Lazaretto: Chapter 1 Review
Note: This review is from July 7th of this year. I posted it in the comments on John Wolfe's video. (Shameless plug for my favorite YouTuber) I watched the full playthrough, and the people in the comments seemed confused. The developer replied to my comment as I tried to piece together the story and give critique. Here's what they had to say:
Here's the content of the review. I hope you enjoy.
I think I can see sort of where the story is going. This might just be me making connections where they aren’t, but I’ll give it a go to try to help out. I also spent like an hour mapping out characters and events. (I have no life other than to analyze story.)
You’re an urban explorer, and you go to Lazaretto to hopefully get some great pics to up your Insta followers. As soon as you get in, you find out that something went down, but nobody knows what it is. The most information you get was that it happened on a Saturday Night.
Other Saturday Night events: Frank had to work Sat. Night - Sunday. Nurse Haley mentions event on Saturday Night that they needed overtime for (which was approved). These two are speculation, but the seance was probably held on a Saturday Night, and Professor Cain’s Human Zoo mentions it happens “____y Nights on the Island Lazaretto”. Wouldn’t put it past them to have it also on a Saturday Night.
When you actually get to the hospital bit, you start to get some information. Because of her face, maybe Sally was a patient? A note says that her mother had to be a monster, too. (paraphrasing) Loretta was either also a patient or she orchestrated something monstrous on the island. (She did want to meet everyone in the barn for some kind of retribution with bits of Sally’s mask.) No one she talks to appears later, though there’s a nurse named Rose and also she has a note for Rose. Also the name Marion is a derivative of Marie which comes from Mary. (Reaching, but it’s something.)
The nurse’s quarters open a whole other can of worms. Here’s a list of the nurses and whether or not they signed up for the seance.
Gertrude (Gertie): Y
June: N
Elizabeth (Betts): Y
Marguerite (Rita): Y
Rose (Rosemary): N
Mary: no, no, NO!
Beatrice (Bea): Y
Agnes (Aggie): N
Haley (Head Nurse): Has to be there
Grace: wasn’t invited? Her name isn’t on the list.
Apparently, this seance involves Madame Iannuzzi (spelled Ianuzzi in subsequent mentions) coming and conducting it. Apparently things levitate and she goes into a trance, possibly opening the spirit world? Anyway, Mary goes full Christian and plasters her room in crosses. She takes the crystal ball, hides it, locks it up, and then locks the key to it up in a box she borrows from Grace. She only tells June, who urges her to return it. She also gets obsessive about telling Father Roberto, writing but not sending letters to him it seems. She intended to tell him about her issues on Sunday, especially her feeling that she has the marks of Christ. I’m guessing Sunday was the day after Saturday Night when the incident happened. Seems most likely.
Things get blurry once we enter the spirit world. No idea what’s going on there. The doors are labeled Exploitation (Boat Ride, maybe explaining that Madame iannuzzi has an ulterior motive?), Delusion (Maze, not sure about symbolism), Repulsion (Spiders. Gross.), and Oppression (Spinny funhouse area). Just the words make me think of Prof. Cain’s Human Zoo using disfigured people to make a profit as human zoos were for that purpose with their “sideshow freaks”. Not sure about the end other than that you’re in for a crazy party.
Finally onto my commentary on the game. I think there are more characters than can be dealt with initially. I had a hard time figuring them out at face value (hence the character mapping I had to do to write this.) Also, since I’m not sure about the plot, the story could use more. I liked the end cutscene, so maybe utilize those instead of notes? Not too many, but a mixture could help. All of the character animations are neat, and it seems to be a strong point for y'all.
Here's the content of the review. I hope you enjoy.
I think I can see sort of where the story is going. This might just be me making connections where they aren’t, but I’ll give it a go to try to help out. I also spent like an hour mapping out characters and events. (I have no life other than to analyze story.)
You’re an urban explorer, and you go to Lazaretto to hopefully get some great pics to up your Insta followers. As soon as you get in, you find out that something went down, but nobody knows what it is. The most information you get was that it happened on a Saturday Night.
Other Saturday Night events: Frank had to work Sat. Night - Sunday. Nurse Haley mentions event on Saturday Night that they needed overtime for (which was approved). These two are speculation, but the seance was probably held on a Saturday Night, and Professor Cain’s Human Zoo mentions it happens “____y Nights on the Island Lazaretto”. Wouldn’t put it past them to have it also on a Saturday Night.
When you actually get to the hospital bit, you start to get some information. Because of her face, maybe Sally was a patient? A note says that her mother had to be a monster, too. (paraphrasing) Loretta was either also a patient or she orchestrated something monstrous on the island. (She did want to meet everyone in the barn for some kind of retribution with bits of Sally’s mask.) No one she talks to appears later, though there’s a nurse named Rose and also she has a note for Rose. Also the name Marion is a derivative of Marie which comes from Mary. (Reaching, but it’s something.)
The nurse’s quarters open a whole other can of worms. Here’s a list of the nurses and whether or not they signed up for the seance.
Gertrude (Gertie): Y
June: N
Elizabeth (Betts): Y
Marguerite (Rita): Y
Rose (Rosemary): N
Mary: no, no, NO!
Beatrice (Bea): Y
Agnes (Aggie): N
Haley (Head Nurse): Has to be there
Grace: wasn’t invited? Her name isn’t on the list.
Apparently, this seance involves Madame Iannuzzi (spelled Ianuzzi in subsequent mentions) coming and conducting it. Apparently things levitate and she goes into a trance, possibly opening the spirit world? Anyway, Mary goes full Christian and plasters her room in crosses. She takes the crystal ball, hides it, locks it up, and then locks the key to it up in a box she borrows from Grace. She only tells June, who urges her to return it. She also gets obsessive about telling Father Roberto, writing but not sending letters to him it seems. She intended to tell him about her issues on Sunday, especially her feeling that she has the marks of Christ. I’m guessing Sunday was the day after Saturday Night when the incident happened. Seems most likely.
Things get blurry once we enter the spirit world. No idea what’s going on there. The doors are labeled Exploitation (Boat Ride, maybe explaining that Madame iannuzzi has an ulterior motive?), Delusion (Maze, not sure about symbolism), Repulsion (Spiders. Gross.), and Oppression (Spinny funhouse area). Just the words make me think of Prof. Cain’s Human Zoo using disfigured people to make a profit as human zoos were for that purpose with their “sideshow freaks”. Not sure about the end other than that you’re in for a crazy party.
Finally onto my commentary on the game. I think there are more characters than can be dealt with initially. I had a hard time figuring them out at face value (hence the character mapping I had to do to write this.) Also, since I’m not sure about the plot, the story could use more. I liked the end cutscene, so maybe utilize those instead of notes? Not too many, but a mixture could help. All of the character animations are neat, and it seems to be a strong point for y'all.
Comments
Post a Comment