an amazing game! actually really scary, i didn't expect it. i loved the themes & stories told throughout this game, some of them hit really hard & i wasn't expecting it. the soundtrack was amazing & i'm totally going to listen to it again.

i got the good ending, & watched some of the others. i loved the story telling but the endings kind of fell a little flat. i'm also confused about the 'meta' part where i picked up an item (avoiding spoilers) & it gave me unity errors? i'm not sure if that was in the game on purpose but i watched a video after where it was in their game too. i wish some stuff was explained a little bit more but i'm very very happy with the game regardless!

Three to four years ago I first started this game. It was so unnerving to the point I couldn't stomach more than 20 minutes per session until eventually giving up.
This time, I had a less stressful time and was able to play through this game. I was already familiar with most of the first half and by then I got used enough to the game that the new things weren't that horrible.
And, in fact, I am really interested in replaying it. Not necessarily because of the multiple endings even, but I want to understand it better.
The ending also was kind of a letdown for me because I stopped the previous session at the last save and did not expect only ~5 minutes of play to be left. If I experienced that with the intensity of the last 20 minutes still lingering, it would have worked better.
Either way, this is an absolute nightmare of an atmospheric psychological horror game. And I mean that as a compliment.

"I GOTTA GET OUT OF HERE!" The game.

My brother urged me to play this game for the past several months and I finally got to it and I would like to slap him silly because I pissed my pants. From the ambience the low music creates to the build up whenever a disgusting horrifically designed tries to attack you is very unsettling. One point I was trying to jingle the lockpick off this door then the music starts to build up immensely and I'm starting to get anxious and then I open and turn around and see this ghost girl chasing me. I have always heard of the term "getting chills" from stuff but never have I actually experienced it until this instance. It was just like the scene from Shaun of the Dead when him and Ed are just sitting on the couch and watching the news then the zombie comes in and they throw their arms up and start to yell and freak out!

There is one enemy you have to deal with at a later point in the game which baffled and amazed me. Dunno how they could even make an enemy AI do what this creature did, but I was freaking out. Pretty cool in a terrifying kinda way.

Really picked some actually horrifying games this year for October that for sure.

I did run into a weird issue where if I launched the game through Steam the title screen would have sound, but once I started playing it would be mute. Then I just loaded it from the install instead and it worked fine, but I did not hear sound for the first 45 minutes of gameplay lol.

This game was magnificent for what it accomplished in me and being able to do what many other games fail at times. Highly recommend you check this one out.

I have issues with this game but ultimately its a cute short indie horror game that felt very inspired by silent hill and other retro horror. The premise is very unserious, and so I had a hard time engaging with the story. I also think there's flaws with the combat, as well as with the healing/ health system. This was the most noticeable in the last last area, as I couldn't tell how many hits I could take before getting a game over, and its so hard to not get hit in this game bc of how jank enemies and combat is. I couldn't tell if my health was regenerating either lol. Really not an issue until ng+ tho. I had issues with the weapons not feeling accurate/ effective/ different enough as well, but who cares lol. Like I said, flawed game but I'm glad I gave it a try. It was spooky and I loved the twisted environments, even if they got a bit repetitive.

Lost in Vivo is an ambitious psychological experience that is packed with compelling ideas but lacks the means, and maybe experience, to pull them off. The bright moments were bright but the overall experience feels like a vision lost in youthful game design.

It goes without mentioning that the combat is unsatisfying, in line with the genre but if you're going to give the player means to really confront the horror at least make them hopeless. I died once and it was by accident. In Silent Hill 2, a clear influence, James had a plank and a pistol that hardly worked. Here, I either jetted past or blew threw enemies. The harder boss fights were more tedious explorations for contrived solutions than meaty challenges.

The plot remains solid throughout while the intricacies are a bit unpolished. The theming as a whole is obviously a bit confused. The broad theme is "mental illness" but the overreaching nature of the subject lacks a real personal touch. It feels like the designer wanted to make a game about mental illness and just made one, with no real story to tell. The art design is solid overall and serves the themes well though it's hard to ignore the usual Unity Engine warts.

Overall, a solid yet unsatisfying debut that leaves anyone who plays enticed by Akuma Kira's potential. More experience will no doubt shape them into a promising indie designer.

Uno de los géneros en los videojuegos que me producen sensaciones más fascinantes e inexplicables es sin duda el terror psicológico. No es un terror cualquiera, más bien uno inspirado en el padre de este género en los videojuegos, Silent Hill. Pocos juegos han sido capaces de llegar a entender y transmitir esas sensaciones como lo hacía la saga de Konami en sus inicios, sin embargo, Lost in vivo es uno de esos. Su atmósfera es claustrofóbica y asfixiante. No olvida en ningún momento a su referente, pero sabe tomar su propio camino y hacer cosas bastante originales a la par de terroríficas.

Lost in vivo es un viaje por la psique de nuestro protagonista, pasando por diferentes lugares parcialmente inconexos, en los que una cosa persiste constantemente. Esa cosa es la sensación de estar siendo acechado por algo. Es una sensación que te asfixia de forma incesante y te tiene en un estado de vigilia permanente. Consigue lograr esa sensación basándose en cimiento que soporta al terror psicológico: Da más miedo lo que escapa a tus sentidos, que el peor monstruo que puedas diseñar. Nuestra imaginación es nuestro peor enemigo en estas situaciones y el juego la potencia con su diseño visual y sonoro. No vemos más allá de dos palmos delante de nuestras narices, de forma que los sonidos y la banda sonora nos mantienen en alerta constantemente. Además aprovecha su cámara en primera persona para reducir mucho nuestro campo de visión, haciendo que no sepamos qué hay detrás y creando una sensación claustrofóbica. Este es otro de los objetivos de este título, la claustrofobia. Pasamos por lugares estrechos constantemente, como tuberías, pasillos o túneles, y nuestro campo de visión nos hace sentir restringidos en todo momento.

Como bien he dicho antes, nuestra imaginación es nuestro mayor enemigo en este tipo de obras, sin embargo, cuando detrás de la oscuridad hay algo, no decepciona. El diseño de enemigos me parece sublime, tanto a nivel estético como funcional. Enemigos como the siren o los mimics dan bastante mal rollo por su aspecto además de cómo te buscan y persiguen. Incluso vuelve aplicar lo anterior comentado en el enfrentamiento contra sotiris. Manteniendo la distancia, sotiris no llegó a hacerme nada. Sin embargo, su mera presencia y posibilidad de hacerme algo me aterraba más que cualquier encuentro convencional.

Todo este viaje por la psique del protagonista tiene un significado. Narra muy bien sus acontecimientos no solo con notas, sino utilizando los escenarios y enemigos para que deduzcas lo que ocurre, inspirándose de nuevo en su padre espiritual silent hill. La primera historia me gustó mucho, tratándose sobre una chica con TCA y diferentes traumas psicológicos. Hace un enfoque bastante bueno a la situación y lo que te cuenta no te deja indiferente. Sin embargo, creo que las otras dos historias no están tan a la altura, además de sentirse inconexas con la trama. Es una lastima porque empezaba bastante bien su narrativa. Pasa algo similar con su final, se siente que ocurre muy de repente. Nada que ver con el “otro final”. No es la primera vez que veo un final falso en un título, pero la forma que tiene de romper la cuarta pared y crear tensión me dejó totalmente flipado.

Poco puedo añadir en su apartado artístico y banda sonora aparte de decir que son geniales. Me flipa la estética de la PS1 que tiene este juego, es tanto preciosa como funcional para crear tensión. Usa ese contraste de metal oxidado y carne, prestado de nuevo de silent hill. Siento que menciono demasiado a esta saga, pero es innegable su influencia, incluso en la propia banda sonora. Esta sabe crear tensión en los momentos necesarios así como aportar calma en lugares como las salas de guardado.

En definitiva, Lost in vivo me ha cautivado. Tengo especial predilección por este tipo de títulos, sobre todo cuando están así de bien hechos. Es una experiencia corta pero indispensable si amas el terror tanto como yo.

this game is silent hill 3 spooky moments compilation for 5 hours so it is good. do not read the rest of this review

ok fine i'll say some boring reviewer stuff

in a world of trite unity horror, lost in vivo serves a reminder of what a smart indie developer can pull off. the pacing tight enough to keep shit scary. there's a change of scenery, a minor mechanic, or a new monster around every few corners, like a 2010s horror greatest hits. it felt amazing to be scared by a game in a way that didn't feel manipulative or momentary, as the designer knows how to keep things tense without being upsetting.

edit: adding as an addendum the next day - much ink has schlorped over this games use of "liminal spaces" and "claustrophobia horror" and this is one spot where i'd say it too often tries to have its cake and eat it too. it pulls off both being atmospheric and jumpscarey but the fact that i easily can tell when an area will and will not have an enemy or item interferes with that tactile style. it is not silent hill 3 kino. soritris' section handles this problem by making the pickupables much more abstract, believably sequencing the rooms, and using a chaser enemy that requires you move slowly. unfortunately. it also takes place in an area that i'm not as fond of as the warmly orange tinted train station or the p.t. ass loop hallway. if you have no idea what anything i just said was, remember that this sequence of thoughts has been marinating in my rotten brain juices for many hours

A bit of a letdown for how high my hopes were. To it's credit, the atmosphere is great and it's cool how the story manages to stay underground. I was quite tense at some points, particularly due to the great sound and enemy design. Beyond that, there's very few points where it's actually advantageous to engage the enemies, with the guns feeling especially useless since the enemies just sort of run into you. The puzzles were bafflingly simple, and the gameplay variety left something to be desired. I can't explain why, but this game felt more like if Spooky's Jumpscare Mansion dropped the cartoony style (it's defining aspect) than the Silent Hill comparison I keep seeing being made. It really felt like this game only had 3 hours or so of content to offer (+ an hour for perfect acheivements), which is fine, but a game of this length for the price it was just shouldn't feel stale by the end. I also expected an attempt at a psychological story from the intro and early notes, but the narrative is, outside of microplots in specific areas, this game doesn't really say anything. Ultimately, Lost in Vivo is a fancy walking simulator that I might recommend if you are into horror and it's on sale, but I was not a huge fan.