A hybrid of platforming and horror is such an exotic combination that it is rare for developers to undertake the creation of such a project. Among the creators who have chosen to develop such productions over the years is independent developer Toby Alden, using the pseudonym brlka, behind the game Love Eternal.
In Love Eternal, events are viewed from the side. Unlike in most representatives of the platform game genre, we will not experience here a camera following the heroine sideways. Instead, the game in question is divided into more than 100 screens representing fragments of visited locations.
Almost every place is a kind of obstacle course, which the protagonist overcomes to reach the next screen. In addition to the classic jumping on platforms, avoiding traps (such as spikes or moving lasers) and avoiding terrain obstacles, we must also skillfully control gravity.
Maya, as our protégée is called, is able to smash rocks floating in the air, allowing her to change the direction in which she falls once per jump. While this in itself doesn't sound too complicated yet, there is no shortage of screens in which you have to perform a whole combination of jumps, time and again falling downwards, then upwards. The longer the sequence of such jumps is, the more difficult it is to finish it in one piece (especially if we have to avoid snares along the way).
In Love Eternal, we play as Maya, who has been kidnapped by a selfish b?st and transported to a spooky alternate dimension. Trapped in a crumbling fortress, the girl must escape from this place and find her way home. Along the way, she meets other victims of the god, who further torments her with visions of distorted versions of her loved ones.
The graphic design of Love Eternal was made using the pixel art technique.
Platforms:
PC Windows
PlayStation 4
Xbox One
Nintendo Switch
PlayStation 5
Xbox Series X/S
Developer: brlka
Publisher: Ysbryd Games
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System Requirements for Love Eternal Video Game:
PC / Windows
Minimum System Requirements:
Dual Core 2 GHz, 2 GB RAM, graphic card 512 MB, 1 GB HDD, Windows 7.
Game Ratings for Love Eternal Video Game.
The A.V. Club:
The biggest challenge in talking about Love Eternal is in trying to make sense of its failings. It isn’t awful, but worse: it’s just boring. It doesn’t offer much to chew on in terms of mechanics or story. At its best there’s a sense that Love Eternal has something it desperately wants to say, but it grasps at straws to say it and perpetually comes up short. So what else is there to say about a game as shallow as Love Eternal? Only that it’s like Celeste meets Silent Hill—Gris, but grimdark.
Completexbox: 85 / 100
The atmosphere this game creates is up there with the best, the pixel art in is gorgeous in a very specific, haunting way. Having a lack of dialogue but most of the talking is about what on screen gives this story a visual novel feel with most of the story being told by action and accomplishment. Even though there is not much interaction you get the sense of Maya and who she is as a person meeting family members along the way that are distorted versions of themselves that captures this eerie unfolding story. Going through this castle you get a feel of all these emotions through Maya such as childhood isolation and the lack of companionship. You’ll likely finish the game with more questions than you started with, but the feeling it leaves you with is undeniable. This is one game you need to take time with and be patient, it is frustrating in parts but leaves an imprint and is up there as an indie gem for me this year.
So Many Games: 4.5 / 5 by Stuart O'Donnell
Love Eternal is a remarkably tight precision platformer with exhilaratingly joyful movement mechanics. It also has a fascinating and disturbing story to tell about loneliness and our desperate need for love. The unconventional telling of this tale – the subverting of genre expectations and the liberal use of surreal symbolism – is surprising and original and helps to create meaning amidst the apparent chaos of complicated lives. The platforming is tough, and the experimental narrative requires a little patience, but this is an astonishing piece of work that fully rewards the effort.
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