Brian is a name for you to remember, for he’ll be the one to save the world, if you can make your way through it without crashing or chugging along. No, Lirai: Heir of Darkness isn’t a driving game, but a third-person thingy set in a post-apocalyptic world where zombies loiter in preparation for you to give them a good dicing with your old-fashioned fantasy sword.
Y’see, Lirai: Heir of Darkness is currently in Early Access, and this type of game is, understandably, unfinished. A brief tutorial taught me the ways of swinging my sword about, how to run, crouch, grapple and burn, and within the shake of a donkey’s tail, the intro cutscene kicks in with an explanation of how mortal and immortal worlds have fused and now each battles for their right to exist.
Brian is part of an elite team, but has somehow got himself exiled. It’s either for his snappy dress style, vacant expressions, or that he desperately wants to be cooler than Dante. It starts fairly generic, but welcoming: abandoned cars, the undead roaming the streets and then speeding towards you upon sight to grab a selfie with Mr Looker, or at least lick his face. Your response is simple: smash the left mouse button, and chances are you’ll win.
Combat is straightforward and conceptually fluid, though the technical restraints were a pig. On the Steam Deck, it was choppy and often crashed after tweaks. Then, seeing the very literal small print on the menu screen, the game is designed for RTX40+. Running on my very capable Ryzen 9, albeit with an AMD card whose name I forget… Daryl? The crashes were less frequent, and it looked pretty, but the framerate was alarming. More so when there are multiple enemies, and you’re about to launch a demon move. Once again, the game crashed with my fans (computer ones, not the schoolgirls) going ape. Generally speaking, I run 1440p and mostly epic on games without issue.
Lirai: Heir of Darkness gave me vibes of Once Human – a title I enjoyed a lot. However, there’s no construction, and while there are guns, combat is best-suited with a sword. The real difference between the two games (not that they’re supposed to be compared) is the open world element. Lirai: Heir of Darkness gives the impression you can go as you please, though there’s a tremendous amount of obstacles to navigate, meaning it’s on rails. Worse, Brian can’t jump. So, irrespective of being behind a 12-inch barrier, Brian ain’t going over it. However, if there’s an ‘E’ present, such as a ladder, you can be treated to a fade out and teleport to the top of where you were going.
Obviously, visuals were a focal point of this game, with the exception of Brian’s head looking pig-dog-ugly, the characters and settings look pretty crisp, though the fonts with attack damage and exploding zombies, not so much. However, the clunkiness I experienced was frustrating. I didn’t mind the idea behind the game, and when it works, combat is entertaining. I’m just not currently prepared to upgrade any of my machines to get this working, and bear in mind, I’m not a demanding gamer who cares about frame rates and reflective puddles, but if I can’t play it properly, I won’t get far.
If you have a computer that meets the specs, or have more time to fiddle about with the settings (you have to exit the game to the main menu to experiment, losing progress each time), then give theLirai: Heir of Darkness demo a go, as it’s available at the moment on Steam. I believe it’s the same build I had to review, but fingers crossed it plays better for you.
