I was weeping by the time I got to the end of Lucidity (LucasArts, rated everyone). I hadn't expected the video game, available on PC and Xbox Live Arcade (USD$10 or 800 points), to be so affecting, but this finely designed game, which tells the story of a young girl searching for her grandmother, snuck up on me.
Sofi imagines a life of adventure when reading in bed before sleep. Her grandmother, Nana, knits in a rocking chair nearby. But the young girl wakes in the dead of night to an empty room, and follows a frog-like creature into an ethereal dreamscape.
Moving slowly but with a confident strut, Sofi traverses the screen from left to right through a fantastic world inspired by gardens, forests, aquariums, and the night sky. Your task is to use objects and props to alter Sofi's path, effectively navigating her around obstacles and avoiding enemies.
The game play is a clever twist on both Tetris and Lemmings. You'll have access to staircases and bridges, springboards that help Sofi hop up, fans that raise her high in the air, slingshots that propel her forward. After you place these in the environment they stay there until touched by Sofi. A few seconds later they disappear.
In addition to the object you're placing, you can see the next object in the queue in the top right corner of the screen. You can save one object for use later; it appears in the top left corner. There is no penalty for placing objects that aren't used, which should suggest a critical strategy.
The enemies take the form of everyday creatures that have been twisted by dream. Wasps and sharp-toothed goldfish dart after Sofi, toadstool creatures erupt in plumes of putrid gas, frogs kick out at her with their long legs. Along the way, Sofi collects fireflies, which prop up her stamina against being injured by these creatures. And at the end of each level, a mailbox, where Sofi finds postcards from Nana, messages of support and encouragement, reminders of fond memories.
Completing a level illuminates a star in a constellation map and the fireflies collected in that level are tallied. Collect enough fireflies and disconnected stars appear. These are challenge levels, each with its own objective. In one, you have to carve a safe path through an underground cavern using the bomb prop. In another, you've got a limited amount of time to get Sofi across the screen. She's constantly looking back over her shoulder at the sound of wolves howling (this is not the only homage to Little Red Riding Hood in Lucidity).
While the first levels of Lucidity are light, in terms of tone and brightness, a sense of foreboding and darkness grows steadily as you progress, the stakes raised. Enemies are more numerous and aggressive. The bottom of the screen becomes certain death as Sofi leaves the ground and moves through a cloudscape. Lingering too long will result in the dark, creeping up from behind, to overtake her.
Much like Braid and Flower , two independently developed games released in the past year, Lucidity is a smaller title than the big-budget blockbusters typical of the game era. You can finish the game in four to six hours, but there is plenty of reason to replay levels because you can rarely collect all the fireflies in a level in one attempt. When returning to levels you've already completed, fireflies you've already collected appear blue, not yellow. Collecting more fireflies unlocks additional challenge maps and earns achievements.
Visually, Lucidity has a wonderfully distinct style. The two-dimensional art is lush, layered and textured, like many children's storybooks today. More important to the game, though, are the musical compositions, which so effectively shift the tone of the game, and the mood in the player. The keyboard melodies are deceptive, seemingly simple but layered and complex. It's the music that informs the emotion, pulling you into the depths of despair and then climbing, crescendoing into triumph.
The sentimental among you be warned. While Lucidity may be simple, it's emotionally rich. This is a story about a young girl, grieving and learning to cope with the loss of a loved one. It's a subtext that might be lost on some gamers, but for those of us who have reached middle age and who have children of our own, it's poignant and heartbreaking.
Lucidity might not take long to play, but the experience will be with you for some time.
