Purveyor of Previews: Lifelike
Purveyor of Previews is a weekly feature where Janette looks at demos of upcoming games! Join us this week as we explore appliance mayhem in Lifelike!
Lifelike is an indie rpg which pleasantly surprised me. There’s a lot to like about the game, and going by the demo, this will be a fun game.
Taking place in Greenbury, Ohio, the game starts a few weeks after the death of a local appliance store owner. Suddenly, inanimate objects come to life and start attacking people. Dubbed Animates and causing havoc, a task force of magic users has been assembled to hunt them down. This force is overworked and understaffed, and the main character Leo wants a day off. But when an unknown entity calls from inside the appliance store, Leo must take another job and investigate where this madness started.
The demo clocks in at about 30 minutes to 1 hour and covers Leo completing this job. Players are introduced to the world, characters, and combat system.
I really like the art style of the game. It’s cartoony, but not goofy. It has a lot of personalities. There's also a lot of small details, such as when exiting Leo’s house, there’s a noticeable wind that evokes a breezy midwestern fall day and sets the tone quite nicely. The monster's designs look great and are fun to look at as well as fight.
There's a diverse cast of characters, all of whom are likable. Leo, especially as a tired jaded teen, would be annoying in any other context but is super relatable in this game. I ended up really feeling for Leo, and their family issues and their general angst.
The story and setting were captivating with a very midwest sense of humor and grabbed me right away. By the end of the demo, I wanted more. The world is very well realized and fleshed out with many little details, and I felt fully immersed in Greenbury, Ohio.
I also really liked the combat system. It’s a sort of high-risk high reward system where the player can attempt to block attacks...as long as they have skill points. Skill points are in short supply, though they can be replenished by defending during a team. The key is knowing when to attack, and what attack or magic to use. Everything is interactive, in the style of Paper Mario, and actions must be executed properly to make the most of them. There’s a lot of room for trying different things to see what works, even in the limited scope of the demo. Be aware though, if players don’t understand how the combat works, it is a slog. I struggled with it at first but once it clicked, I breezed through the battles.
All in all, I think Lifelike is a great demo well worth the player’s time. I had a blast. The demo can be found on itch.io, and the game is currently available for a preorder price of 10.00 USD. It appears it’s going to be released in episodic format.
Do you have an indie demo you’d like Janette to check out? Please email them @ possumcoffee@thegeeklygrind.com and let them know!
Do you want to hear Janette talk about the new Digimon? Check them out in the Talking Mon’s podcast, part of The Ink and Paint Club podcasts included in The Geekly Grind Network.