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Lucius archived preview

Lucius
Lucius

Horror-themed adventure games have come and gone, but none quite like Lucius. Inspired by movies like The Omen and The Exorcist, Lucius is a third-person adventure game that puts you in the shoes of a six-year-old boy growing up in a wealthy household who just happens to be possessed by the devil. And unlike your typical horror-themed adventure game, instead of escaping from a creepy mansion with your life and limbs intact, this time you’re the one doing the killing. Lots of it.

At the Game Developer’s Conference, I met with Claas Wolter, PR Manager for publisher Lace Mamba Global, to get a sneak peek at this unusual game. Our demo began as Lucius, a seemingly normal six-year-old boy, wakes up in his bedroom to find a message from his “father” (a.k.a. Satan). The player’s mission, I soon learned, is to systematically eliminate Lucius’s family and other members of the household by whatever gruesome means necessary. To do so, you must orchestrate fatal “accidents” so that no one suspects you.

How did young Lucius end up in this mess? He has his grandfather to thank. Years earlier, the patriarch agreed to sell his first grandchild’s soul to the devil. Now Satan is making good on the bargain by driving Lucius to kill off members of his household one by one. Initially the boy doesn’t know why he’s compelled to do what he is, but as the game progresses, he (and the player) will gain a better understanding of the family history and what’s at stake.

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The premise is a bit easier to stomach when you consider that the victims aren’t exactly in line for sainthood themselves. For example, Lucius’s uncle is a porn photographer who’s having affairs with multiple members of the household staff. In fact, one of these liaisons—a kitchen maid—is Lucius’s first target. Killing her will involve finding a padlock, following her to a walk-in freezer, and… you can probably guess how she meets her maker. Once the deed is done, Lucius must hide the evidence so no one suspects him.

If this all sounds soulless, well, that’s because it is. In the gameplay slice I saw, Lucius didn’t appear to feel remorse for his actions; he’s entirely under the devil’s control. Wolter explained that as the game progresses, a moral struggle does develop to some degree, but as in a horror movie, much of Lucius’s wicked fun comes from witnessing the gory depths to which the possessed character will sink, to carry out his father’s commands.

Lucius takes place in a large Victorian-influenced mansion. Even in the early version I saw, the graphics were impressive. The 3D world has a very open feel, with secondary characters moving between rooms and a day/night cycle prompting dramatic lighting changes as time passes. The player can control the camera to look around the detailed environments and the house itself is huge, with numerous rooms to explore. (I counted at least a dozen during our brief demo, and Wolter said there are also hidden areas to discover.) A map will be available to streamline navigation. Keyboard controls were used in the demonstration, but gamepads may also be supported in the final game.

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The storyline spans about 20 days, with Satan giving Lucius daily instructions to kill a particular member of the household. (As you might expect, he and Lucius communicate via a Ouija board.) Though some activities will be optional, progress is mostly linear, with gameplay that primarily involves orchestrating fatal accidents and framing other characters for the crimes. Early puzzles have an emphasis on finding, using, and combining items correctly, while later tasks will also require the boy’s developing supernatural powers, such as telekinesis and mind control.

Above all, Lucius needs to be sneaky, because NPCs (including the police officers who show up to investigate the murders) can catch him in the act. This requires cunning on the player’s part, but Wolter stressed that gameplay relies less on stealthy timing than on setting up a situation properly. In many cases, you’ll need to make sure you’re well hidden before carrying out an action. For example, at once point Lucius must swipe a pack of cigarettes off a table. If you try to take them while Lucius is in plain sight, he’ll get caught. Instead, you must grab them while hiding behind a nearby chair. Lucius saves automatically at certain checkpoints, so if you do get caught, the game resumes from the last save.

Precocious young Lucius takes notes in his diary, which can provide hints if you get stuck, and other characters sometimes drop clues if you talk to them. In another user-friendly feature, the game will have a hotspot finder to identify areas where you can interact. In my demo, this took the form of yellow outlines that appeared around interactive items as Lucius approached them, but the presentation may be different in the final version.

This debut game from Helsinki-based Shiver Games will release on PC this summer. To learn more about Lucius, read on for Jack Allin’s interview with Shiver Games’ co-founder Johannes Aikio.

Adventure Gamers: So, torture any puppies lately? Okay, no, of course you haven’t, but you are making a game starring the son of Satan. Tell us about Lucius.

Johannes Aikio: No puppy blood was spilled this day...

Lucius is a quiet boy and the son of a wealthy English businessman (at least on paper). What the father does not know is that his first born's soul was already promised to someone by a member of his own family. Even the wealth of this family is tainted with evil. As we all know, Lucifer is diabolical and cunning. No deals with him come without interest, and the interest here is quite overwhelming for the family. One by one, all sinners in the house will be punished for their sins.

You, the player, will be in charge of the punishment. Lucifer will help you along the way with abilities and hints, but you will be delivering the pain. The wealth and status of the family’s name will help the son of Satan to his next journey..

AG: There will surely be people who protest this game as sacrilegious. What made you decide on such a controversial theme for your first game? And don’t say the devil made you do it.

Johannes: Probably it all comes down to artistic points of view. The ‘80s horror movies have this creepy feeling in them that aren’t really done anymore. Putting the player into the bad guy’s place was just something that sounded more interesting right off the bat.

AG: Adventure gamers are used to a certain degree of immorality – rampant kleptomania and general mayhem are genre staples – but this is a whole new level of evil even for us. How do you expect players to wrap their minds around doing harm instead of good?

Johannes: It will be interesting to see. But I think being the trickster is always something that has been fun, at least for me. And who knows.. Maybe by taking care of these particular people, you might do more good than evil. Maybe Lucius is there for a reason. Or then again, maybe they are just victims of Lucifer’s thirst for souls.

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AG: Will we be asked to cause tangible pain and destruction, or is the trouble we inflict more abstract? How will you avoid making players feel too uncomfortable to do what’s necessary?

Johannes: Well you can’t really do anything like shooting or hacking someone to pieces. But you might influence someone else to do that for you. You yourself will not have to get your hands too dirty.. Well, maybe a little dirty.

AG: While secretly the son of the devil, Lucius is a real little boy to all outward appearances, correct? What’s his role in the game from a purely human standpoint?

Johannes: He is the only child of the mansion and with him lives his mother, father, uncle and grandfather. The rest of the occupants are employees and visitors. Lucius himself does not talk much, but others do talk to him and interact with him. They ask him to do chores and most of the accidents involve interacting with others. People also have their own things to do in the mansion, like for instance the uncle runs an entertainment business that also might involve others. The behaviour of Lucius will get rewarded or punished depending on how he acts.

AG: The game takes place entirely in and around one particular house. What’s the significance of this place? Built on a transplanted cemetery, the site of unspeakable past horrors, some other supernatural taboo?

Johannes: Well, lets just say.. there is something particular in this house. The house was built by the boy's grandfather after getting suddenly wealthy from an invention. The building has some secret stuff in it that you will have to find out.

AG: What can you tell us about the people we’re attempting to drive off? Do they deserve suffering, even damnation? Or do we just – for lack of a better word – need to take it on faith that their punishment is warranted?

Johannes: Most of them have sinned just enough for Lucifer to be able to grab them. But the main reason for getting rid of them is that they are in the way of Lucius in his journey.

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AG: God and the devil, heaven and hell, the eternal soul… that’s some pretty heavy stuff. Will the game explore any serious philosophical themes, raise ethical dilemmas?

Johannes: Well, I guess it's best not to take this too seriously. All and all it's just a game and intended for entertainment. In this case, the main idea of the game will probably raise enough questions about ethical behavior.

AG: How would you describe Lucius? Is it a horror intended to frighten and disturb people, a dark character study, more an investigative journey to understand the history of the house? All or none of the above?

Johannes: I would say it’s more of an investigative journey with some aspects that may disturb people. You try to find ways to kill people and learn about the story and the mansion along the way.

AG: Its premise is certainly unusual, but what about the gameplay? What sorts of obstacles can we expect, and how does Lucius impact others and the world around him with his unique abilities?

Johannes: Well, for instance, mind control works like a basic point-and-click type of thing. You click a person and check if there’s something you can click again around him. After that, you will watch him perform the task you suggested. The person you have influenced does not remember anything about the situation after it’s over.

Telekinesis, on the other hand, gives you the freedom of picking up most of the objects in the world with your mind by pressing a button. While you have the object in mid-air, you can move it with your mouse. This is something that people will notice and react to. If someone sees you lifting stuff with your mind, they will panic and you have certain amount of time to use another ability, the memory erase. By clicking the person that spotted you with this skill, you can make him forget everything he saw. In your HUD, there is an icon that will show you if someone sees you at that moment. That will help you decide where to use your abilities.

Also, picking up some items will get a reaction from people. For instance, if someone sees you carrying cigarettes, you will be punished.

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AG: Any angelic opposition, or do we pretty much have free rein to be wicked, so long as we don’t reveal our true identity?

Johannes: The first deaths will be investigated by the police and they will stay in the mansion, making your next victims harder to kill. As the game progresses, people will find out eventually what you are and will try to stop you by religious means.

AG: Does the game have a linear story progression, or more of a freeform approach that lets you accomplish your goals in different orders, maybe even multiple ways?

Johannes: Well, the game will let you roam freely in the mansion from the very beginning. There will be an order of some sort based on things that you can do in the beginning, but by the end you will be able to do some things in your own order.

AG: Tell us a little about Shiver Games.

Johannes: We are a very small company formed early 2010 in Helsinki, Finland. Before Shiver Games, myself and Heikki Pulkkinen worked together on a console title under another company. Lucius was sort of an hobby of ours that started to form an actual game eventually. When the recession hit, we both found ourselves without jobs and decided to continue our free-time project full-time. Not long after that we formed Shiver Games and started to gather a small team around it.

AG: I’m going to go out on a limb and say you’re probably fans of The Omen. What other inspirations contributed to your vision for Lucius? Presumably none of you have any first-hand experience being the devil’s spawn (and least, not that you’d admit).

Johannes: There was a ton of stuff that we looked into when creating the atmostphere and feeling of Lucius. The Shining also had a very creepy hotel and a boy around the same age in it. It's also based on the same era, so naturally we used it as a reference. It’s even possible to drive around with a similar tricycle in Lucius. Other major movie influences for the graphical outlook and feeling of the game have probably been The Exorcist and The Amityville Horror. Also the Final Destination series gave us a lot of ideas about the freak accidents that could occur in the mansion.

AG: Why an adventure game for your first project? Are you fans of the genre?

Johannes: I’m not really sure what the definition of an adventure game is, or whether Lucius qualifies for that category 100%. When designing the game, we weren't really thinking of what genre it was. That being said, we have been known to play an adventure or two for one or twelve hours straight. But really we just wanted to make something that we hadn't made before, and if it was an adventure, that was fine for us.

AG: Any chance we’ll see more of Lucius in future? Not in a direct sequel necessarily, but there should be no shortage of places for the devil to find work elsewhere.

Johannes: The story is designed for the possibility of a direct sequel, but we haven't really decided anything yet. Just have to see how people will respond to it.

AG: Thanks very much for all the insight about your game. We’re looking forward to seeing more of it. Now if you’ll excuse us, we’re off to confession.

Johannes: My pleasure. We will try our best to keep you guys updated! Good luck with the confession!

 

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