Lucius III

 PC
Metascore
tbd

No score yet - based on 2 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 2
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 2
  3. Negative: 2 out of 2
  1. Adventure Gamers
    Jun 5, 2019
    30
    An attempt to right the wrongs of a terrible second game goes wayward, as Lucius III misses the mark in nearly every way.
  2. CD-Action
    Mar 25, 2019
    20
    Lucius III is outrageously buggy, it’s like a museum where you can experience every notable fail and mistake a developer can make. The saddest part is that the fundamental idea for the game was actually pretty good. [02/2019, p.65]
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User Reviews

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User Score
3.1

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 17 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 17
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 17
  3. Negative: 12 out of 17
  1. keredd1010
    Jan 6, 2019
    2
    A buggy mess. They should be ashamed of themselves releasing a game in this condition. Thank god I pirated it first.
  2. pppoopoowewebut
    Apr 13, 2019
    3
    This review contains spoilers, click full review link to view. Lucius III is a mess, both technically and in terms of storytelling. To say this game might be slightly unstable comes close to being one of the grandest overstatements of all time. Even watching people with higher end gaming rigs play this on YouTube, you can see at various moments how broken the game is, with such issues as models not fully loading or clipping into each other being present. It's also not very well optimized. For a game that looks this outdated, it shouldn't require a beast to run just decently.

    Then, there's the story. Woah, boy. I wanted to give it a chance, all the Steam reviews talk about it being the best part of the game, after all. In a way, it is, but that doesn't mean it's great or anything. The issue is that none of it really feels developed or well earned. Characters have traits, but rarely any motivation. This is especially obvious when you examine McGuffin's character. It's revealed that McGuffin, who has been helping the eponymous protagonist since Lucius II, is only really interested in Lucius as he's dealing with loss and having a kid to treat as his own child has become a way for him to cope. This is a brilliant idea, but it's never explored to its fullest. We see McGuffin doing things like trying to get Lucius into a schooling program and making him Breakfast, but we're never shown much more than that. We're never shown the significance of his loss, we just know, through poorly executed cinematics and some references he makes in the beginning, that he had a kid. This can mostly be pinned down to one simple con that remains throughout all three games: Lucius is a boring protagonist. He hardly ever faces any substantial conflict, and when he does, he crushes it (or has it crushed for him) within seconds. There are no stakes in any of the three games' stories that improve or highlight subtle elements of his character. He's a blank slate for the player to put their own impression on. While this might have been passable the first two times, it absolutely ruins Lucius III. The stories in the first two games were present but were never the true highlight of the game. What the developers were going for here seems to be a Last of Us-like character arc, but the thing about The Last of Us was that both Joel and Ellie were relatable and you understood why they needed each other by the end. That just isn't present here. The most disappointing aspect of the story is that it just doesn't really go anywhere. The description promises a rich experience full of stakes and character moments. Aside from some stuff with McGuffin at the beginning and near the end, it doesn't really have those. Lucius kills some people, McGuffin dies, and then he either kills an Angel or goes to heaven.

    Now let's talk about the kills. The first game made them seem more brutal than they actually were and made each one seem important. After you killed somebody, you had characters from around the mansion referring to their death, you had descriptions of the kill before and after each level, you had cutscenes where the kill actually impacted the plot. Not so present here. The kills are never more than comical. They're gory, but the way the death cutscenes are handled, they're anything but shocking. After you kill somebody, that's it for that character and they almost never get referenced again. This is especially egregious with the new optional kills and, in specific, the optional kills that deal with kids. The family of the kids is never shown grieving. Every time you go back to their household, you see their father acting as if nothing has changed, and when you visit their mother, she never seems worried about them. It's like they never existed at all.

    There's also an Open World. It's empty and, sadly, the developers haven't implemented it well. The whole thing has a Myst-like eeriness to it that the developers rarely, if ever, exploit. Traversal is slow, with flight being clunky (although, bless their hearts, the developers were kind enough to add fast travel points). It feels unnecessary and just seems like filler in between mission objectives. Also, where's the tricycle? For a series staple, it's mysteriously absent here.

    I wanted to like this game. I was actually pretty excited for its December 13th release date. I wanted to see the developers learn from their mistakes and succeed. In a sense, they've tried, but their attempts to rectify all of their past mistakes seem to be just as iffy, if not more iffy, than the original mistakes that were made. It's a shame because there's tons of potential here. I'd love to play a game where you're a young antichrist being guided and trained to be a respectable member of society by a morally questionable middle-aged man who has lost his mind in loss and loneliness. This is, sadly, not that game.    … Full Review »
  3. Alex88
    Jan 8, 2019
    10
    I think this game need a chance. Yes, it's buggy and laggy but... Lucius III is still better than 2nd part.
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