It felt like the general theme of PAX East this year was “games with classic feels to them.” There were plenty of games to play on the show floor with classic puzzle solving or platforming. Lumote was no different as you played the role of the lumote, trying to make your way through each puzzle, to the end of the challenge.
Puzzles can range from simplistic to tough as nails in a blink of an eye. You’ll need to get your lumote from one end to the other by taking control of the Motes, the inhabitants of the world. The lumote has two abilities, jumping and possession, and you’ll have to master both of them to make your way to the Mastermote. There are red and blue areas; the Mastermote controls the red and Lumote controls the blue areas. Taking control of the motes allows you to use their abilities to get further along. There are switches that you'll have to change color to activate so keep an eye out for those.
The game is a 3D puzzle platformer and it uses all of the 3D, as you’ll have to turn the camera to see everything. You’ll use the blue power you control as well as the red to activate switches and lifts to get through each puzzle. There are 50 puzzles in total, each more challenging than the last. The further you advance, the more challenging elements you’ll encounter. From lasers to deactivate to lifts to sync, you’ll never know what’s around the next corner.
In my opinion, the puzzles didn’t get challenging until the second tower, and then they got really tough. They were challenging because you needed to use multiple motes to change the color patterns on the platforms. You also needed to raise the platforms to get all the motes to the top so all the platforms were blue. You’ll have to put all your puzzle-solving skills to the test. For a game that needs to have pinpoint camera angles and controls, Lumote knocks it out of the park. You’ll have to look in several angles to see everything as well as make perfect jumps to solve each puzzle.
There are six towers and fifty puzzles in total. You’ll have to use all your platforming skills you’ve mastered over the years to overthrow the Mastermote. You’ll have to double jump at times to make your way through the challenges. You might change the color of a mote, thinking it will help you, and in actuality will make things tougher. In some circumstances, you’ll change the color and it makes platforms or lifts return to their original setup. If that’s over a cliff, you’ll fall. On the plus side, you don’t have lives to lose in Lumote. You’ll just get sent back to the most recent checkpoint, which is usually the start of the puzzle you were working on.
The platforming and puzzle solving is done right in Lumote. They’re challenging but they’re not impossible so you’ll be able to progress if you think about how to solve each puzzle.
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replySteve Tyminski posted a new article, Lumote Hands-On Preview at Pax East 2020
