Albino Lullaby is easily one of the more bizarre games I have played in the past several years. Part survival horror, part exploration, and part puzzle game; you begin your psychedelic adventure behind the wheel of a car just before what appears to be a fatal crash. When you wake up you are most certainly in some sort of hell, assuming hell was lit entirely with black lights and decorated in some wild neon glowing velvet paintings from the back room at Spencer’s.
While this Victorian mansion may look like the Joker’s lair from the 1960’s Batman TV series and have the cryptic notes and puzzles you’d expect to find in Alice’s Wonderland, nothing can prepare you for “The Grandchildren”. I shudder just looking at the screenshots, so imagine being continuously stalked by these six-foot tall worm people with razor-sharp teeth. You are mostly defenseless against these creatures unless you have a spare match and can light one of the black lights to keep them at bay. Otherwise, prepare to run and run some more as these guys never give up.
If the Grandchildren weren’t enough of a challenge, you also have to deal with the mansion itself that will often go into fits of shape shifting where floors will drop away, ceilings will slam down to crush you, and entire rooms rotate around a giant wheel contraption. The whole thing looks and acts like the puzzle box from Hellraiser.
Albino Lullaby delivers a surprisingly terrifying experience by creating an unwavering sense of dread and danger at all times. There are few if any actual jump scares, and I was often reminded of that horror movie, It Follows, where you are being stalked by a slow yet determined pursuer that cannot be killed – at least until later in the game when you get hold of a remote control that can zap them. Even the story is a bit sinister, as you slowly collect notes and overhear conversations until you finally realize where and who you are.
Prior to playing on the Oculus Rift I had mostly completed the first episode on a regular monitor and comparing the two experiences is a tough call. While Albino Lullaby supports VR to a certain degree it doesn’t really benefit much from the tech. The headset is used more for head-tracking than anything else, replacing your mouse or right controller stick so you can look around. But with no independent head look you always move in the direction you are looking, so don’t plan to be running away from the Grandchildren while looking over your shoulder. The FOV seems a bit off creating some distorted scaling issue, making the mansion look more like a funhouse, and for the first time in over 20 VR titles I actually got VR sickness the few times I played for more than 30 minutes.
The audio is super-creepy-intense with all sorts of sinister effects, music, and the taunting voices of the Grandchildren. Oddly, some of the most enjoyable moments was sitting back and listening to the insane almost-Shakespearean ramblings of some of these creatures. In one room there is a cult-like religious meeting where a leader is getting his followers all pumped up to go out and hunt you down.
Albino Lullaby is definitely creepy and a totally cool and original concept. But with Episode 2 getting pushed to 2017 it’s also a hard recommendation to make since you’ll be waiting nearly a year to pick-up the story and who knows how long until the third episode where you can finish it. The devs are seeking additional funding, so we are in that catch-22 of, if you don’t buy the season pass to support the devs future episodes may not materialize, but do you want to invest in a game that may take two years to finish. Of course, that’s if you are buying on Steam. It’s even more misleading on the Oculus store where the game is merely titled, Albino Lullaby with no mention of it being the first of three episodes (unless you read the 5th bullet item in the features list).
I enjoyed my time with Albino Lullaby. I probably enjoyed my first time in 2D a bit more since I was able to just play the game and enjoy the atmosphere and puzzles without the janky VR hiccups. It is certainly an interesting and wild ride and honestly, even if they never finish the series, I think the first installment is worth $10 just for the original experience. And with any luck I’ll be back in 2017 with a follow-up review for the remaining episodes.
