Lucardo: The Orphanage

Someday I’ll play a game set in an orphanage that’s about toys and laughter and children playing happily, but not this one: Lucardo’s latest is of course a horror game, set in a derelict orphanage with a dark past.

The design gets a lot out of a relatively modest sized space. The beginning in particular would feel cramped for any team larger than three, though it soon opens up somewhat. Some quality set design helps suspension of disbelief, and the game felt increasingly immersive as it went on.

Lucardo are not afraid to fill their games with padlocks, and there are plenty here. Each section uses a mostly non-linear structure where you have a set of locks and can tackle the puzzles that let you open those locks in any order. That’s a good structure: it means there are multiple things to focus on or divide between the players, and the locks themselves give a hint to what types of codes are needed. The downside was that, having blitzed through several puzzles, we found that we were stuck on all three of the remaining ones simultaneously. It’s dispiriting to reluctantly take a hint, thereby open one lock, only to realise you’re still just as stuck on the next two. (We did eventually twig that the problem with all three was that we’d missed important clue items behind our discard pile…)

The scare tactics may have been a little obvious, but they were effective even when we could see them coming. It’s smarter than simple jump scares, done in a way that builds story as well as tension. The puzzles are good – though have I mentioned recently how much I dislike unclued anagrams? – but it’s the drama and the atmosphere that make this game stand out. I find fear effects can easily be tiresome when you’re used to them and expecting them, but The Orphanage does it in a way that improves the game whether it leaves you afraid or not.

It’s scary without being terrifying, so although players who hate horror games should probably avoid it, if you’re on the fence I’d say it’s well worth mastering the courage to try it.