Lazaret Review
Can you survive a spooky boat ride?
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Platform: PC
Reviewed on: PC
Developer: Aegon Games
Publisher: Aegon Games
Release: February 20, 2024
Time Played: 3 Hours
Genre: Indie Horror
ESRB: N/A
Intro:
Do you feel like exploring a ship full of scary monsters and noises? Perhaps figure out a couple puzzles while you’re at it? If so you will probably want to check out Lazaret, an indie horror that has been in the works for a while now. It wasn’t long, clocking in at about three and a half hours. Before you play though you may want to stick around while I give you an overview of what to expect. Then I’m going to give this a rating and a home on the lovely shelves behind me.
Where it starts
A ship that was thought to be lost has recently been sending out a distress signal. You are part of a rescue team sent out in the middle of the night to check out the ship and help any survivors that may be on board. You come in on a helicopter that can’t find a landing spot, so you must rope in by yourself. Onboard all you find are the scary sounds of an empty ship, and ominous human shaped statues.
Can the kids watch
You won’t find any voice acting in the game to worry about so language isn’t a problem. There are quite a few scenes with bloody puddles around and body parts strewn about. The graphics weren’t particularly smooth enough to have a definite idea of what you were looking at so it might not be that bad. The biggest worry would be how scary it might be, I know I shouted, or rather screamed, more than once in my playthrough.
The Threat
While moving around the boat you will be stalked every step of the way. Never knowing what the next corner will bring. Sometimes the enemies just want to watch and send your anxiety into overdrive, other times they want to put hands on you, to either kill you or knock you around a bit. There were only three different types of monsters to look out for, but they were all terrifying.
Avoiding Danger
You won’t be finding any guns or bludgeoning tools to defend yourself with in this game. The only way you can avoid getting hurt would be to either hide in a locker until danger passes, or whistle. When you whistle, and there is an enemy nearby, they will whistle back. It wasn’t very clear on how exactly that would help, because often I had to go in that direction, only now I know there is something near there whistling at me. It felt like it was a mechanic that added more fear, not a sense of safety.
Puzzles
Most of the time you will be tasked with finding something to get past obstacles, like a pry bar to remove some wood or some spray to loosen up some rusty hinges, but sometimes you will need to solve a minor puzzle to get some of those special key items. There were a few different puzzles to figure out, and none of them seemed to repeat themselves. The puzzles weren’t so complex you’ll be ripping your hair out to solve, some were much easier than others, I found them all to be quite pleasing.
Constant fear factor
Lazaret didn’t depend on jump scares to keep you on your toes during gameplay. There were a couple, if you look at the right spot, but most of the time it was the music and ambience that kept me sweating. There was a point in the game where I felt I was comfortable with it, thinking I was used to the scares and can move forward confidently. Not ten minutes after such thoughts I was back to being scared to move forward. The game does an excellent job not getting to old to fast.
Outro:
I had no idea what I was getting into when I started Lazaret, I was just aware of it being a short indie horror. There was a demo available for quite a while and I may have watched somebody play a while ago, but it was all fresh to me. The graphics weren’t the greatest, but they were good enough to get the point across. I didn’t experience any shuttering or falling through floors, unless I was supposed to anyway.
The game had an interesting story, I feel like they could have gone a little deeper, but it was only told through the notes found on the ship as I progressed the game. I had a good grasp of what happened, but a lot of it needs to be filled out through imagination, which isn’t a bad thing, as long as you can imagine it.
The game was short and sweet, I really enjoyed playing it, even though I had a sore throat after and couldn’t walk around in the dark for a minute after I was done. It feels like a one and done kind of game, no reason to really go back after it’s over, but it was still worth checking out. Did you ever check out the demo or play the game since it came out? Let me know in the comments.
Rating:
Bringing us to the final part, rating the game and putting it on a shelf.
The visuals were alright, earning themselves a two.
The story could have been better but it was good enough to get the point across I’m giving it a three
Gameplay was great, although a little repetitive with little changes throughout, that’s another three
Replayability wasn’t really there, coming in at a one
I had surprising amount of fun playing this game, I’m feeling a four.
Giving Lazaret an average score of two point six out of five, placing it right there on the midshelf. If your bored and want a decent scare for a couple hours for a good price, I would definitely check this game out.