Lazaret is an atmospheric first-person horror game. You play as a member of a rescue team called out to investigate a distress signal coming from a ship that disappeared 4 years ago.
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This review contains spoilers
This game was slightly above average. It wasn't anything special but I still enjoyed it.
Just a few jumpscares but the atmosphere was creaky and tense.
it wasn't so difficult that you felt you were aimlessly wandering around or backtracking too much. The whistle mechanic was unique but a bit boring.
My main issue is that there weren't ever really any stakes. The infected statues don't necessarily kill you, just give you a very temporary knockback but then they let you continue. And the big baddy only shows up a handful of times. The game gives you so many lockers around the map to hide in, but I only used them once and that was in the tutorial
The end was also a little lacklustre. You didn't defeat them, you just escaped.
Just a few jumpscares but the atmosphere was creaky and tense.
it wasn't so difficult that you felt you were aimlessly wandering around or backtracking too much. The whistle mechanic was unique but a bit boring.
My main issue is that there weren't ever really any stakes. The infected statues don't necessarily kill you, just give you a very temporary knockback but then they let you continue. And the big baddy only shows up a handful of times. The game gives you so many lockers around the map to hide in, but I only used them once and that was in the tutorial
The end was also a little lacklustre. You didn't defeat them, you just escaped.
This game presents some interesting ideas in a unique setting, but it ultimately goes nowhere. Much of this is inspired by Resident Evil 7, and it fails to leave much of an impression of its own.
It was a bit of a gamble to get this as I didn’t fully enjoy the demo. I was still following the game’s reception. Someone shared a gameplay video of the full game on Steam and I noticed some changes compared to the demo. You could keep the notes with you, there was a simple inventory menu, UI got improved, text got added when encountering puzzles and some polish got added to the graphics. This made me get the game after all and I’m glad for it.
So what is Lazaret? It kind of starts like a walking sim horror game. You mostly walk through areas, pick key items without much effort and the puzzles were very light. Then it slowly involves more thinking where it becomes a bit of a maze trying to remember how to get back to a room to use an item you just picked up along with jump-scares getting gradually increased. And lastly, it turns into classic Resident Evil with more puzzles the further you get, especially the last section. It’s clear that Resident Evil was an inspiration and I even noticed the Silent Hill reference. However, there is no fighting even though there are still enemies that get in the way. Most of them don’t kill you. When they touch you, they scare the living sh*t out of you and move along. This turned into a game for me. Like, are they going to do something or not? When you expect them to not strike, they do it anyway and I get so scared! There is one (probably more) section where you do die when getting hit, you’re supposed to run away until that part is over but there is auto save before this section even when I didn’t save manually with a casette player. There are also some chase sections from a big baddie (think of Nemesis from Resident Evil 3) where you’re supposed to hide in lockers until the threat is over.
I normally hate these chases or having enemies that kill you with trial and error. Luckily, they’re not bad at all here. I’m really glad that you don’t repeat sections because of enemies and the Nemesis dude is slow. He is easy to get away from. They’re there for the atmosphere and jump-scares and that’s the way I like it. Other positives are the game’s graphics, lighting and sound effects. The game is very atmospheric and many objects are detailed. I was especially impressed with the last section. The sound effects are very on point and incredibly well done. The gameplay is very enjoyable and relaxing. I loved the pacing with the notes and I loved that more emphasis was put on the puzzles later without them being taxing. The controls are perfectly fine and simple. I need to give a special mention to the bugs and load times. I didn’t encounter a single bug and the moment you start the game on Steam, you get the main menu straight away. The load times are generally instant. As for the achievements, they’re good. Almost all are progress related and 2 are for the collectibles. Nothing silly or game ruining.
No game is perfect and sacrifices had to be made. That is clear to see here. I do think they made the right decisions for the most part. You can see the cut in budget with one human NPC model used a lot for every human NPC and the lack of music. The sound effects do carry the game in the sound department enough though and it could be an artistic decision. One negative that I do hope will get fixed or avoided for a future game is not being able to get back to previous areas for the collectibles. The 2 collectibles are 41 documents and 7 obols (coins). I got all the documents the first time but missed the first and last obol. There is at least one point where you can’t go back to a previous area. Making this possible or having chapter select with your collectibles saved would have been great. Right now you either play the game from the beginning, have different save files or use a guide right away to avoid wasting time. But the last one defeats the purpose for these kind of games and different saves can only help you so much. The story might also be a bit hastily concluded or incomplete near the end. Some things were explained properly but I didn’t feel like I got all the answers unless I need to go back and read some notes again.
What we have here is a game that turned out better than I expected. If you enjoy slower pace, old school Resident Evil puzzles, reading notes and appreciate the atmosphere in games, then I recommend Lazaret. It took me over 5 hours to complete but that’s with extensive searching for the collectibles. I’m going back to get all the obols for the achievement (with a guide this time lol). What you get is fine for €11. In my case it costed €10 with the launch discount. I’m happy with what I got and very impressed with certain things. This will ensure that I will follow future projects by this developer and look into the previous game they released. That looks appealing too.
So what is Lazaret? It kind of starts like a walking sim horror game. You mostly walk through areas, pick key items without much effort and the puzzles were very light. Then it slowly involves more thinking where it becomes a bit of a maze trying to remember how to get back to a room to use an item you just picked up along with jump-scares getting gradually increased. And lastly, it turns into classic Resident Evil with more puzzles the further you get, especially the last section. It’s clear that Resident Evil was an inspiration and I even noticed the Silent Hill reference. However, there is no fighting even though there are still enemies that get in the way. Most of them don’t kill you. When they touch you, they scare the living sh*t out of you and move along. This turned into a game for me. Like, are they going to do something or not? When you expect them to not strike, they do it anyway and I get so scared! There is one (probably more) section where you do die when getting hit, you’re supposed to run away until that part is over but there is auto save before this section even when I didn’t save manually with a casette player. There are also some chase sections from a big baddie (think of Nemesis from Resident Evil 3) where you’re supposed to hide in lockers until the threat is over.
I normally hate these chases or having enemies that kill you with trial and error. Luckily, they’re not bad at all here. I’m really glad that you don’t repeat sections because of enemies and the Nemesis dude is slow. He is easy to get away from. They’re there for the atmosphere and jump-scares and that’s the way I like it. Other positives are the game’s graphics, lighting and sound effects. The game is very atmospheric and many objects are detailed. I was especially impressed with the last section. The sound effects are very on point and incredibly well done. The gameplay is very enjoyable and relaxing. I loved the pacing with the notes and I loved that more emphasis was put on the puzzles later without them being taxing. The controls are perfectly fine and simple. I need to give a special mention to the bugs and load times. I didn’t encounter a single bug and the moment you start the game on Steam, you get the main menu straight away. The load times are generally instant. As for the achievements, they’re good. Almost all are progress related and 2 are for the collectibles. Nothing silly or game ruining.
No game is perfect and sacrifices had to be made. That is clear to see here. I do think they made the right decisions for the most part. You can see the cut in budget with one human NPC model used a lot for every human NPC and the lack of music. The sound effects do carry the game in the sound department enough though and it could be an artistic decision. One negative that I do hope will get fixed or avoided for a future game is not being able to get back to previous areas for the collectibles. The 2 collectibles are 41 documents and 7 obols (coins). I got all the documents the first time but missed the first and last obol. There is at least one point where you can’t go back to a previous area. Making this possible or having chapter select with your collectibles saved would have been great. Right now you either play the game from the beginning, have different save files or use a guide right away to avoid wasting time. But the last one defeats the purpose for these kind of games and different saves can only help you so much. The story might also be a bit hastily concluded or incomplete near the end. Some things were explained properly but I didn’t feel like I got all the answers unless I need to go back and read some notes again.
What we have here is a game that turned out better than I expected. If you enjoy slower pace, old school Resident Evil puzzles, reading notes and appreciate the atmosphere in games, then I recommend Lazaret. It took me over 5 hours to complete but that’s with extensive searching for the collectibles. I’m going back to get all the obols for the achievement (with a guide this time lol). What you get is fine for €11. In my case it costed €10 with the launch discount. I’m happy with what I got and very impressed with certain things. This will ensure that I will follow future projects by this developer and look into the previous game they released. That looks appealing too.
Surprisingly well-done Indie Horror that didn't depend on constant jumpscares to keep the scares going. It was easily beat in one session, the gameplay can start to feel repetitive at times but not long enough to get annoying. It's worth the price if your looking for a short scare for a night.
Check out my entire review here: https://youtu.be/iZ_F4qaMBVw
Check out my entire review here: https://youtu.be/iZ_F4qaMBVw