvement:
- Gameplay. The challenge of this game's gameplay is an inconsistent one. In the beginning it was very easy with almost no challenge at all, then the difficulty suddenly spikes hard. The latter half of the game was the source of several frustrating trial-and-error moments I had with some mechanics, with only some puzzles that felt truly satisfying. The gameplay can also feel a little too slow-paced in places, with not a lot of change where it was needed.
- Camera. A lot of the harder moments in this game came from not being able to navigate properly because of awkward fixed camera angles that could have been avoided with a camera you can rotate more. I get that this game is an old-school throwback and the camera is meant to be isometric, but it seriously hampered my experience. At least let the camera rotate more than about ten degrees. And why can you only rotate the camera in some rooms? For a game that includes different settings for the control scheme it's a little strange that there aren't any options to change the settings for the camera.
- Art direction. Kinda bland and generic in my eyes. The face of the player-character looks childishly simple. The level design could have benefited from a more unique visual style.
- Story. Virtually non-existent. This game doesn't need a particularly large story, but at least give us something more than "Child runs into house and gets zapped into game, child completes game, child returns to normal world and runs out of house". This game could have used a little more character. I also don't understand the appeal of the main quest, in collecting parts of some sort of old game/computer. Too niche.
- The waiting made me salty. There was a very specific incident that happened in the area where the starting position was the room with the "Arnold"-sign. In the large room with with the electric floor-panels, spikes, laser beams and two laser grids blocking your way there is a slow-moving platform that moves back and forth through the room that resets position when you die. When you die in this room you respawn based on where you entered the room from, but the platform always resets to the far left of the room where you originally came from, even when you die and respawn on the right side after having entered from the right. This lead to a very frustrating moment where every time I died going from right side to left side I had to wait almost a full minute for the platform to get to where I could get on it. Also, every time you die and respawn (which happens a lot) there is a delay from where your character appears to where you regain control, which can be a little annoying. I would have liked to be able to move the character immediately as it respawns and not have to wait for that too.
- Turtles. I don't know why, but when you die, your death-noise sounds exactly like when turtles are having an orgasm. How do I know that whoops looks like I've reached the max amount of letters in this review..
-Charlizard
With uber bad controls in a puzzle game where precision is a necessity this is really a horrendous combination. Suddenly halfway through the game it seems like the precession becomes an frustrating experience.
For the first half it's a very simple and largely linear game that anyone can pick up - a few control issues aside it's a very gentle throwback with no puzzles or anything. Then it adds some of the worst old-school ice physics I've ever seen in a game and all my goodwill goes out the window. There's quite a lot going for it, and I'd give it 8/10 in other circumstances, but since the price is twice as high as I would have liked - and the ice is just so bad - that it gets a 4. For what it's worth I used to love Head over Heels. Wait for a sale.
SummaryAs a contemporary take on the long-lost isometric platform genre, Lumo can be enjoyed by anyone looking for an absorbing, challenging and rewarding adventure. But for those who lived through the golden age of videogames – the 80s and early 90s – or know about the games and culture from that time, layer upon layer of nods, winks and touch...