Dont take this abandoned status to entirely mean that the game is bad. It isnt, far from it in fact, and those who perhaps have more stamina than I to see the game through to its completion could have a genuinely great time with it. Let me explain.

Lobotomy corp is the dream game of any SCP aficionado of the mid 2000's. Anyone who frequented that site and enjoyed its variable levels of clinical intrigue, horror, and occasionally simple humor, usually ask themselves what it would be like to really be the manager of such a corporation.

The game does this quite well, having a slick well thought out system of managing abnormalities (as they are called in-game). Each day, you choose an abnormality from 3 presented to you, which are randomly selected from a list. In the beginning, you will lack any and all knowledge on them, and have to shoot from the hip from a vague quotation from their story description. After obtaining your horror, you send your agents to perform work on it. The work produces energy, which is your end goal to end any given day of the game.

The game revolves around a system of 4 colors. Red, White, Black, and Pale. Each corresponding to each of the 4 agent's stats, each of the 4 damage types, and each of the 4 abnormality work types. Abnormalities deal one of the 4 damage types, have differing resistances to them, and have differing success rates with each of the work types.

The most interesting part though are the unique effects of the abnormalities, which delightfully vary wildly. Each categorized by its effective threat level. Zayin, Teth, He, Waw, and Aleph. Zayin are basically harmless and Aleph... Well, I'll just let you find out about Aleph's yourself.

Abnormalities want to break out, and usually their effects revolve around how they attempt to do so, whether theyre just a brick shit house and will rip your employees to shreds, or they slowly infect your employees and turn them into soldiers for its ever growing army if managed improperly. Information is the most important currency in the game, and its what you keep with you between each run.

The game is a rogue-lite, where in you do a run, get as far as you can, learn as much as you can, and then start over and try to play more efficiently. Its a fun loop, and it uses this to tell an intruiging and emotionally sympathetic tale of loss and forgiveness.

Youre told the story by completing certain objectives in addition to meeting your energy quota, as well as just continuing further into the game. Sadly, this is where my main problem arises. Lobotomy corp, while having a great premise, good characterization, and good story, drags itself too thin with what it has. I personally found after 126 hours of play time that I simply lacked the motivation to continue, Starting over and going through the motions of the earlier days, especially when I had gotten all the info on all the abnormalities the game had in store for me, became tedious. Its a loop of grinding up agent's stats and filling the energy quota as quickly as possible, so that in a few hours you can get back to where you were and hopefully eek out completing the next objective, which will more than likely require you to sacrifice agents and valuable equipment to succeeds, making you very incentivized to start over again to attempt the next objective. This is where I have to admit that this may simply be a lack of stamina for the kind of game lobotomy corp is, but I know that I would have enjoyed it far more if it had allowed me to skip those early days after a certain point.

I love the game, and think it has very solid mechanics, premise, and writing, especially for Project Moon's first game, but I feel like it stretches too little, too far.