GAMEPLAY 3/10
THEME AND EXECUTION 6.5/10
Although it has a (unnecessarily) slow start, I was quite hooked on hooked on the theme it presented. The protagonist goes through a hellish descent battling her body dysmorphia, eating disorder, toxic relationship and an unwanted pregnancy leading to an abortion. However, mid game all these topics change to something completely unrelated and become a hodgepodge of horror cliches. As one Steam reviewer put it "Lost in Vivo is a love letter to all horror", as the player goes through many fears ranging from claustrophobia to an experiment-gone-wrong situation. But, the protagonist doesn't change nor does the reason you are in this situation (to find your dog) so it made no sense why the narrative shifted so wildly. The evil doc is foreshadowed during the opening scene, and later tied to this SCP-like segment of the game, but again they switched the narrative and alinated the story from the protagonist's main struggles.
The spatial audio adds a lot, and is well made, although oftentimes it's overused. There is tension music in a corridor where nothing happens, or something happened previously but I already killed that enemy so there's no danger but the sounds are still blaring in my ears which just makes it annoying and not scary. There is a specific sound which I though was linked to a specific enemy, which you know is good design, but then it just... wasn't? Expecting to see that guy I aimed high but then got hit by a bunch of cockroaches on the ground so like...okay.
There were several mega frustrating times during the gameplay; some enemies spawn behind you or around the corners giving you atleast one free hit, so unless you have played already you can't expect it. This is something many games do, and it's equally annoying if you don't give a proper heads up to the player like a sound queue or an animation of the enemy spawning instead of just appearing out of nowhere (pointed at those maggots which I couldn't even see the first time).
There are many weapons at your disposal, but most of them are actually useless. Many enemies either hit faster than your melee speed, or have more HP than you, and since you don't regen over time using melee is basically useless as there is never just one enemy in the level. The visual semiotics don't make any sense, I thought hitting the mirror with a sledgehammer would kill it faster, in the end everything should be dealt with a firearm. The designer was imo way too generous with the weapon variety. If there is no actual versatility in your arsenal, there is no point in making 5 different weapons.
Up next the most infuriating segment, the "endless corridor - apple eating" scene.
[spoiler]I got so annoyed that I gave up and looked at a gameplay. This whole segment makes zero sense. The first time I died to an unkillable oversized fetus I though "okay guess I did something wrong, let me look at the space better". Following the paintings on the wall, the initial "pretty" one being faux and leading you the bad way, and the true one. Eventually it all leads to the apple part of this story. Eat the apple, vomit, do it 5 times again, get killed. Then I though "okay, I'm doing something wrong again, I'll just not eat the apple and take a stance against bulimia that way". Nah, what you're supposed to do is actually eat the apple then understand the iron bars which close in until you vomit are actually fake! It'S a MeTapHor! Well your metaphor sucks. There are certain affordances in each game and this was just horribly communicated. The bars should have been more clearly an illusion, it's not the metaphor which is so bad here, it's the execution of it.[/spoiler]
Afterwards we reach the part I have already slightly touched upon, the SCP-like experiments which was a very forgettable experience. The only thing I did like there was the [spoiler]fake ending in the elevator[/spoiler].
Finally the last portion of the game. Oh my god. [spoiler]Back to the mention of the toxic ex which was lost somewhere along the way, idk if the dev tried getting back on track with that or what. Endless circles to kill the final "boss". The space can be confusing to navigate, luckily you have a map! But opening the map pauses the game, meaning the big scary thing chasing you is boiled down to a nuisance because of the constant breaking of the flow. I wound up in the wrong corridor many times, admittedly my poor navigational skills, but then I could just squeeze past this huge enemy without taking any damage. This isn't the first time an enemy got stuck in its attack animation, making it just awkwardly stand there. Really not a thing you want in a horror game.[/spoiler]
The ending feels really underwhelming and rushed, it's just so sudden. I looked up how to get the bad endings, 'cuz really I just played it through with little effort and got the best one possible. Which is maybe fine? IDK, usually in the survival horror genre you need to make some nonsensical moves to get the "true" ending, maybe I am a victim of conditioned awful design choices and just got surprised at the simplicity of Vivo's climax.
I get the feeling it wants to be Cry of Fear so bad, but then it gets greedy and wants to be Silent Hill, and Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and SCP and.....
To sum it all up, Lost in Vivo has a strong start and deals with the fears and trauma presented really well, but then it all falls apart. The gameplay was more infuriating and boring than scary and immersive. The music and sound design was good, the textures and models were nice for the vibe it was going for. Unfortunately I would have dropped it, had I not been obligated to finish the game.
