Livber: Smoke and Mirrors’ demo is a deeply haunting dinner invitation
Would you agree to meet an ex who you haven’t seen for five years? What if that ex died five years ago? Oh, and they were executed because you reported them for dabbling in dark sorcery. That’s the harrowing scenario facing you in Livber: Smoke and Mirrors’ demo and it’s unlikely to end well.
Slay the Princess meets Disco Elysium with a dab of Fatal Attraction, Livber: Smoke and Mirrors is a narrative-driven horror game that’s seriously unsettling from the start. The narrator’s not as contrary as Slay the Princess’s but it’s hinted that your own recollections are unreliable. Given that words are your only defence against ex Lilith, I felt I was going in seriously under-armed.
That’s not to say that Lilith immediately goes for your throat. It’d be more comforting if she greeted you with anger. Instead, as you sit in the dimly-lit room where she’s chosen to meet, she’s genuinely eager to reconnect. The gorgeous art helps dial up the atmosphere. It gives the impression you’re looking at an oil painting, but move the mouse and it’s apparent you’re in a 3D space. Her space.
I’m not going to detail the conversation that ensues, because it deserves to be experienced. But the dialogue and description drip unease, to the point where I found myself spending a good minute or two dwelling on every option, for fear of invoking her concealed wrath. But if you go along with what she has planned for the two of you, that may be an even worse fate.
There’s no spoken dialogue in Livber: Smoke and Mirrors’ demo. However, the final game will boast 60,000 words of dialogue, 10,000 of which will be voiced. I get chills just thinking about Lilith’s words crawling their way into my ears. It’ll also feature eight endings (mine played on the nature of existence), so you’ll really have to watch your words. It may just turn you vegetarian, too.
I’m intrigued and a little terrified to see where the full game takes this disturbing tale. Livber: Smoke and Mirrors releases on Steam this October 1st. In the meantime, you can wishlist it and download the demo here.
