Livber: Smoke and Mirrors is described as an interactive psychological horror story. The game responds and changes to your choices. This creates a more personalized experience, which sounds like a cool idea for a horror game.
This isn’t something new, as other games have tried to do something similar to this. The story and visuals are what separate it from other games. I’ll be playing the demo of the game because the full version hasn’t been released yet.
I won’t be giving this game a score because it isn’t yet a completed game. Like the other demos and early access games I’ve reviewed, if I like it, I’ll do a full review of the game when it is released.
Narrative
Your character receives a letter from a woman named Lilith, which is never a good sign, especially when she is believed to have died a few years ago. The letter invites you to an old house to witness a birth.
I’m going to treat this game as if it were in early access. Most of the dialogue is fine, but there are a few strange word choices that make things a little hard to understand. I had to look them up, and I couldn’t figure out what they were supposed to be. Here is a short list:
- Distrib Grass, Distrib Herbs, and Distrib Flowers
- Circad Cycle
- Porph – I think this means raw, but I’m not really sure.
I think this is a case of things making sense in a different language. It could also be a poor word choice when translating. Sometimes you just pick the wrong word when you’re doing it. I’ve made these mistakes plenty of times when translating languages; it is fairly common.
Getting away from all that, the story is pretty good. It’s creepy and in some ways feels like a text-based Silent Hill. The main character caused the death of his wife, and returns to their home to atone for his sins.
It does change based on the choices, so the story I would describe might be different than yours. I believed Lilith was a witch, and she was doing a ritual when you turned her in. When I met her in the game, she was a reanimated corpse.
The demo lets you play the first act. There was enough here to make me want to play more.
Gameplay
There isn’t too much to say about the gameplay. Livber is a visual novel, so what you’re doing is clicking dialogue options. This is how you control the narrative, and it is also the only thing you need to do in the game at this point.
Visuals
The visuals are very good. They look a little like oil paintings to me. The pictures are dark and unsettling.
Conclusion
I like what is here. The beginning of the story is very good. The text needs to be cleaned up a bit. This is a big job, and it isn’t too bad.
If you liked this post, please check out my posts on Urban Myth Dissolution Center or Stories from Sol.