BrokenLore: LOW Review (PC)

BrokenLore: LOW doesn’t beat around the bush with its opening question. It raises a simple question at that, and frankly, one that has been passed around for generations: What would you be willing to give for a shot at fame and fortune? Would you be willing to enter the ominous mists of an unfamiliar town to meet with a complete stranger—a peculiar prospect who’s just so happened to promise you the world on a silver platter? If you’re a musician, and you want nothing more than to propel your career forward to the top of the mainstream, would you be willing to shake hands with the devil and sign your name? Well, that’s basically the story here: a fledgling musician puts their faith in the hands of a stranger, completely oblivious to the horrors that loom beyond the binding contract. Lo and behold — that’s you; you are the musician.

Serafini Productions describes BrokenLore: LOW as a psychological horror with a peculiar cascading theme—a hybrid between “hyper-realistic” and “low-poly” visuals and a glint of Japanese folklore. It’s a short horror (so short, in fact, that you could probably beat it in just under a couple of hours), so you shouldn’t expect a tremendous amount of material here. With that said, the game does feature a lot of great things—well-timed cat-and-mouse encounters, a solemn ambiance with a striking sense of uncertainty, and a handful of genuinely intriguing yet forgiving puzzles, to list just a few of its standout features. And that’s barely scratching the surface; BrokenLore: LOW also incorporates a solid variety of double-sided graphical effects, and not to mention the formal aid of a real-life psychologist’s perspective, too. So, quite the bundle.

Anyway, if you’re contemplating buying a copy of BrokenLore: LOW, then be sure to read on.

Bright Lights & Foggy Towns

BrokenLore: LOW tells the tale of an aspiring musician—a character who, like so many others in the world, has resorted to pouring their trust into the fickle hands of another for a shot at success. This story, which bases its existence on the broken dreams of this virtuosic protagonist, invites you to enter the fog—a seemingly sinister veil that just so happens to stand as the centerpiece of a darker side of an otherwise idyllic Japanese village. But (and this comes as no major surprise, given the umbrella that BrokenLore: LOW falls beneath) there’s more to this story than meets the eye; the promises of a better future are meaningless, and the stranger in question is hiding something a little more, shall we say, sinister.

BrokenLore is all about its secrets, as well as posing an ever-evolving threat within a series of questionable decisions. The game, while mostly linear and without any major branching pathways, sees you traversing the misty corridors of a Japanese village—a distorted world that’s comprised of several decaying buildings, shadow-riddled landmarks, and a handful of eerily vacant spaces with liminal gardens. In a true survival-horror fashion, the game takes full advantage of its keystone elements—an unsettling atmosphere, low-poly environments, and a makeshift sense of helplessness that lingers on the horizon throughout the duration of the campaign. As such, it doesn’t rely on mindless combat or wall-to-wall action sequences; on the contrary, it utilizes its basic ability to establish a mood and prioritize ambiance over angst — and masterfully, at that.

Into the Mist

BrokenLore is a natural-born psychological horror; it makes you think, and rather than having you romp through its world without batting an eyelid, it instead forces you to question the reality and the events taking place around you. And it conveys a lot of these truths in its world-building process. For example, for every inanimate object that you stumble across, there’s a hidden meaning that yearns to be discovered, and for every encounter with a mythical figure that you uncover, there’s a spiritual connection to a much, much deeper emotion that is waiting to come full circle. And that’s really the best way I can describe BrokenLore: a deceptive horror that, although somewhat paint-by-numbers in its storytelling style, poses enough of a question to make you second-guess just about everything that comes to pass.

There isn’t a huge amount of diversity in the gameplay side of things, I’ll admit. I can’t bring myself to say that BrokenLore is a standard walking simulator — because it certainly possesses a lot more than that. However, you could argue that it’s something of an on-rails ordeal; it hands you the keys to each door, and more or less introduces you to each story beat. But that isn’t a major issue, for what it does between these stepping stones is truly outstanding. To cut a long story short, it respectfully uses a well-oiled combination of two graphical palettes to create a unique image—an image that bounces between a traditional low-poly design and a realistic one. To that end, it’s almost like alternating between two vastly different worlds, with both of them being in receipt of their own respective values and points of interest.

Tiptoe Through the Tulips

As I said earlier, BrokenLore: LOW isn’t so much of a video game as it is a short visual experience with fleeting moments of interactive storytelling. It’s certainly light in terms of how it involves the player, but where it lacks depth in that regard, it makes up for in superior sound design and composition. The world that it builds upon is a real delight to unravel and work through, as are the scrolls of lore that frequently pop up in the strangest of places across the village and its surrounding areas. It’s indescribably tense and disturbing, isolated and yet somehow beautiful in its own right. And that’s really what this is: an intense bout of tiptoeing through a series of psychologically antagonizing events. Again, it isn’t a game-game, but rather, a flip book of conflicting images and alternate dimensions. And weirdly enough, it works.

Thankfully, BrokenLore: LOW doesn’t suffer from any noticeable technical difficulties. Well, that’s to say that I wasn’t aware of any underlying issues in the two hours that I willingly poured into it, anyway. And that’s a relief, in ways, as it gives me full confidence in the series’ active and best-kept counterparts; if LOW is capable of performing at its peak and exceeding its potential, then surely, the other chapters in the BrokenLore anthology are of equal superiority. Granted, I can’t speak for all of the installments in the saga, but if LOW is to be its signature representative, then I honestly have nothing but faith in the entire series.

Verdict

BrokenLore: LOW cements its place as a genuine and commendable horror, but due to it being a short game that could easily benefit from a bit more depth in its linear storytelling and gameplay, it’s also rather difficult to recommend it to anyone who might be in search of a beefier endeavor. It ticks all of the right boxes, for sure, and it comes clean with a fantastic atmosphere and a lot of powerful scares — but it’s just too short. It’s almost as if, say, there’s this opportunity for you to sink your teeth into something substantial, but then, once the pincers are in, the journey reminds you that you’re not paying for a three-course meal, but a mere sample—a taster of what you could’ve had. And that’s what bothered me the most: I wanted more of it; I didn’t want an appetizer.

There’s no denying the fact that BrokenLore: LOW has a solid foundation for a great ongoing series. Sure enough, there is a lot of potential here, and I’m not about to discard the possibility of returning to the anthology for another episode later down the line. Yes, it could do with some additional substance, and users would also benefit from the option to make impactful decisions on the narrative and its outcome. But perhaps these are just minor things—things of little importance, maybe. Aside from the fact that BrokenLore: LOW is a little on the short side, the rest of the game is great. The visuals and ambiance, for example, are both on par with some other prestigious horrors of note; the contrast between the low-poly and realistic imagery is an excellent addition, for sure.

If you’re a sucker for Japanese folklore and rich psychological horrors, then you won’t want to miss this.