Broken Bird Games’ Luto demo shuffles out of the dimly lit corridors of horror anticipation as an all-too familiar specter drenched in unoriginality. Stop me if you’ve heard this one before; in Luto, the player assumes the role of an individual overcome with grief and mental torment, trapped within the confines of their own home. This anguish manifests itself in the form of psychological horror elements which play out in a self-imposed purgatory resembling a dilapidated haunted house. It has all been so done to death at this point.
With all of that being said though, a game doesn’t have to be wholly original to be great; just look at the Resident Evil 4 remake’s recent Game of the Year nomination for an example. Luto has endured a prolonged period of development, with the game initially aiming for a 2022 release date. However, following its appearance at the 2023 Future Games Show, along with this demo, (available on both PS5 and the Luto Steam page,) we have now been promised that the game will drop sometime in 2024.
Luto relies a lot on environmental horror to deliver its scares. As the player traverses the eerie house, objects will shift when out of the player’s view, leaving you unable to trust what you are seeing. Household items defy physics, ghostly apparitions fleetingly pass into view, and reality contorts.
These unsettling events are intended to be a visual exploration of the anguish stemming from the loss of a loved one, plunging the player into the abyss of insecurity, anxiety and depression. Luto opts to broach these psychological depths via a spectrum of phobias including; monophobia, claustrophobia, agoraphobia, and nyctophobia.
Luto suffers from PTSD, with specific emphasis on the P.T.
For those who found the spectral frights of PT a little too intensely terrifying, Luto may provide what you are looking for, as it offers a more passively chilling experience. However, there is unfortunately no getting away from the PT comparison. The ethereal influence of Hideo Kojima and Guillermo del Toro’s iconic horror demo pervades every pixel of Luto. From the environmental design, to the use of audio to the haunting symphony of the game’s audio cues, to the graphics and lighting, it all feel very familiar.
The concept of home, – typically a sanctuary of life, family, and love, – becomes an architectural purgatory in Luto. A prison cloaked in the metaphor of a haunted house is an overplayed stereotype in the horror genre. Yet, Broken Bird Games endeavors to breathe fresh life into this trope, infusing psychological trauma with a sense of familiarity.
Luto strives to be more than just a mere expedition into horror, it wants to portray a thematic journey through the pain and the intricacies of human psychology. While the game does bear the weight of genre fatigue, Luto’s spatial element is what differentiates it, transforming its horror into more of a physical affair than most of psychological terror media.
The demo drops the player right into the player character’s shoes without any real explanation as to who you are playing as or your goals. While this does induce an effective feeling of bewilderment, it can also cause frustration at times, leading to boredom for horror game veterans such as myself who have squeezed some time to play this game into their tight schedule.
Tears and fears.
As the player ventures deeper into the house, the environment unfolds into a distorted canvas, littered with unusual and disturbing elements. From ominous chains swaying overhead to bars obstructing passage in dimly lit corridors, Luto does a lot with its environment to keep players in their toes. A child’s scraggly drawings tell an upsetting tale of psychological disorder and abandonment, adding an emotional layer to the haunting narrative.
The pinnacle of unease is reached with the emergence of an figure covered in a white sheet, seemingly concealing a person underneath. The line between reality and imagination has been blurred so much by this point that it leaves players to question the authenticity of its presence. Is it a corporeal entity, or merely a figment of the protagonist’s tortured imagination?
Annoyingly, the Luto demo does not let the player save their progress at any point. The option to save is simply never made available, and there is no autosave functionality either. On top of this issue, there was another peculiarity that I came across. Despite selecting the option to play the game in the English language at the main menu, some indications that appeared within in-game menu screens were in Spanish, (which is currently the only other language available for this title.)
Unfortunately, the game seems to lean into many cliché horror tropes. The prominence of spooky kid’s drawings will have any member of the horror gaming community worth their salt rolling their eyes. Even the trusty spooky radio is rolled out and an unsettling VHS tape makes an appearance. Add to this the fact that the monster is just a traditional ghost resembling a white sheet and the whole things starts to feel pretty unoriginal. Thankfully, the demo does contain a neat fourth wall breaking moment that adds a bit of personality. I won’t spoil it here, but I appreciated it.
Time for tweaking.
I am hoping the developers bolster the game’s accessibility options prior to the game’s launch. The head bob is egregiously intense in Luto, with a full on side to side dipping motion occurring every time that the player character moves. If you are going to include this feature in your game, you must also include an option to disable it, the demo does not offer this option. Motion sickness is a very real issue for many gamers and the lack of a FOV setting in the demo only exacerbates the issue.
As the end of 2023 fizzles out and we inch toward Luto’s elusive 2024 release date, hopes remain high for this intriguingly harrowing title. This demo is well worth checking out whether you happen to be a fan of PT or not. There is potential here, it will just be curious to see whether or not Broken Bird Games can capitalize on that.
Luto was previewed on PS5 with a code supplied to FandomWire by Mark Allen PR.
