Review 1
Purchased!
One of those games that reminds me how much I love exploring video game worlds.
Sort of like Metroid, sort of like Yume Nikki, sort of a collectathon... if any
of those things appeal to you, I recommend it.
Review 2
Purchased!
Video games are incredible at creating abstract dreamscapes, I've had a lot of
dreams and vague memories of them, I saw this game and thought "hell yeah", I
play this game and think "hell yeah"
Review 3
Purchased!
what a banger. one of the most mysterious yet gripping games i've ever played
and it manages to do it all without any text.
Review 5
Purchased!
Is Automaton Lung a cool experience? Yes. It's not without its flaws, but yes.
Did I overall enjoy it? Sure. Is it worth $15? Absolutely not. Only ever get
this game on 50% sale or more. As you can see from my playtime, I only took 4.6
hours... to 100% it. That is not beating it, that is doing everything there is
to do in the game. If this was a $5 or even $10 game I would be giving it a
positive recommendation score, but I simply cannot recommend this game at full
price to anyone. With that out of the way, onto the review.
Automaton Lung is a surrealistic exploration game with a focus on collecting and
platforming. You play as an unnamed heroine exploring a PSX-esque retro world,
collecting chips. The unique thing about this game is that it does everything in
its power to confuse you, and I actually think this is a good thing. You're
started in a confusing location and told nothing about what your goal is, what
your moveset is, or even where you are. You are expected to figure everything
out yourself and there are no tutorials anywhere to be seen, let alone text, and
this was one of the biggest appeals of the game to me. My first hour felt like I
was slowly uncovering a hidden, forgotten world. I was an explorer just like the
heroine.
(SPOILER WARNING AHEAD)
After the novelty wore off, however... let's just say that Automaton Lung is,
unfortunately, a game. Despite what its lore and promotional materials want you
to think, and despite your opening experience, the actual game loop is a very
bog standard collectathon- you travel from area to area, getting a set amount of
chips, and then leave for the next one. There are almost no gimmicks to speak
of, the enemy variety is sorely lacking, and even though you can unlock extra
guns, all of them are unlocked in secret locations you find in the overworld,
meaning you'll either unlock all of them and have your full kit for most of the
game, or not realize this is a thing and get stuck with the basic pea shooter
for the majority of the game. Far from feeling like a mysterious abandoned world
devoid of authorship not intended to house your presence, I felt like I was
playing through an amateur indie dev's first attempt at a 3D platformer- likely
because I was.
The most creative thing I can say about its structure is that there are two
types of worlds: the tower levels and the sandbox levels. The tower levels, of
which there are 20, are small rooms with 5 chips in them. These are where the
game is at its most creative, giving you unique challenges to overcome and
allowing you to utilize your kit in fun ways (especially if you leave and get
the guns). They also had some of the best ambiance, combining a liminal space
feel with the vibe of a forgotten 90s game to create an atmosphere that made me
feel something truly unique. The sandbox levels, on the other hand, felt
extremely lackluster- for the most part they are huge open areas with about 20
chips in them each and are a huge hassle to complete, requiring you to comb
every corner for missing chips. Any wonder you feel upon first visiting them
quickly evaporates when you're staring at low res polygons for dozens of minutes
on end searching for that last chip. In theory you're likely supposed to swap
between them to avoid getting too tired of one style, but in my playthrough I
played through most of the tower in one go and the entire back half of the game
was boring sandbox levels.
One thing I will compliment is that your moveset is extremely minimal but feels
like all you'll ever need. Each move, the boost, the jump, and the hoverboard,
all have multiple different uses and figuring out how to use just these three
tools to go just about anywhere in the game is extremely satisfying. The level
design itself also compliments these tools, as in any other game it would feel
bad, but in Automaton Lung it feels perfect, and it's rare to see a game
accomplish something like that.
The way I would describe my experience with Automaton Lung is like if you were
given a computer with an OS you've never used before and asked to type a word
document in it. Sure, at first navigating the OS and opening the word doc itself
would be challenging, but once you get used to where everything is located,
ultimately it's a fairly mundane task. If you like liminal space games then
maybe buy this at half price, but to be brutally honest you can find games on
itch.io that are of comparable quality to this for much cheaper or even free. I
personally enjoyed it but I don't know if I can really recommend it to anyone.
