The Lullaby of Life Review (Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Switch, MacOS, iOS, & PC)

You may have already played The Lullaby of Life in the Apple Arcade service from July 24, 2020. It made quite an impression on indie lovers who cherish the calmness of relaxing music and charming puzzles. More recently, on April 30, 2024, developers 1 Simple Game and Midwest Games launched The Lullaby of Life on PC platforms via Steam, Epic Games Store, GOG, and Fanatical. Meanwhile, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch owners can expect the game at a later date. 

With The Lullaby of Life now accessible to a wider audience, it’s more paramount than ever before to assess just how worthwhile an experience playing the game is. At just under $10, you can play The Lullaby of Life for roughly two to three hours. But are those hours worth chucking into the gameplay or would you rather engage in something more constructive? Let’s find out in our The Lullaby of Life review. 

In the Beginning

The story in The Lullaby of Life is one that barely builds on its characters and environments post-premise. All we’re inducted to is the universe at its infancy. We’re introduced to a blob-like creature called Bomba, whose task is to bring the universe and its creations to life. So, you embark on a journey of creation by manipulating the environment around you. You distort barriers and objects in The Lullaby of Life’s universe using your newfound musical powers. Further, you can use musical notes to bring creatures to life, who then accompany you for the rest of the game’s levels. 

Bomba has musical powers that allow you to send out musical notes into the universe. The musical notes transform into unique sound waves, which spread out into rings and wires, manipulating them in clever ways. The sound waves behave differently based on your position and timing. They activate specific switches, following precise controls, that you must keep a keen eye on to turn on correctly. Meanwhile, you’ll run into different creatures while exploring The Lullaby of Life’s universe. Each creature has unique musical powers, too, which you can then string together to unleash more combos.

Chart Your Own Path

The Lullaby of Life spends less time unraveling a compelling story. Instead, it throws all its charms on an in-depth musical puzzler mechanic you’ll find intriguing. At first, the mechanics can seem strange. However, you quickly learn to map the buttons available to you with their respective sound wave. You learn to press certain buttons to activate certain switches, keeping in mind that precision and timing are key. The controls in The Lullaby of Life are so strict, in fact, that making even a slight mistake can cause you to repeat solving a puzzle over and over again until you get it right.

In that same vein, The Lullaby of Life barely lends a helping hand. It throws you out into the sea to find your way to dry land on your own. You experiment your way through puzzles, and when you finally get a grip on the solution, the satisfaction it brings is indescribable. That’s one thing I greatly love about The Lullaby of Life: the freedom to chart your own path. You rarely get hints to get you out of tricky puzzles, which, while it can become frustrating, once you’re able to find the solution, pays off handsomely in the end. What’s more? The Lullaby of Life never tells you what to do or where to go. Again, that can lead to getting lost in the maze-like universe of The Lullaby of Life. However, those instances are too few to cause a migraine, at least compared to the sheer joy of discovering new areas on your own. 

A Tad Bit Frustrating

I should also add that the puzzles start off relatively easier. You only take a few seconds to solve the puzzles at the start of the game, quickly moving on to the next in no time at all. However, as you trudge deeper and deeper into The Lullaby of Life, puzzles begin to grow more complex. You’re introduced to various barriers to overcome or wires to find a way through. The solutions to puzzles also grow more intense as you string together multiple sound waves and combos. As you bring to life helper creatures in the universe, they’ll add more buttons and abilities to your palette. You’ll have access to more controls, which you must study and carefully unleash at the correct time and place.

Some of the puzzles at the later stages can, admittedly, become frustrating, especially in a game that aims to calm the nerves. You’ll find yourself retrying certain puzzles over and over again, thanks to very slight mistakes the game could have easily let slide. Still, the instances when you’re scratching your head for the solution to a puzzle are so few and far between that they hardly cause a nuisance in the long run. Overall, the puzzles in The Lullaby of Life feel well thought out. It’s dramatically satisfying to watch the sound waves permeate through barriers and wires. And solving puzzles without the help of hints or tutorials makes you feel like a genius. 

Dark Clouds Descend

Now, for the most part, The Lullaby of Life maintains a leisurely pace. You aren’t pressed for time when solving puzzles, and the music score complements the tranquil vibe. However, certain sections of the game change pace, like when dark clouds start chasing you through a narrow tunnel. Suddenly, you’re pulled out from a relaxing playthrough, now seemingly running for dear life. 

God forbid you get stuck on the sides of the universe, as it can sometimes happen during your playthrough. The wobbly Bombo tends to run into bumps on the relaxing ride through the universe, and I can’t quite tell whether it’s a bug, or steep in difficulty. At a certain point, the universe starts spinning, which can induce motion sickness for some. But these are only a few instances that can either frustrate or intrigue you based on your interest. 

The Cozy Lifestyle

For a music-driven game, The Lullaby of Life does a fantastic job on the soundtrack and music score. Sure, you don’t get any voice acting or text that trudges the story forward. In place of the nearly non-existent story, though, is a cozy and relaxing soundtrack for the books. It’s incredibly soothing from start to finish, with the only caveat being a lack of intensity in the more complex sections of the game to add variety. Still, 1 Simple Game has outdone itself, even on the visuals that are outright stunning. 

Vibrant colors permeate through every section of the game, with intricate detail complementing the tranquil music score. You can see the creatures come to life in their bubbly selves. Nothing is left to chance, whether the musical notes as they cast a sprawling net on the universe, the squishy blob-like Bombo, or the interplanetary biomes, all drawn to impeccable taste. Plus, the sound and visual cues do a great job of allowing any gamer to jump into the game confidently, easily finding their way around. 

Verdict

The Lullaby of Life is just as good as it was in the Apple Arcade service, perhaps even better. It’s as cozy and relaxing as you may remember, translating flawlessly on PC platforms. Indeed, the game plays seamlessly, with hardly any bugs to speak of. It looks fantastic, depicting a universe in its infancy that soon sprouts blossoming creatures and objects within it. That’s all thanks to your character, Bombo, who has musical powers that can bring life to the world around him. You start off learning the ropes by yourself, with no tutorial to give you a helping hand and relatively easy puzzles to work your way around. 

On the latter, The Lullaby of Life nails perfectly because puzzles almost never grow too convoluted to need help solving. You’ll almost always find the solution to the varied and clever puzzles in The Lullaby of Life within a matter of seconds. And in the moments when the puzzles grow more complex, a couple of retries and you’ll be good to go. Sure enough, part of the need to retry owes to the incredibly strict controls The Lullaby of Life has. You have to master the correct timing and precision to hit buttons and send out the correct sound wave. It can become frustrating, yet it’s never worth latching on to once you’re out of the woods.

Overall, The Lullaby of Life feels satisfying to take on. It pushes you to explore its world on your own terms, solving puzzles as you see fit. By allowing you to chart your own path, you feel a sense of control. You enjoy exploring a charming and vibrant world. And when accompanied by an overly soothing and relaxing music score, the odyssey through The Lullaby of Life’s universe is totally worth it.