With most of the AAA titles shifted into the second half of 2020, indie titles are all we have got to fill the early 2020 and some of these indie titles are just brilliant. The latest one to arrive is Lumote by Luminawesome Games in which we play as a squishy and colorful creature called Lumote who is trying to get rid of his world from the evil clutches of the Mastermote. This is our review of Lumote in which we jump, possess and try to turn the red into blue on Steam.
One of the first things you notice right after booting up the game is the amazingly pretty world of Lumote. No, Lumote is not an open-world game but still, the whole game simply lies in front of you. Instead of making different levels, Luminawesome Games has developed Lumote in such a way that all puzzles are in your view right from the start of the game. If you move the camera around, you are able to see almost the whole world of Lumote in your surroundings.
In the world of Lumote, two colors determine which side rules the world. Blue is your color while red is the color of Mastermote whom we are trying to defeat. As you complete puzzles and conquer levels, the levels will switch from red to blue. Blue stages show that the levels have been completed while the red levels show that they are still under the rule of Mastermote. To take over levels, you will need to solve the puzzle that lies in front of you.
Each stage will present a different puzzle for you. The alien world of Lumote is full of different lifeforms that you can possess and control. Each puzzle essentially has the same design to complete but the method is different and unique for all levels. To open the exit of the current level and proceed to the next one, you must possess and move the local creatures known as motes and plant them on power nodes. These places are not exactly called power nodes but it looks like a power node so that is what I will be calling them throughout my review.
When you put these motes on the power nodes, the veins in the area will turn from red to blue and once all power nodes are powered up, the exit will have enough power and it will unlock. You cannot move to the next puzzle unless you have cleared the one you currently are on. Every time you clear a puzzle and move on to the next one, as soon as you exit through the gate, the game is saved automatically so if you fall down or want to restart the current puzzle, you can do so quickly and without the worry of playing a lot of previous sections again.
The ultimate goal of Lumote is to keep clearing the smaller puzzle levels until you reach the main tower where a mega mote is waiting for you to possess and move to a massive power node. Once done, the mega mote will power up the tower and thus will turn a major tower to blue reducing the control of Mastermote over the world of Lumote. There are six total towers in the game which must be turned blue by solving all the different puzzles in your path.
The main start of Lumote is none other than Lumote itself. Lumote is a small, cute and squishy bioluminescent creature who is from the same world. As the world slumbers under the control of Mastermote, Lumote is hell-bent on removing his evil control from the world and bring it back to life. I really loved the world of Lumote as everything feels alive in the world. The power nodes have moving tentacles, veins turn red and blue in a very vivid fashion and even the platforms that you possess are actually creatures.
These creatures are there for your help however some of these creatures also serve Mastermote and will make solving puzzles difficult for you. Normally, you will be working with machinery that has turned blue but sometimes you will need to rely on the red machinery as well to help you solve some puzzles. Using Mastermote’s own powers to help you take control over Lumote is the ultimate form of badassery in the game. The puzzles are not too complicated and even if they are complicated, the vivid colors and squishy mechanics of Lumote really push you into solving them in order to complete the entire game.
Apart from the pretty visuals, the audio design of Lumote is also pretty solid. Everything has a certain alien sound to it. Audio cues and music makes the world of Lumote feel even more alive and really compliment the alien world of Lumote. The world looks pretty much the setting of a great alien shooter rather than a puzzle game. I can easily say that so far, Lumote is the prettiest puzzle game I have played this year. Everything about the game is top-notch and I am sure that everyone will say the same who has played this game.
Final Verdict:
Everything about Lumote wants you to play the game. The puzzles, the vivid colors, beautiful world, squishy Lumote and the audio design of the title. Lumote does not feel like an indie game at all. I had a great time playing Lumote and I will highly recommend that you give this game a shot because I am pretty sure that even if puzzle games are not your forte, the beautiful world of Lumote is not to be missed. It is a world full of life, activity and puzzles that will keep you entertained for a decent amount of time and even comes with a New Game+ option. The best part of Lumote is when you stop playing it. Lumote begins to sing. Go buy it right now.
Final Score: 9.5/10
