The Harvester Friv Games Horror Quest PC ( Horses , Downfall , The Cat Lady , now Lorelai ) is as if Andrei Zvyagintsev's films , where depression, domestic chernukha and general darkness are intertwined with mysticism, were filmed in the language of Marilyn Manson video clips (Marilyn Manson; first of all about Sweet Dreams). Is that in Lorelai less heavy rock, and more Evanescence. It turns out just as crazy, scary, depressive, stylish and generally very cool. These games have already received the status of cult, and their author, Remigush Michalski(Remigiusz Michalski), is now considered an artist who creates real art - even if in places very uncomfortable. And yet, with all the similarities of the three projects, Lorelai is very different from the others.

The action of the trilogy unfolds in the universe Devil Came Through Here, invented by Michalski. The first in 2009 came Downfall: A Horror Adventure Game , which was primarily remembered by an abundance of creepy, bloody scenes. There were so many of them, and everything was so throbbing in a mad nightmare that some — I know that personally — even got sick of what they saw.

The picture was stylish, but kind of dirty, untidy. In combination with poor technical performance, this would leave the game at the level of a niche indie trash, if not for the gorgeous soundtrack and in a good way crazy, complex plot. The story told about how the main character, who is on the verge of divorcing his wife, stops at the hotel of a provincial town with her, after which they quarrel, the spouse disappears without a trace, and the husband finds himself between the world of the living and the dead. Taking difficult decisions and periodically performing terrible actions, we could influence the ending.

In 2012, Harvester Games released The Cat Ladywhere both the picture and the technical execution were already at a qualitatively different level. And the story told about a lonely woman who lived with cats, inviting them to her apartment to play the piano. Then she killed herself, but again she came to the border between the worlds, where she met the local Mephistopheles - the Queen of Hearts. She offered her a deal - to kill five people, "parasites" in exchange for a return to life and even immortality. Atmospheric music, very lively, emotional dialogues and well-written characters were attached.

In 2016, a Downfall remake was released , in which Rem Michalski not only corrected the overall visual style, clearly looking at The Cat Lady, but also removed the logical inconsistencies of the original, effectively linking the two stories together. Not everyone liked it, but everyone was looking forward to the third part, which the author clearly hinted at.

Well, what is not the "City of Sins"?

They waited. Lorelai , the final part of this trilogy, came out and did not disappoint in general. And purely visually, this is probably the best that Michalski drew today . Here he mixes 2D and 3D for the first time, while not forgetting to constantly change the angle and color palette, moving from bright, almost poisonous colors to a stylish black and red and black and white palette, alternating large and long-range plans in a short frame space, adding different tricky ones filters, blur. And flooding it all with walls of rain, with a view of drops flowing down the glass, which together with the sadly beautiful music so accurately reflect the inner state of the main character.

Girl Laura (but all her name is Lorelai) with a rose bud in black hair seems to live in the same Zvyagintsev film. The father died, the mother smokes, drinks and suffers from depression, the stepfather (who, naturally, barely dries out) beats the mother and periodically sticks to her eldest daughter. Yes, Lorelai has an infant sister Bethany, whom her mother’s boyfriend doesn’t tolerate. Studying in college also went wrong, and Lorelai is forced to go wash the old women in the nursing home.

At some point, the mother ends with her, and her stepfather flies off the coils - and the bloody horror that is usual for this series begins. After death, Lorelai falls into a strange border dimension, where she meets the same Queen of Hearts. That, as usual, offers to bring her back to life, but not for her beautiful eyes ...

From this point on, the action constantly switches between the past and the present, the boundaries of reality shift, Laura then perishes, then revives and moves between the world of the living and the possessions of the Queen of Hearts. And we, like in previous games, desperately do not understand, it happens in a dream or in reality.

"Who will kiss me for the night?"

Mikhalski , of course, uses familiar tricks. The corridors of the apartment may be stained with bloody patterns and inscriptions, and going out into the kitchen, Lorelai risks falling into another dimension. There are practically no scrimers, but there are mannequins that suddenly grow behind their backs and at some point they must turn their heads. Or, for example, dead old women in a nursing home, even after death, begin to squeeze the alarm button, calling for help in the ward with eerie pictures. What will happen if you reach out to their hands and unclasp your palm - you know ...

However, performed by Rem Michalskieven the clichés are impressive because of how stylish, powerful and atmospheric it is served. A special role is played by music, due to which a more or less measured narration (well, as far as this can be said in general in this case) is periodically turned into cool music videos. As a result, it all starts to look like some kind of art-house cinema - well, or the typical series of Noah Hawley 's Legion.

To die, so with music. And smile!

Problems our heroine solves the corresponding. Find the decapitated corpses of herself and the mother, and then find their heads and attach them back; on stepfather put on a pig snout; properly arrange objects on the graves of members of their families (and on their own, of course, too); pull the key out of the mouth of a dead shark - what is it, huh?

Thank God, Michalski does not lose his sense of humor. Laura has a funny neighbor Zack, who loves video games and makes them himself. In a conversation with him, you can listen to hilarious stories about what projects he is currently preparing for 10 minutes of real time - and even play some of them (naturally, “pixel”). Zach, in particular, assures that the authors of Fortnite and similar royal battles stole the idea from him.

There is also a kind of QTE.

One day he will offer to help open the lock - because he has seen it done in Skyrim. The heroine herself recalls that cats seem to be afraid of cucumbers, and willingly uses this knowledge to make a street cat moaning, screaming and jumping, rush off into the distance and drag you along to prevent us from walking the dog.

Easier means worse?

In Lorelai, everything is fine - the visual style, music, dialogue, plot, characters, who, despite the mystic reigning around, are very similar to real people. However, if you compare the game with the previous parts of this trilogy, you can see that the puzzles have become much simpler (we mainly search, use and combine one or two items from the inventory), and the story is more understandable, simple and concise. In any other case it would be considered a blessing, but from the horror of the Harvester Games you expect exactly that higher degree of madness, flourishing complexity and wild, inexplicable actions. In other words, here we get "Leviathan" of the same Zvyagintsev (well, or "Fool" by Yury Bykov) about bytovuhu, only with a powerful mysticism - and I would like, for example, the "Antichrist" of Lars von Trieyer (Lars von Trier)!

As before, we periodically make decisions about what to do and what to answer: to be bold and even rude or obedient; to smoke your first cigarette or not; call Zach your boyfriend or keep your distance; pour a laxative into the tea of ​​a nasty older sister in a nursing home or try to build a relationship with her. But now the decisions have become more obvious - and by and large only one or two of them will somehow influence the final.

The variety of visual solutions in this game is amazing.

Other dilemmas do not cause the same emotional response. In The Cat Lady at some point it depended on us whether we bring the main character to hysterics or not. And in Lorelai, something similar happens only in relation to the unfamiliar uncle - well, what do we care about him?

On the other hand, we must understand that times have changed. And today, the authors (which was noticeable even in the remake of Downfall ) also work for a new audience. That is why, apparently, they decided to make the story more sane, accessible. In addition, if we are talking about the final part of the trilogy, then it was clearly important to dot the i, to finally give answers. In this regard, the decision to simplify the plot, to finalize the image of the same Queen of Hearts (though not everyone may like exactly how it is done) looks just right.

By the way, in Lorelai there are a lot of references to Downfall and The Cat Lady- All the authors have tried to more or less put together. Apparently, including, therefore, it took to make the story more linear - so that the players with an abundance of their decisions did not tear the folding puzzle to pieces.

A typical situation for this game.

***

In any case, both Lorelai and the whole great-crazy trilogy from Harvester Games- this is, of course, a phenomenon. What began as a niche indie nightmare, eventually turned into the same niche, independent, but already real art - with outstanding visual and musical accompaniment, non-trivial directing.