Lugaru

Lugaru HD came my way through the first Humble Indie Bundle. It didn’t really seem like my thing, but since it was part of the bundle and a couple other games (like Penumbra: Overture and Aquaria) had impressed me with how good they were I wanted to try Lugaru HD as well. Unfortunately, Lugaru HD impressed me with how bad it was.

I started out with the tutorial and noticed right away that the HD isn’t really helping here. You know how when TV stations started broadcasting HD, and some newscasters with less than perfect complexion started to be more difficult to look at? Yeah well Lugaru shows that HD isn’t a good thing when your textures aren’t pretty.

So Lugaru is about rabbits who stand upright and know kung fu, oh and then later there are wolves too. I don’t think you know about the wolves during the tutorial though, but you definitely know you’re going to be playing as a kung fu rabbit. It first teaches you how to move around (you know, the basics), including how to get on all fours and really get moving. Then it moves on to combat and teaches you somewhere around 10 combo moves one right after the other. It also shows you some weapons, which make your attacks more effective. All I was able to remember from the tutorial is how to move around (it helps that most of that is the same as it usually is) and the facts that there are combo moves and weapons. It would have been much easier to keep track of all the controls if they had been presented more slowly, giving you more time to use them in the actual game before introducing the next one.

There are a couple different modes, so I started with story mode after finishing the tutorial. There’s a map which I don’t think served any actual purpose because I never got to choose where I went next or even when I’d go. Once you defeat all enemies in an area, or have all the conversations you are supposed to have, the game brings you onward to the next level. The first level confused me a bit. I didn’t understand where I was supposed to go, and it turns out there’s no edges to the level. I set off in search for whatever it was I was supposed to do and just kept on going through mostly empty hilly terrain with maybe a few trees. i guess that’s nice when you’re in a fight to be able to run away as long as you want, but it also means you can get lost.

The story is a basic revenge story, starting out with the brutal slaughter of most of your village, including your wife and child. It’s a darker theme than I was expecting, but I’m okay with that. Even the uninspired story is acceptable since the game seems much more action-focused than story-focused. What I wasn’t okay with was the way the story was delivered. The dialog was poorly-written and reminded me of preteens trying to sound tough. Thankfully, you can skip through the dialog.

The best part of the game then is the combat. I still didn’t like it very much, probably because of not knowing the combo moves as I mentioned previously and not being able to tell what was happening due to the poor graphics. It sure moves fast though! I found myself just mashing buttons hoping for the best, after failing at actually trying to fight with some form on strategy. I was mostly incapable of dodging or blocking attacks, so after the first few enemies i was knocked down most of the time. I had a little success running away and then coming in as fast as I could, hopefully connecting an attack before running away again. Most of the time I missed though. Maybe if you have more fighting game experience than I do you’ll really like the gameplay Lugaru offers, even if the story, sound, and visuals leave a lot to be desired.

I also had trouble finding and recovering my knife when an enemy would knock it out of my hand. This usually turned into the enemy getting to it first and me having to get it back. Thankfully taking the knife back from an attacking enemy was one of the combo moves I had picked up on from the tutorial and was able to perform with a good degree of success. When I came across a bo staff it was very satisfying to knock enemies down with it. By the time I reached the first wolf though I was no match for them at all and resorted to looking up an invincibility cheat just so I could finish the game.

I can’t recommend buying Lugaru HD since I got more frustration than enjoyment out of it. Maybe give it a shot if you’re really into fighting games because I hear there’s good fighting action here, but the rest is poorly done and if you’re bad at the combat you’re not going to have anything else to keep you happy.