When Grief Alters The Area Round You
From the second Luto begins, it doesn’t scream. It sighs… It whispers.
Luto is a first-person sport with no fight, no stock administration, and no well being bars. However what it lacks in conventional mechanics, it greater than makes up for with its surreal storytelling and more and more twisted environments. In case you’ve performed P.T. or Visage, the overall design will really feel acquainted, nevertheless it units itself aside with one key distinction: it doesn’t need to scare you. Not at first.
It desires you to linger. To hear. To note what’s lacking. And finally, to ask: what occurred to Samuel?
Welcome to Into Indie Video games’ evaluation of Luto, a psychological horror sport by Damaged Chook Video games that trades gore and loud bangs for quiet dread and emotional weight.
If you wish to know extra concerning the sport, take a look at their official web site right here.
Extra Than Only a Strolling Sim
You play as Samuel, a person trapped not simply in his house, however in one thing much more summary. A reminiscence, some shred of guilt, and a sort of grief wrap across the narrative like fog driving you thru the story.
The construction of the sport feels disjointed, not less than at first. Chapters, whereas they unfold linearly, don’t all the time make sense. Some doorways result in deserts, some stairs collapse into voids, and a few corridors appear limitless. And simply while you assume you’ve acquired your bearings, one thing adjustments once more.
That is what Luto does greatest. It turns the very concept of house right into a funhouse mirror. At one level, I felt like the home has a thoughts of its personal. And as I explored every room and each shifting design, it felt prefer it was making an attempt to form a narrative that’s simply past my attain. I can virtually attain out and seize it.
The sport doesn’t rely closely on exposition, as an alternative selecting to drip-feed the story by environmental particulars, narration, and symbolism. You’ll see sticky notes, drawings, shadowy figures, a toddler’s bed room, and so on., preserved a bit of too completely. None of it’s defined outright, however all of it feels vital.
A Narrator With A Bit Too A lot to Say
Let’s discuss concerning the narrator, as a result of Luto makes a daring alternative right here. From the beginning, a voice begins commenting in your actions with a indifferent, vaguely scientific tone. At first, it feels jarring, particularly in case you’ve performed the sooner demo. That model had no narrator, which gave the ambiance a heavier, extra isolating weight.
And whereas the voice initially comes off as comedian aid, I discovered myself ready for it to talk once more as I navigated the maze-like construction of the sport. As issues unfold, it turns into clear that this voice performs a a lot bigger position within the story. It morphs over time, shifting tone and turning into extra manipulative, extra private. The road between sport and commentary begins to blur.
The voice performing is outstanding, and the deeper I went into the story, the extra I discovered myself drawn to this a part of the expertise.
Puzzles That Go away You Scratching Your Head
Mechanically, Luto is easy. There’s no fight, no stock juggling, and no conventional fail states. The gameplay revolves round exploring environments, fixing puzzles, and decoding visible and auditory clues.
That stated, the puzzles aren’t all the time simple. Some are intelligent, asking you to assume symbolically. Others generally is a bit too obscure for their very own good, sometimes resulting in pacing hiccups that may break immersion. Just a few puzzles require discovering objects hidden within the atmosphere, like keys or videotapes, whereas others contain manipulating the atmosphere itself.
At their greatest, these puzzles serve the narrative and make you’re feeling such as you’re actively taking part in Sam’s inside logic. At their worst, they’ll really feel like a detour, if not a large roadblock. However even then, the surrealism of the setting helps clean out a number of the frustration. You won’t know what the answer is, however you’ll need to discover it, if solely to see what unusual factor lies across the subsequent nook.
Sound as a Weapon
Few video games use sound as successfully as Luto. It doesn’t depend on screeching violins or low-cost leap scares. As an alternative, it builds pressure by silence, static, and delicate cues. Issues like a faucet dripping in one other room, the thrill of an previous CRT tv, or the ticking of a clock do many of the heavy lifting.
Music is used sparingly, however when it does present up, it hits onerous. Ambient tones hum softly within the background, holding you uneasy even when nothing is going on. And layered into all of that is the narrator’s voice, slicing by the silence and guiding you whether or not you need it or not. Adore it or hate it, the sound design makes Luto really feel alive, even while you’re the one one strolling its halls.
When Horror Will get Private
What makes Luto actually particular, although, is its deep and private themes. Grief, melancholy, and anxiousness aren’t simply background noise right here. It’s what provides the sport its construction. Sam isn’t working from a monster. He’s caught within the aftermath of one thing he can’t face. And because the sport progresses, that begins to spiral into self-destruction.
The sport’s closing stretch goes to some wildly surprising locations. With out spoiling something, there’s a piece the place the sport fairly actually begins to interrupt down. It’s a daring narrative course to take, and whereas it would lose a couple of gamers alongside the way in which, for me it was mesmerizing.
Like grief itself, Luto doesn’t wrap issues up neatly. It ends on a notice that’s each conclusive and open-ended, leaving simply sufficient unsaid to maintain you pondering lengthy after the credit roll.
The Verdict: A Sluggish Spiral Value Following
Luto isn’t for everybody. It’s sluggish, summary, generally complicated, and sometimes extra about temper than mechanics. However for gamers keen to have interaction with its rhythm, there’s a surprisingly emotional core beneath all of the shifting partitions and disappearing doorways.
For a small indie title with roughly 4 – 6 hours of playtime, it affords a memorable expertise. The builders nailed the emotional touchdown completely whereas taking dangers and experimenting with construction. For that, they’ve my seal of approval.
- Developer: Damaged Chook Video games
- Nation of Origin: Spain
- Writer: Damaged Chook Video games, Selecta Play, Astrolabe Video games
- Launch Date: 22 July, 2025 (PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Sequence S|X)
The PC model of the sport was performed for this evaluation of Luto.
In case you’re caught on the puzzles, make sure to take a look at our walkthrough hub for the sport.
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