Luto Review

I did a preview for Luto around two years ago, and since then, it’s lingered in the back of my mind. I’ve regularly checked up on development, and any time I’d hear the name mentioned, it’d always pique my interest. Now that it’s finally out, I couldn’t wait to dive in, and I’m very glad I did.

Luto is a psychological horror title with a very heavy focus on narrative, and because of that, I need to issue a warning: this review will be intentionally light on details regarding the story and specific gameplay sequences. Now that I’ve reached the end of the game, it’s pretty clear to me that going in completely blind is the best way to experience it. At its core, though, you take the role of Samuel Hale, a man who seemingly can’t leave his house. As you go through the motions of his monotonous life, things start to feel off. There’s clearly something not right here, and this isn’t a fleeting experience. The house begins to warp: rooms pop up where they really shouldn’t be, and the idea of logic goes out the window very quickly with rooms and doorways connecting in impossible ways.

The story, and more so the mystery of what’s going on, is the real driving force behind Luto and it’s very strong. Between play sessions, I found myself pondering details and trying to make connections. Some of the storytelling feels a little hard to follow, especially during the final act, but it manages to come full circle. A lot of the plot is told through the environment using notes, pages from a scrapbook, and props in the environment, and it manages to make very good use of each area; there are always new details to find.

The environmental storytelling works incredibly well with Luto’s puzzles, too. These take a very minimalist approach, being pretty simple both mechanically and in their complexity. In some cases, I could see this as a negative, but here I think it works in the game’s favour. They often require you to find details and items hidden within the environments that can be easy to miss, and thanks to this, you’re forced to pay a lot of attention to your surroundings, which helps you really take in the story. Despite being stuck within the house, Luto manages to vary its environments really well, and they’re all striking.

Horror games live or die by their atmosphere, and Luto is brimming with life. Its visuals, sound design, and level design all work incredibly well together to create such a thick atmosphere. The illogical spaces you’re exploring, along with the very well-layered sound effects (which often just consist of household noises), manage to create an incredible amount of discomfort, without being downright terrifying. You’re forced into a lot of uncomfortable situations, having to navigate dark and hostile-feeling environments too, some of which end up with actual scares, while others have no actual payoff. It uses jump scares sparingly and unpredictably, making it hard to find a moment of respite.

There are a couple of places where it does fall a little short, though. As I mentioned previously, the final act is even more bizarre than the rest of the game, and a lot of its thematic connections don’t feel complete. At the moment, I enjoyed a lot of what Luto’s final act had in store, but the more I reflect, the more I think it went slightly too far off the rails. This also ties into my main issue with the game as a whole: pacing. The game slow burns a lot in the first half, and I like it a lot. Story beats are slowly revealed alongside the environmental storytelling at a solid speed, but then towards the aforementioned finale, it really ups the pace too much. I finished the game in just over 4 hours, and I think it could have benefited from slightly expanding the last section of the game.

All things considered, though, Luto is a game that I really loved. Its storytelling, atmosphere, and the overall experience were unbelievably enthralling. It lived up to the expectations I’ve had since my first experience two years ago, and I found it worth the wait.