Lacuna – A Sci-Fi Noir Adventure

The story is fine, but the gameplay is lacking. The hook is that it's a point-and-click adventure where your deductions move the story forward. You actually have to review evidence to draw conclusions. The idea is great, but in practice the interface doesn't facilitate this at all (no searching your conversations, notes, clues, news, etc). Sifting through evidence when you don't have the time to play the entire game in one go is therefore frustrating. Doubly so when two answers might both be correct, but the game tells you that you got it wrong.

Solid world building. Great gameplay idea. Poor execution.

Recently I've been hitting the point and click adventure games, and somehow they all seem to be culturally relevant but also stacked with moral dilemmas.

Lacuna is a futuristic detective story set on a planet settled by humans. Three planets exist in close proximity - one the oppressor, the second the oppressed and a third ally of both. Conrad is an agent working for the CDI (FBI equivalent) and his task is to uncover the party behind the assassination of a high-up Drovian politician (who was lobbying for more rights for his people / against oppression). In the middle of his investigation, his daughter, Laura, is kidnapped and Conrad must choose between working with his agency or supporting the investigation of the rebel group to uncover a mystery buried forty years prior.

This game surprised me. It was voiced in noir-style, grim, hard-boiled detective monologues and had such a rich and colourful environment. Characters have a small portrait in cutscenes but otherwise are tiny little low-detailed sprites. So much is communicated in this simple and charming style. There is so much to see in the game--places to smoke, people to talk to, side missions and binary achievements.

The story unravelled at such a great pace and I was torn between the different outcomes we could advocate for. If you're looking for a speculative fiction mystery, this is one to go for.

enjoyed the storytelling and the atmosphere both visual and auditive with the great soundtrack and the narrators voice. Awesome experience eventhough it feels on rails with the illusion of a real gameplay and choices

A short detective story, nothing too deep but nice chill gameplay loop. Love me some cigs too

I enjoyed the storytelling, the atmosphere both visual and auditive. Great soundtrack although at times it can feel a bit disconnected to what's going on. I would also have appreciated a few more chances to appreciate the visual aspect of large scenarios and a bit more detail in those. However I understand that that would have made the game a lot more expensive and maybe difficult to reconcile with the retro point and click aesthetic. It's a bit hard to keep track of everything but I believe the device to do so does a good job. It made it so that choices matter although it is a bit frustrating as a modern gamer to not have a manual save option. Still, made it more relevant to make choices when I had to in terms of what I expected to happen. It's a nice detective story, larger than life and maybe that also felt a bit out of place, but made it meaningful at the same time. I enjoyed the voice over which certainly gave it a noir touch, would've enjoyed a few more probably. I'd recommend it to those that enjoy story-telling, point and click, and puzzle solving that is not incredibly direct and to the point or exclusively visual.

Nice one. No implausible puzzles, rather you have actually have to pay attention to do your detective work.

Very compelling and stylish game with a fun mystery solving mechanic that strikes a nice balance between guiding you to the answer and making you figure it out on your own. Easy recommend!

I really liked this sci-fi adventure game. The detective elements feel free enough that the game trusts you to work things out and risk making mistakes. I would have liked a chapter select as I miss-clicked something on the final sheet which caused me to get a bad ending, so being able to reload and correct the miss-click rather than being condemned to replay the entire thing would have been a plus.

WOW

Lacuna was recommended to me because of my love of detective and cyberpunk games. Lacuna is a fun detective story where choices certainly do matter. There are 8 possible endings. No run is going to be the same as far as your choices. The game itself is relatively linear and short. It's engaging and the voice acting is well done. The writing was good and sensible and the game is not demanding of your hardware at all. It's not Doom on a calculator, but you can run this on just about any set up. I give Lacuna a 3.75/5 for it's great story and being easy to pick up and go. It left me with a desire to come back and finish out the other endings.

Plays perfectly on SteamDeck.

A Bladerunner-esque Sci-Fi Thriller featuring homeworld/colony politics, an assassination, etc. I enjoyed the characters, the game moves at a good clip, and there's just enough investigation and deduction to make this feel like it has depth beyond being just a visual novel.

An expertly executed pixelart style with surprisingly good music and sound design.

Lacuna is built around the idea of 'narrative permanence,' so even if you screw something up or get a deduction totally wrong, it keeps going, with all the consequences (it autosaves at specific intervals, and there is no way to go back). I felt this was pretty well done - it never seemed I was blindsided and had to make a choice where I had no idea.

A solid recommendation to anyone at full price

This might be weird, but the first thing I loved were the controls. You don't really need to use a mouse at any point in the game; It's easily done with just the keyboard.

The mystery aspects were very natural and not contrived or silly. I never felt like anything was hamfisted in. It's all just very natural detective work of putting together the information. I never felt like things didn't make sense which is often the case in mystery games.

The story itself has philosophy, a spectrum of morality in the choices, hard decisions, and interplanetary politics. If faction power struggles while regular people get caught in the crossfire is your kind of thing, this is for you.

I'd say this story was worth it even without the branching paths. I have no idea what the consequences were, but I'm satisfied with my run. It seems like there are 8 different endings and based on the achievement list alone it has quite some variation. It also seemed like you can definitely miss major pieces of info if you bork things, but I'm not sure. I consider that a positive. I may retry the game in the future and be as evil as possible or something, so I'll try not to spoil the other paths.

The game also does not allow save scumming at all. I think this is a good thing, and it adds some gravity to it.

Give it a shot; You should definitely know if you like it within the 2 hour window I would say.

Fun detective game and a nice pixelated, futuristic setting

I liked the investigation and going through the evidence, and the impact of different decisions made throughout the game. I also really liked the music and narration.

I really enjoy playing this game, the music and the whole aesthetic was awesome. Great work, hope for a second part.

How refreshing: Lacuna is a somewhat unique investigative adventure because it actually allows players to fail without resulting in a death- or game over-screen. You play as an investigator trying to crack a case by looking for clues and interviewing suspects and then putting it all together. While it never gets too opaque, you will need to stretch those deduction muscles a bit. You can (and will) f*** up if you don't pay attention. But the game is robust enough to allow for blaming the innocent and lets you carry on, you muppet.

Another thing I thoroughly enjoyed: Lacuna is a decent political sci-fi thriller with a twist you will probably see a mile coming - but only because it's actually believable. Unlike so many other modern adventures I played whose narratives often completely fall apart at the end. The world-building and characterization is pretty good. Lacuna tackles themes of colonialism, capitalism, class struggle and marginalization that could hardly feel any more topical in this day and age.

Note: Steam says I have 84 hours on this, but I played through in about 7 hours.

Pros:
-Atmospheric. I like the film noir style.
-Good backstory and animation.
-Voice acting is good.
-Choices matter.
-So does attention to detail.

Cons:
-Limited replay-ability, despite having multiple endings.
-The problems are not difficult for an adult to solve. This may be more difficult for an early teenager. I found that it didn't take me any time to solve the problem. I barely had to reread notes.
-I knew what the ending was likely to be within 10 minutes.
-I wish there was a map for each area. I was kind of annoyed while navigating unfamiliar areas, especially when entrances are not clearly marked or are obscured from view.

Overall, I would recommend this game to those who like atmosphere more than puzzles. If you're after a good puzzle and do not care for atmosphere at all, look elsewhere. That being said, I was looking for a puzzle but ended up playing through the entirety of this game (and I don't normally finish games).

This is a cool game with a good concept. Not its fault I couldn't get into it.

I liked the idea of a game where you have to pay attention to clues and making mistakes has consequences to the story.
Except that it's essentially impossible to make a mistake. The puzzles are trivial and the game highlights every relevant clue in yellow.

I don't think you'd even have to read the text to solve the puzzles, just see that your options are "the suspect is bald/blonde/ginger" and skim the text to find one of those words in yellow.

Thrilling detective narrative game that blends sci-fi dystopia with traditional hardboiled detective stories. Free movement around maps and the importance of the choices you pick takes this game to a much higher level than a traditional point-and-click. I also liked the lack of a manual saving option, preventing savescumming, which would ruin the tension/thrill of your choices having permanent consequences. Worldbuilding, exposition, clues, and other information are neatly compartmentalized in the game's cell phone menu, so solving mysteries that required certain information was always fairly simple to do because the info was well organized.

REALLY disappointed that the biggest narrative thread of the game doesn't actually get its conclusion shown in the ending, and is only briefly touched on via closing narration by the MC. I would love a sequel to this game that continues the plotline.

I really enjoyed this game. There was a lot of tedious running around, but the plot, dialogue, and puzzles were good. Pay attention to everything and it really helps.

Great point and click detective game with pixel graphics and a surprisingly good story.
Has a horrible autosave-only save system. Luckily it's not that hard to figure out where the save file location is.

Very nice atmosphere, really enjoyable, fairly short. The story is pretty simple but I felt invested and the writing is good, the puzzles aren't super hard but I felt rewarded for paying attention and reading all the clues.

Overall I really enjoyed it. I would have liked more cool smoking locations, a couple felt really special early on but they kind of trailed off. This was super chill. I felt some really hard choices on what to do.

I'd give this game a 5/10. The story was interesting enough, but not so interesting that I could be bothered to replay for the other 7 endings. Whilst I rate a good story over slick graphics, I found the pixel art a little blocky - it was sometimes difficult to work out who/what I was interacting with. Also I wasn't keen on the controls, this game would probably work better as a point and click rather than using WASD to move around in a 2-d environment.

Basically a glorified train-taking-simulator. Not a walking-simulator, but a train-taking simulator. The protagonist does not own or use a car, but fortunately, every point of interest in this "adventure" is within convenient walking distance of a train station.
But what baffles me most is how well they programmed the train: it alwyas arrives exactly when your protagonist needs it to. It is at the exact moment you walk down the stairs to a station that you hear the train's sound whooshing in. You walk to the perfectly aligned doors, enter and immediately leave. There are few other people, and none of them stink, delay the train or make any fuss. This must be what a perfect public transportation system is like.
When this realisation hit me, I stopped to meditate about it. Why am I focussed so much on the transportation system? After all, there is kind of game hidden between the transportation bits: the story is good, the writing is amateurish but does a good job of keeping you in the loop, and occasionally there are even hints of gameplay (too few to remember, though). And then it hit me (again, and it started to hurt): I am German, and public transportation in Germany suuucks. Rarely punctual, too expensive, and there are enough people using it that I cannot describe them properly with Steam's strict curse word filter. Interestingly, the game's developers are German, too.
Which led me to my next point of thinking, in this trainwreck of thought: I now believe that this game is only a metaphor for a wishful utopian setting that the developers wish to live in! It's a world where you don't have to worry about public transportation! It just works: You go to the station, you enter, you leave at the desired place, and everyone is happy. There are no issues whatsoever.
Well, WAKE UP! This will never happen in Germany. Infrastructure has been neglected too long, and the damage is too great to allow for realistic damage control within our lifetimes. This is why people are fed up with governments: money is not put where it is needed, but where it is funneled to most effectively. Corporations and oligarchs don't care about public transportation, they have cars and drivers so they can play computer games and not lose time when being stuck in traffic. Poor people dependent on trains are getting screwed over, and since poor equals stupid, they vote for even worse governments who do not dare to invest anything into public transportation. It is a vicious cycle, and it will never end.

disco elysium did it better tbh

Amazing story. Super engaging.

nice game

Fun, engaging little game! The plot/mystery was interesting and was pretty satisfactory to solve. Would love to see a sequel in the same universe someday :)

Political conspiracy, interstellar colonization and resources exploitation... are all inextricably intertwined with Lacuna's sophisticated deduction mechanics, radiating a mesmerizing futuristic vibe.

The neon holograms, the rain-soaked streets, the constant buzz of advertisements and roaring vehicles merge to create a kaleidoscope of the pixelated city, with light jazz music floating around. I was just taking in the view, savoring the story and letting the atmosphere washing over me...

Worth that entire afternoon！

It's just dull. I played for hours before I realized that it never approaches fun; it completely leans on a generic story with no real characters, and a sort of noir moodiness that is only alluded to, never evoked.

Im never really interested in story games with limited active gameplay but this games unique art style caught my eye. This and the studios other game, between horizons, are two of the best games I have ever played. i struggle to connect with characters in other games but i felt everything niel conrad did throughout this game. what an experience.

worth the money and time spent

This game kinda left a bad taste in my mouth, tbh.

First of all. the story feels like it's on rails for a good 90% of it -- that is, it doesn't *feel* like any of your choices matter, and according to the list of endings, only the last two choices affect the ending in a significant way.

I also found the story really uninspired, and the "where is this all headed" was pretty obvious from act 1.

Oh, and so good to see developers still forcing WASD on us in current year.

7.5/10
FULL AUDIO CAN MAKE IT BETTER.

A very smooth and enjoyable point and click detective game, top of the line.

Brilliant! Great writing and storytelling, complex enough but not complicated or confusing. Satisfying difficulty
plus multiple story arcs and different endings. All this wrapped up with nostalgic pixel art and a beautiful soundtrack, makes this game as thought-provoking as a very good book and as entertaining as a masterfully made movie. Hat off to the creators.

This is such a well-made game. Lacuna has great art and soundtrack, runs smoothly, uses intuitive mechanics/controls, and keeps you engaged throughout. The game manages to add something new despite entering the very densely populated market of noir detective media, truly offering difficult choices and meaningful conflicts. The lore dump is a tad bit much at the beginning, but the game does a great job of easing you into the nuances later as the plot progresses.

Beautiful art and wonderful setting. I'm a sucker for pixelated point and click games (if you can call this one) and science fiction, so this game was right up my alley. I loved the story, the dialogue, and all of the little details (the news, the extra lore on the state of the solar system, etc). I will absolutely be playing it again soon to complete some missed missions and play around with different choices.

Got it randomly for free with a different game I bought. Really enjoyed it!

é legal! recomendo pois me engajou a ponto de escrever no papel pra entender a história e os detalhes da investigação, mas no final achei o mistério meio fraco?? Acho que esperei um cadinho demais da história, por conta da quantidade de horas jogadas sendo que não tem feature de saves reload e tem até "fetch-quest" demais, penso eu... mas é gostosin! queria ter zerado com 5 horas e nao com quase 7 tho..

very good detective game.

A really awesome narrative mystery!
It takes the base of a point-and-click, changes the ingredients, adds some new flavor, and mix it all together to make a gorgeous game! I do think what shines the most is the narrative and the choices your character makes in the game. The choices make the game even more immersive because it makes you pay attention to everything going on around you. I wouldn't come in looking for a more difficult mystery game since most of the questions you try to answer are a bit straightforward and doesn't need that much deduction or lateral thinking, but it's definitely a start of a really interesting gameplay concept. I also really enjoy the world-building that is accompanied with great pixel art and moody music. All of the ingredients work well together and created a wonderful dish that I greatly enjoyed.
Can't wait to try more games by this developer.

I loved nearly every second of this game and want to erase my memory only to experience it from scratch!!
While playing the prologue i was scared the game would be hard to figure out (like dang where is the safe zone??? I had to memorize it??) but luckily it isnt that way.
I had sooooo much fun with solving the mystery and its very well done. Only way to short!! I especially loved the voice acting and Neils character building. We dont get much info on his past, but his behaviour, thoughts and fears are so believable/aligned. Its so easy to relate and understand him, what made me very invested and immersed. Paired with the music the whole experience gave me goosebumps and made me crave more. So now i will buy the soundtrack, replay again and again, hoping DigiTales will create another beautiful gem like this!

really like the atmosphere, it was nice that there was a successful ending too! music was nice. would be amazing to have a fully voice acted version, but I feel like this was a nice balance with the narrative voice over

Chain-smoking Investigator solves political murder plot in noir pixel adventure

A solid story-driven detective game: Cool noir vibe, light cyberpunk setting, pretty pixel art, atmospheric jazz/synth music, good voice acting, engaging detective gameplay. I only wish it had chapter select to speed up getting the 8 different endings.

Loving it, feels really well thought out and like a lot of passion went into it. I feel like the choices I'm making in the dialogue are my own and matter a good amount.

I love the investigation mechanics, for anyone who likes games where you have to find clues and investigate crimes with a really comprehensive and original in-game system, this'll be a nice game for ya!

I'm horrible with puzzles, I'm more of a choices matter kind of guy, but the way this game is able to - even if you're wrong about a certain investigation - use your incorrect answers and blend it into the story anyways instead of just saying "you're bad, try again" is refreshing.

I'm excited to play the rest, I'm still pretty early in the game, obviously.

Good detective game about politics, solid story

The story is incredible and I feel challenged at times with the puzzles. A++

Great point and click style detective adventure. Really logical puzzles and interesting narrative choices to make as well.
Really hard to talk about without spoiling - just buy it!