This week the Live Arcade saw the release of the South Park tower defense game and Lucidity, a 2D platforming puzzler by LucasArts. Since I’ve about had my fill of tower defense for the time being, this week I will be looking at Lucidity. The game can be found on the Live Arcade for 800 points, as well as through Steam for $9.99 on the PC. The price was right, so how did the game square up?
The game follows Sofi, a young girl who follows an increasingly dangerous path through her dreamscape. Sofi constantly moves towards the right side of the screen, and it is up to the player to place randomly selected tiles into the level to adjust her path and steer her clear of obstacles. Despite Sofi’s slow gait, this gets very frantic, very fast.
Graphically, this game is exceptionally pleasing. For a game that handles the subject of dreams, the visuals certainly do the subject matter justice. Landscapes vary from level to level, with backdrops and obstacles running the gamut from pleasant valleys to treacherous, craggy, oceanic trenches.
The musical score varies depending on the landscape Sofi is traversing. While utilizing a staircase tile, the music will lightly step upwards in pitch, for example. The ambient nature of the music complements the dreaminess of the piece very nicely, creating a whimsical sensory experience that is brilliant and inspired.
Overall, the game has enough to keep you going back to get the most out of your money. To collect all of the fireflies, the collectible items placed throughout each level, requires many replays of each level. The challenges can be very unforgiving, causing me to step away from the game for a while in a few situations. So, those of you who are fans of surpassing paramount difficulty will be quite pleased.
Final Verdict : 8.5
