Date Released: 11 October 2017
Date Played: 16 May 2022
Introduction:
Metropolis: Lux Obscura is a blatant cash grab in every sense of the word. It's an extremely short game that is mostly focused on telling a story that's ripped off from Frank Miller's Sin City. It's full of dark and moody comic book style art overflowing with hyper-sexualized images of women and a brooding and edgy anti-hero that screams, "I'm too cool to follow the rules..." On top of that, what little gameplay there is consists of choose your own adventure dialog choices that alter the game's ending interspersed with Match-3 puzzle gameplay a la Bejeweled or Candy Crush. It feels like something you'd find for sale on a mobile phone for $0.99... or less. All that being said, Metropolis isn't a bad game. I'm shocked to say it, but I had a good time with it and actually wish there was more content to sink my teeth into. I played through the game 4 times and unlocked every trophy and despite some frustration with the gameplay, had a very enjoyable time.
Story:
As mentioned above, the real focus of this game is on its story. You play as Lockhart, a convicted criminal, who is recently released from prison and is ready to sink his teeth back into the seedy underworld that he's been so desperately missing. While looking for his missing girlfriend, trying to find the jerk who testified against him in court, and taking odd jobs for an organized crime boss, he's thrust back into the dangerous and nefarious past.
Towards the beginning of the game, you're given several choices to make. Let the junkie go, or beat him and take his dope? Give the dope to the crime boss, or keep quiet? All of these choices have some consequences and will lead you to one of the game's 4 endings. All of these are quite different, and in classic noire style are rarely happy. Lockhart is lovable jerk, but he has too much baggage from his past to walk away unscathed. While you root for him to have a better life, it's easy to say to yourself, "well, I guess he had it coming to him" whenever something tragic occurs.
Much like the rest of the game, the story takes some strong queues from Bruce Willis' story in the movie Sin City. There are some strong comparisons in the plot, characters, and outcomes. However, if you're going to rip off something from that movie, that's the best choice by far. It manages to walk that tight rope of plagiarism/inspiration carefully, but it's quite obvious where the developers got their ideas. Even then, you're probably going to want to play through the game several times to try to see all of the endings. Yes, it's a ripoff. But, it's a good ripoff.
Gameplay:
Well, outside of the dialog choices that affect the game's endings, there's not much to say. You select a location of the city map to advance the story. Sometimes you have options, but usually not. Regardless, it's mostly a linear affair. Once you get there, a bit of the story will play out and will result in you getting into a fight. These battles are played via Match 3 puzzle style gaming. You have a grid with different icons on it, and you slide and shift the pieces to make matches of at least three. Doing so deals damage to you opponent. If you're able to match more than three by combining 4,5, or chaining together matches, you'll deal bonus damage. Every few turns, the enemy will attack you, and the first one to lose all of their hit points lose the battle. There are also med kits you can match for healing, rage icons to boost damage, and police badges that will damage you if you accidentally match them. It's all very basic, and we've seen it a million times before in games like Bejeweled, Puzzle Quest, and even everyone's mother-in-law's passion, Candy Crush. It works well, and is always addictive, but does feel like a bit of a cop-out in terms of gameplay. It's almost as if the developers just wanted to write a graphic novel, but decided to turn it into a video game at the last second. Then, they realized that they didn't know anything about video games, Googled, "most popular video games" and then saw that Facebook and mobile games had the most downloads... and they just went with that.
They somewhat combat the appalling banality of their gameplay choices by making the puzzles randomized and rather challenging. You'll fail a lot of the combat encounters and will have to try them several times. Luckily, the game autosaves before each one, so dying isn't that big of a setback. After winning a battle, you're given the option to upgrade one of your character's aspects. These range from dealing more damage on matches, healing more from health matches, getting bonuses from matching 4 or more at a time, etc.. These can really help out with the tougher battles and once you've learned which skills to upgrade, can make the game a cake-walk. Your first playthrough might make you pull out your hair, but the subsequent ones are easy to fly through once you learn what works best.
Presentation:
Well, the game is just a blatant ripoff of the Sin City graphic novel. I don't know how else to say it. There are lots of grisly dudes and scantily clad women all presented in black and white. Most of these will have a bright pop of color to draw your eye to some blood, fire, police lights, or (more often then not) lingerie. Metropolis has a very strong emphasis on sexuality and it's pretty much the main draw for most consumers and the developers really tried to wrangle in some potential buyers with promises of lots skin and thongs. I'm not sure how that works as a business model, but there's plenty of nudity, violence, foul language, and drug use for even the most deprived of us out there. After all, they suckered me into buying the physical edition of the game (which only got a release in Europe as far as I can tell). My advice, you better make sure the kids are in bed before firing up this one.
Despite it's lurid nature and general "over-the-topness," it's done very well and the art department knocked everything out of the park. All of the components fit together thematically, and you can see why Lockhart couldn't wait to get back into this world.
All of the fantastic comic art is presented as a still image with some text and voice over. The developers describe it as a "motion comic," But take that with a grain of salt. The motion is just some aftereffects to ad some scaling and movement to the motionless pictures. Even though this is a bit more "budget" focused than you would want in a game, the quality of the artwork makes up for it, and your eyes will still be glued to the screen. The accompanying voice over work really brings a since of life to the characters and is a very welcome addition. Some of the voice acting can be hit or miss, but it's never so bad that it distracts from the whole experience and I don't thing the game would have the same impact if it had just been text only.
There is some music during the match 3 fights, but it's just a basic loop that's pretty bass heavy. It does a good job of adding some sinister energy to the "combat" but it's not memorable at all. Outside of this, I don't even remember if there's any music anywhere else in the game. I think it's just mostly sound effects and voice over work.
Conclusion:
Like I said, there are some really lazy design choices in this game. The match 3 puzzle fights and the blatant Sin City ripoff are a bit off putting. But, the artwork and storylines help save this game from being a completely forgettable and cheap experience. I personally think the game would work better as a graphic novel, but that might be a little too on the nose and would certainly evoke a response from Frank Miller's legal team. As it stands, I guess I consider Metropolis: Lux Obscura as a visual novel with a healthy dose of puzzle gaming thrown in. Personally, I wish there was even more story and that the game was 2 or 3 times longer. I wanted to spend more time with the characters and really get to know them better. You can knock out all of the game's endings and all of its trophies in just a few hours. So, if you like Sin City, don't mind puzzle gaming, are an adult, and have an evening to kill, you should try this one. It's better than you would think.
Final Status: Completed (100%)
Final Score: 7/10 (The artwork and stories saved the day)
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