Lumo is a classic isometric adventure title along the lines of games like Knight Lore from Rare during their early days. The developers call it the rebirth of the genre and I have to agree. I can’t think of another studio that’s attempted to make a modern isometric adventure which harkens back to the originals in recent years. Don’t be fooled by its simple-looking design though, there are many secrets hidden among the levels and it’s all about exploring areas which aren’t even visible or plainly accessible. It’s a lot of fun even though it has some vexing technical problems.
The story is quite simple. You make your way to a video game arcade and go to the newest and coolest gadget. Unfortunately, this gadget sucks you into the game similar to what happened to poor Jeff Bridges in Tron. However, unlike Tron, you take on the role of a wizard and have to find your way back after solving multiple puzzles and platforming challenges. There’s also a cute little yellow duck to collect in many levels.
The different rooms have all kinds of devious traps to avoid. There are jets that shoot fire, poisonous substances scattered across the floor, and crumbling platforms that require precise movement to manipulate. The level variety is astonishing and the puzzles, or other challenges when it comes to traversing the environment, always seem doable. It’s a difficult game but it’s never unfair.
From what I’ve been told, the game features over 400 rooms across four unique zones, six hidden minigames and even more secrets. It’s definitely a title which embodies replayability. Also, for the younger gamers out there, be sure to jump on shelves and then over walls. That’s the only way to access the secret areas hidden upstairs. This might seem like odd advice right now but when you play the game you’ll know exactly what I mean.
As much as I love Lumo, there’s one aspect of the experience on Xbox One that really grinds my gears. The graphics on the console are very blurry and textures appear to be of a significantly lower quality than those available on Steam. While I realize that there’s a massive power difference between consoles and any Windows-based gaming machine, Lumo isn’t a graphically demanding title. It doesn’t even use the entire screen for goodness’ sake. It renders a minuscule room at a time.
The Xbox One can handle games like Ryse: Son of Rome and make them look sharp with phenomenal antialiasing. Games that released recently like The Technomancer or Inside also use very high quality assets to make the graphics sharp. Why Lumo makes you question your eyesight is beyond me. Surely the developers could’ve put more work into optimization to make the title pop. Staring at the screen for extended periods of time where you have to look at the blurry mess is a jarring experience. As I’ve said in many previous pieces, and I hate to sound like a broken record here, but developers need to address this issue. Console gamers care about visual presentation to a degree—maybe not as much as those who have expensive computers—and we notice when a title looks odd on our televisions. The blurriness is so bad that even adjusting the built-in sharpness settings doesn’t do much. In my opinion this is absolutely unacceptable.
To add insult to injury, there are annoying loading screens after ever room transition. While I got used to them after awhile, it’s still quite strange. There’s no reason a game like this should have loading screens after every room. As I stated before, the rooms are tiny, only a few blocks each, and many are mostly empty apart from the few puzzles. How was this not recognized as an issue during quality control? I really hope the developers take this to heart and improve the technical aspects of the game. It heavily detracts from the amazing gameplay in my opinion and will irk many customers.
Despite the problems, Lumo is a lot of fun and maybe I’m just a little too sensitive when it comes to even the slightest technical problem. However, I believe that many gamers share my concerns when it comes to the titles they purchase. They will want to know about this rather than be surprised once they engage with the title.
Summary
Overall, Lumo is a great game and evokes massive amounts of nostalgia. It’s definitely a revival of a long-lost genre and blends modern controls and mechanics with the rigid isometric setting. It does this in a perfectly balanced way. I can’t recommend this game enough even with the visual issues I encountered during my playthrough. Old and young gamers alike will definitely enjoy the title and keep on playing it until they discover all of its secrets. It’s brilliant and addictive in terms of gameplay.
Asher is a games journalist, former News Writer (Gaming) at Windows Central. They contributed 1110 articles to ICXM between 2015–2017, focused on opinion pieces, game reviews, Windows and PC, and Xbox news: wrote over 1,100 ICXM pieces on Xbox news, hardware reviews, and platform commentary before joining Future plc’s Windows Central in 2017.