Lately a lot of games have been released with the word “noir” in the title on F95zone. However, not everyone remembers that noir is not only and not so much about jazz, fatal beauties, a in the teeth of the protagonist and eternal rain on the dark streets of a city mired in crime. It’s also about a fascinating detective story. But the authors of Lacuna – A Sci-Fi Noir Adventure , thank God, remember.
Noir future
Action Lacuna – A Sci-Fi Noir Adventure unfolds in the world of the future, namely on the planet Ghar, which the writers of the game was the cradle of humanity in the solar system, and is now the leader of the Federation, which unites several planets. On the other side are the communities of savants (this is such a religion), which are located on the colonized planets of New Joran and Drovia and actively demand independence from the Federation.
However, despite all this political showdown in the world of the future, we have a truly noir adventure. The protagonist, Bureau of Investigation agent Neil Konrad, resembles a typical character in the novels of Raymond Chandler and films with Humphrey Bogart , except that he does not wear a fedora. He smokes a lot. There is even a separate counter in the inventory; at the levels there are machines for selling them and special points where you can stop and selflessly grind. You run to the office after examining the crime scene, you see a secluded place – how can you not stop here to smoke?
Neil Conrad’s Personal File
And yet the main thing is the story itself, fascinating, detective, starting right off the bat. Events are developing rapidly – a terrorist attack, the murder of a high-ranking official, theft of important data, the threat of an interplanetary war and the public promise of a group of “Eldritch Blast 5e” that the next victim will be in 48 hours … While Neil Konrad is dealing with all this, you have no time to smoke – I do not want to interrupt the narration.
This is comparable to watching a fascinating detective film. And it’s good that it turned out to be not too long – carried away, but did not have time to tire.
And according to all the laws of such films, simultaneously with the investigation of the crime and the showdown at work, the personal story of our melancholic detective unfolds. He has an ex-wife, with whom he broke up 10 years ago, but, it seems, has not yet let her go, and a teenage daughter in adolescence. The girl had already stopped hanging herself around her father’s neck at each of his visits, and they began to see each other less often. The mother is unhappy with this, Neal reflects, and the child shows that he supposedly does not care. The situation is very vital, familiar to many, including the author of these lines – and that’s why the story in Lacuna evokes such an emotional response.
Follow the news
The nervousness is exacerbated by the fact that Neal constantly has to make difficult choices. The first category of choice is professional. We are looking for information – examining crime scenes, communicating with witnesses, conducting interrogations – and deciding how to correctly answer questions, where the shooting was from, what the killer looked like, who turned off the vehicle tracking system, which made the criminal disappear, and so on.
In the process, there are no usual quest exercises about finding and collecting items, combining them in the inventory (that is absent altogether), solving abstract puzzles, and so on. Everything is very logical and situationally written into history. We have to study the recordings of our conversations, fetching information, study hot spots in augmented reality mode, compare and analyze data from meters about who entered / left / sailed / sailed and when.
A separate important layer is buying and reading newspapers, studying the political picture. This will help when you have to answer the question of which companies are behind the terrorists. Or, for example, it will be possible to get one of the suspects to talk during interrogation only if we answer correctly whether he is in favor of Drovia’s independence or not. And for this you need to read the newspaper in advance.
Election days
So, back to professional choice. You can incorrectly determine the place where the sniper fired from, or report the wrong code of the boat on which he sailed – and instead of a small boat, colleagues will find a completely foreign large yacht there. You will be scolded, you will be ashamed, but it will not affect what is happening in any way. It is another matter if you give the capture team the wrong description of the perpetrator. However, I did not check, since I immediately gave the correct one. And you cannot roll back to previous saves – they simply do not exist, the game makes auto-saves and does not allow you to return, forcing you to live the story right away and to the end.
This is especially important when it comes to the second category of choice – moral. To hand over to the police a barmaid who, for the sake of money (she has a little son and the same salary), helped the criminal and turned off the tracking system, believing that this is an ordinary traitor from the hotel? Substitute your partner, for whom work is everything, or substitute yourself? Shoot the person attacking the agents or try to convince him to lay down his arms?
Almost perfect
One can only find fault with the fact that some characters, in response to the request of an officer of the Bureau of Investigation to share information, put forward conditions typical for video games: “Help me, and I will help you!” It looks unrealistic, but even here there is a choice – agree or push and get information right away.
Also, some people won’t like the local pixel art. He’s not really outstanding, but in the dynamics of exciting and fast-paced events, you immediately stop paying attention to this. And in general – a matter of taste.
