When I was a kid, I spent many summers with my grandparents at their cabin in the middle of nowhere in southern Ohio. Long before the days of helicopter parenting, I was often set on the porch and told to go enjoy nature and not come back until dark. I usually spent this time at a small cave that was deep into their 200 acres catching frogs and the like, but there was this one time where I somehow got turned around and ended up lost in the woods. I don’t remember what time I found my way back to their home or how exactly I regained my bearings, but I will never forget the feeling of isolation as I circled their property for hours looking for a familiar landmark. As a child, this was something that really pushed me to the limits of my sanity, and Lempo managed to capture this digitally in ways that most games faltered with in the past.
Lempo places you in the shoes of Paul, an office worker who is closing up one night and instead of walking out into the known, is stuck in the middle of the woods with no clear exit, means of defense, or explanation as to how he ended up there. Paul is alone. At first, he is trapped in the wild unknown which also manages to be claustrophobic at the same time. Along the way, he’ll encounter random lost souls who never quite seem to be what they appear, as well as other assets that seem out of place, some of which are obvious while others are more subtle. There is an otherworldly feel to every little part of the world that left me with more questions than answers throughout most of my playthrough, even once the credits rolled. It was only once I dug into the Finnish folklore surrounding Metsänpeitto that I was able to actually connect the dots; however, I would discourage any potential players from digging into this much before playing if you’re not already in the know, as it would spoil what is otherwise a decent mystery, even if the game doesn’t address every question you may have through standard gameplay.
From start to finish, this was a beautiful game outside of one character model that I didn’t care for when seeing it in a place where I probably shouldn’t have, but we’ll revisit that later. This is yet another example of an indie team exceeding expectations in ways that AAA developers should note. I really love how it managed to blend the realistic and surrealistic in some of the non-forest areas. The only time I was left saying “really?” in a negative way was during a singular chase scene in which red eyes would randomly flash on my screen, but this was something that I almost forgot about until now.
At its core, this is yet another horror-themed walking simulator that asks you to find key objects. The good news is it does so in the vein of one of my personal favorites, Visage, and does not hold your hand. At all. Not one bit. Which is a pro and a con depending on how you look at it. You will get occasional pop-ups telling you what buttons do what action, but outside of this the title relies heavily on environmental storytelling, which I mostly loved outside of the out-of-place phone call from your wife. I mean seriously, you can’t find a phone booth out in the normal world – no reasonable person would be okay with one randomly placed in the woods. I wasn’t a huge fan of the Lost Souls either, as they came across as more of playful NPCs as opposed to something you’d find in a horror game. They will appear around key areas and items as guides, but more often than not, they are not as clear as I would hope. There are also candles and other forms of light that you can ignite as a breadcrumb trail, however, their placement is few and far between. I found using them to be more trouble than they were worth in many cases since I would get this tinge of excitement when I’d find one, only to determine it was just one I missed on my previous trek across the same ground. No matter how you approach this game, you’re going to get lost, and by lost I mean really lost, like crying in a fetal position while rocking back and forth against a tree lost. Even finding areas you know the general location of is a challenge since everything looks so damn similar, reinforcing the feeling of being lost and alone in the woods. Much like my eight-year-old self in real life, I pulled myself up by my bootstraps and spent what felt like hours walking through the same area.
While the whole getting lost in the woods is kind of tedious at times, the puzzles make up for it. Every time I was on the cusp of throwing in the towel and reviewing the game as an incomplete experience, I would complete the next section and feel reinvigorated to see it through to the end. Much like the exploration, there are not many hints in place and you’ll really have to use common sense and logic to solve most of the puzzles. There are a few that are a little more obtuse, but they are spread out enough to avoid halting progression altogether, and the solution is typically in plain sight if you pay close attention.
Additionally, there are a few other elements that I mostly ignored without much of a penalty. Death is somewhat trivial in this game and in a few instances, I actually tried to kill myself just to exit the area in question as a method of quick travel, since you retain your inventory and progress upon dying. You have a health bar that will gradually decrease, but you find so many mushrooms that you can eat it feels unneeded and tacked on. Outside of finding these puddles of souls that allow you to unlock save points, I put little thought into sleeping, eating, or anything else that wasn’t finding my way out of the woods and suffered little to no penalty I could find.
Most of the horror elements come from the sense of dread and feeling of hopelessness that really takes time to manifest, and usually, it’s gone just as quickly as it appears. The first appearance of the creature is so quick, it’s over before you really have the time to process what you’re looking at before it gives chase to you. I am not sure if this is how it was programmed or a glitch, but I ran like Hell, got caught, went through an uber weird death sequence that I don’t want to spoil for you, and was then thrown out at basically the same point of the game without the creature giving chase. The next time I caught a glimpse of the being, it was out in the open, seemingly stuck in the foliage and unable to give chase and in turn really giving me a great glimpse of it out in the open in full light. Just as you can imagine from seeing any old, low-budget horror movie from years back, it’s less terrifying in this setting. In brief flashes, it looks like it’s all arms and legs, but burnt and then put out quickly enough to not kill it, only leaving massive scarring. In its full glory or lack thereof, it looks more like that worm thing that Leon fights in the sewers of Resident Evil 2. Not the remake, the original.
Outside of the creature being stuck within the world here and there, the game runs well. My only valid complaint is how tiny the cursor is when interacting with objects. It’s overly sensitive and made a few of the puzzles a little cumbersome, specifically the ones where entering a code on a keypad or lock. It also made finding key objects easy to overlook, as some areas are littered with static assets with little to nothing you can pick up or manipulate.
If you consider yourself a patient person with a love for horror, Lempo is a game that deserves your attention, but keep in mind that it will likely leave you wandering around for what feels like hours on end until something clicks within your brain. It features some of the best puzzles I have invested myself in from recent memory and captures the feeling of being lost in the woods to a tee.
8 out of 10
Pros
- Perfectly Captures Being Lost in the Woods
- Impressive Visuals
- Outstanding Puzzles
- Great Use of Environmental Storytelling
Cons
- Some Mechanics Feel Forced and Unneeded
- An Overly Small Cursor
- Better Player Direction Would Have Made for a Better Experience
Lempo was developed by One Trick Entertainment and published by PID Games and Gamersky Games. It launched on PC & PS5. The game was provided to us for review on PS5. If you’d like to see more of Lempo, check out the developer’s site.
Here at GBG we use a rating method that you are more than likely familiar with – a scale of 1 to 10. For clarification, we intend on using the entire scale: 1-4 is something you should probably avoid paying for; 5-7 is something that is worth playing, but probably not at full price; 8-10 is a great title that you can feel confident about buying. If you have any questions or comments about how we rate a game, please let us know.
Check out OpenCritic for a better idea of how our review stacks against others.