Imagine if you will, you walk into your favorite comic book shop on new release day to pick up the latest issue of your favorite comic book (in my case, this would be whatever iteration of Deadpool we’re on right now), and you’re shocked to find that only Archie Meets Dracula is in stock. You don’t want to leave empty-handed, so you give it a shot only to find out that it’s not for you. There’s nothing outright wrong with it, it just isn’t what you were expecting or something you would normally consume, and that’s kind of how I feel about Varney Lake, the second entry in a planned trilogy following the events of Mothmen 1966. Even though that wasn’t a perfect game, I enjoyed my time with it thanks to the throwback presentation, which remains here, and the inclusion of my personal favorite cryptid, the titular Mothman, whereas the focus of the follow-up is vampires. I am going to rip the band-aid off quickly here and just get it out there that I am not a fan of vampires and outside of 30 Days of Night, I feel like they generally fall kind of flat in horror, following the same narrative tropes, kind of like zombies, but at least zombies generally bust apart in meaty chunks. Despite this, I still followed through by completing the main story and all of its little bite-sized additions here because I wanted to give it the benefit of the doubt.
Much like the first game in the series, this is a narrative-focused title with the “choose your own adventure” style gameplay set against a retro-inspired backdrop. The story focuses on a small group of friends as they meet with the same reporter from the first game and recount the events of one specific summer where the friends claim to have encountered a vampire. Bouncing between the 50s and 80s, it feels heavily inspired by the likes of Stand by Me and Stephen King’s It. Fun fact: I also kind of hate these, although I am not sure why, they just never spoke to me; maybe it was the lack of having that tight-knit group of friends growing up, but it just doesn’t pull me in like it may others. Outside of my obvious personal bias against some of the themes of the story, it was a well-written story. Instead of placing myself in the shoes of the protagonist, I found the reporter to be the most relatable character as a bystander as opposed to being in the moment which these titles generally succeed in.
In terms of the presentation, the visuals have come a long way from the first entry while keeping the retro visuals intact, almost like going from an Oregon Trail vibe to something that could’ve realistically been released on the Super Nintendo. It was nice to be able to see more facial features and detail within the scenes with a much wider color palette and is easily the high point of the game. Pretty much everything that wasn’t a standout or an issue in Mothmen 1966 remains as it was, with the exception of some added features that I will touch on later. Sadly, there is still a lack of voiceovers and very minimal sound effects in general, outside of the annoying clicks and clacks as the text rolls across your screen that I yet again muted promptly.
Much like the story, the non-choice-based mechanics didn’t hit the mark with me either. There is yet another new card-based game to play that feels like it was made by a child as the game portrays, but like the many games my own child has developed on his own… it kind of sucks. Don’t get me wrong, I love my kid, but his name isn’t Hasbro and it shows. The logic behind the game is sound, but it’s so lengthy, it’s like playing a more complicated version of Solitare, which is fitting because that’s what it is. I was able to finish the mini-game without issue, but it was done while swearing after the first few hands were dealt. Moving on, the next mini-game was one that is either never explained, or I missed the instructions for it, which is fishing. I have no idea how I finished this or how it was intended to be done, I just eventually got lucky after spending about as much time in this diversion as I did with the rest of the game.
Outside of the main narrative, I was excited to see that the developers added some extra bells and whistles in the form of extra deleted scenes as well as a preview for the next entry in the trilogy: Bahnsen Knights. I found this bite-sized chunk of the next game to be better than this entry as a whole. Out of the three games, that taste of the upcoming release was enough to tell me that the folks at LCB Game Studios are clearly saving the best for last.
At the end of the day, Varney Lake wasn’t for me. Is it a bad game? I wouldn’t say it’s terrible for any obvious reasons outside of my own personal feelings of disinterest in the themes of the narrative, but if you’re a fan of Mothmen 1966, Stranger Things, or the other releases from Stephen King I’ve already mentioned, this might just be your own personal Deadpool.
6 out of 10
Pros
- Great Retro-Style Visuals That are an Improvement Over the Last Game
- The Preview of the Upcoming Bahnsen Knights
- More Content Than The First Entry
Cons
- Still Could Have Used More Choices/Branching Pathways
- Still Has Clunky Controls
- The Story Didn’t Resonate with Me
Varney Lake was developed by LCB Game Studio and published by Chorus Worldwide. It is available on NS, PC, PS4, and Xbox. The game was provided to us for review on X1 and reviewed on an XSX. If you’d like to see more of Varney Lake, check out the publisher’s site.
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