Lorelai

make sure you have lots of chocolate, painkillers and antidepressants with you while playing this game.

This game has taught me to always carry a lighter on me and to check people for their vital signs at least thrice. :')
I binged Lorelai right after Downfall just recently after having finished The Cat Lady a year before and it did not disappoint, it's just different. Despite feeling closer to the themes addressed by the first two, this one surprisingly hit the hardest out of all three. The narrative felt most personal and the least dispersed. Even though I expected precisely what was going to happen the occasional rawness of it still managed to startle me, the suspense was really good throughout. The interplay of different worlds was well thought out. That being said, I feel like the three games each belong in their own respectable category. This one makes a very good coming of age story with a dark twist. And it pains me greatly that some people are actually experiencing this type of hell in this very moment in reality without any way out; supernatural elements omitted.

Review written in both french and english.
Français :
Bon, alors c'est clairement pas mon jeu préféré de la trilogie Devil Came Through Here, mais je me suis quand même bien éclatée à le faire.
Points positifs :
- Les graphismes sont très jolis, mieux que ceux de Downfall. C'est juste dommage d'avoir choisi de mettre de la couleur plutôt que d'être resté sur l'esthétique noir et blanc.
- Comme pour les autres jeux, la caractérisation des personnages est très réussie, même si j'ai parfois eu l'impression que John en faisait beaucoup trop.
- Le voice acting est au top, j'aime beaucoup la voix de Lorelai.
- On peut jouer à la manette (XBox uniquement) et c'est une grosse amélioration par rapport à The Cat Lady et Downfall.
- Je trouve que c'est une bonne idée de vouloir mettre en lumière les ravages de l'alcoolisme parce que très peu de jeux traitent de ce sujet alors que c'est pourtant un fléau assez commun et il en est de même pour les violences conjugales et infantiles.
- Il n'est pas nécessaire d'avoir joué à The Cat Lady ou Downfall pour comprendre l'histoire de ce jeu là.
Points négatifs :
- Les graphismes en 3D sont bizarrement moins convaincants que les graphismes en full 2D des autres jeux. Certes, la 3D permet une plus grande liberté de mouvement de caméra, mais quand on a des assets en 3D mélangés à des sprites en 2D, ça fait juste bizarre et ça déconcentre un peu quand on ne voit plus que ça.
- Même si l'histoire est bien, elle est beaucoup moins cryptique que les autres jeux. J'ai pas eu vraiment besoin de brancher mon cerveau pour la comprendre et ça ne donne pas vraiment envie de recommencer une nouvelle partie, même pour faire le 100%.
- Les prérequis pour débloquer la golden ending son quasiment inexistants. Dans The Cat Lady et Downfall, il fallait faire les bons choix et les bonnes actions TOUT LE LONG du jeu. Là, c'est pas le cas et vous comprendrez ce que je veux dire si vous jouez à la trilogie.
- Comme dans The Cat Lady, j'ai eu un bug où Lorelai s'est mise à moonwalk vers la droite alors que je lui demandais d'aller à gauche. Enfin, ça se corrige rapidement donc c'est pas non plus très dérangeant.
- Le personnage peut sprinter, c'est pratique pour speedrun mais ça n'a pas vraiment d'utilité dans le jeu. On s'en sert juste une fois au début (et encore, je suis sûre qu'on peut faire ce passage sans courir) et le reste peut être fait juste en marchant.
- Même si j'aime les personnages, je trouve que la Queen of Maggots dégage trop une vibe "Edgelord" comparée aux autres jeux. Elle est beaucoup moins subtile dans son rôle et j'ai eu du mal à la prendre au sérieux à cause de ça.
- On ne revoit quasiment plus les personnages des autres jeux et j'ai vraiment eu du mal à me dire que Lorelai faisait partie de la trilogie à cause de ça.
- Quelques crashs qui arrivent souvent pendant les temps de chargement (mais bon, ça ne m'étonne pas, vu que le jeu est fait avec Unity).
- Quel est l'intérêt du Karma si ça n'a aucune influence sur l'ending ? Autant se passer de cette mécanique.
Malgré ses défauts, Lorelai reste un excellent jeu. Certes, ça ne dégagera pas la même vibe que The Cat Lady et Downfall, mais ça ne retire rien à sa qualité. Ses défauts restent superficiels et ça n'empêche pas d'apprécier le jeu et l'histoire à sa juste valeur. Je le recommande vivement pour son histoire prenante, mais évitez d'y jouer si vous êtes sensible aux violences conjugales et infantiles.
English:
Okay, so it's clearly not my favorite game in the Devil Came Through Here trilogy, but I still had a blast playing it.
Positive points:
- The graphics are very nice, better than those of Downfall. It's just a shame to have chosen to add color rather than sticking with the black and white aesthetic.
- Just like with the other games, the characterization of the characters is very successful, even if I sometimes had the impression that John did a too much.
- The voice acting is top notch, I really like Lorelai's voice.
- You can play with a controller (XBox only) and it's a big improvement compared to The Cat Lady and Downfall.
- I think it's a good idea to want to highlight the ravages of alcoholism because very few games deal with this subject even though it is a fairly common scourge and the same goes for domestic and child abuse.
- It's not necessary to have played The Cat Lady or Downfall to understand the plot of this game.
Negative points:
- The 3D graphics are strangely less convincing than the full 2D graphics of other games. Of course, 3D allows for greater freedom of camera movement, but when there's 3D assets mixed with 2D sprites, it just looks weird and it's a little distracting when this is the only thing you can see.
- Although the story is good, it is much less cryptic than other games. I didn't really need to get my brain to work to understand it and it doesn't really make me want to start a new game, even to achieve 100%.
- The prerequisites to unlock the golden ending are almost non-existent. In The Cat Lady and Downfall, you had to make the right choices and actions THROUGHOUT the game. This is not the case here and you will understand what I mean if you play the trilogy.
- Just like in The Cat Lady, I had a bug where Lorelai started to moonwalk to the right when I asked her to go left. It corrects itself quickly anyways so it's not very disturbing either.
- The character can sprint, it's practical for speedrunning but it doesn't really have any use in the game. We only use it once at the beginning (and I'm sure you can do this moment without running) and the rest can be done just by walking.
- Even if I like the characters, I think that the Queen of Maggots gives off too much of an "Edgelord" vibe compared to the other games. She's a lot less subtle in her role and I had a hard time taking her seriously because of that.
- You don't even see the characters from the other games and I really had a hard time convincing myself that Lorelai was part of the trilogy because of that.
- Some crashes that often occur during loading times (yet again, it doesn't surprises me, since the game is made with Unity).
- What's the point of Karma if it has no influence on the ending? Might as well do without it.
Despite its flaws, Lorelai remains an excellent game. It certainly won't give off the same vibe as The Cat Lady and Downfall, but that doesn't take away from its quality. Its flaws are superficial and it won't prevent you from appreciating the game and the story at its true value. I highly recommend it for its gripping story, but avoid playing it if you are sensitive to domestic and child abuse.

Lorelai is a point & click horror adventure game developed by Harvester Games, behind previous titles like the brutal “The Cat Lady” and “Downfall”. I don’t remember much of where I know of this game, I just know that I discovered Harvester Games through youtubist Grimbeard, and as such they looked interesting enough for me to pick up. Like the previous titles games in the trilogy, I haven’t really felt the urge to play them until recently when a friend I've been streaming for said she wanted to watch it. Having gone through the entire trilogy, how's the finale to the “Devil Came Through Here” saga?
The story starts off with Lorelai having come home from work while dealing with a terrible home life. Her step-father John is a creepy alcoholic who lost his job at a brick factory due to its closure, her mother Miranda is depressed and deals with it because of money and the two had a baby, Bethany, together. Lorelai wants to take the child away and move to a better place without John but that doesn’t happen due to her mother’s passivity. There’s also her neighbor Zach, a socially awkward video game dev who has a huge crush on Lorelai and can’t spit it out. The story at first is tense, then it gets dark real quick when her mother goes silent in the bathroom after a huge rant where her mom can basically tell you why everything sucks. Lorelai gets worried and asks Zach for help; breaking through the door, the two find mom hung in the bathroom. Her step-father comes through and cruelly makes fun of his now dead wife before tempers flare and he accidentally kills Lorelai and knocks Zach out. From here you recount a dream of when you got your first job at a nursing home before traveling through a nightmare and meet up with the main force behind the trilogy: The Queen of Maggots.
There isn’t much in the way of twists here aside bits here and there, it’s more of a case of struggling to save your infant sister as fate deems it that ol’ stepdad will kill her. In this case, she’s willing to make deals with the Queen in order to come back to life and stop John. However, along the way she dies a lot, meets a dream traveler, can help/harm a man in his fight against alcoholism and finally kills her step-dad (who's trying to cover up a LOT of murders) while dealing with the queen’s trickery. Of course, she has no intention of letting you go from your contract, instead planning on Lorelai taking the mantle as the next queen. The decisions you make change your ending, but it’s not as hardcore as the previous games so you don’t have to worry about decision skulls as much as you have to use common sense and not forgetting to light the candles/not feeding the crow later on.
Overall, the plot is fantastic; while not crazy in-depth about depression enough to make me shed literal tears like Cat Lady, I felt like it did a great job still keeping the darker atmosphere while also making me feel hope. Zach and Lorelai, to me fit pretty well as a couple and I shipped the hell out of them due to the likability of the two, who both have a habit of referencing video games constantly like Skyrim and Dark Souls. In fact that’s something I noticed that there are references between Breaking Bad to Final Fantasy 7 that kind of take me out of it a LITTLE bit though with Zach’s main hobby being a video game developer I guess I’m not too surprised. The game to me is a story about struggling, that things can always change for the better and that even though life is hellish, it can be overcome to find slices of happiness even if it’s bit by bit. Hope, something that feels rare in this world but can be felt even if only for a brief second.
What’s the gameplay like? Well for the most part as always it’s the same as The Cat Lady and Downfall: you can pick stuff up, solve puzzles, combine items, talk to people and choose from different dialogue options and etc. There isn’t much I can really say in this department other than “it’s good” and if it’s your style of gameplay then I think you’ll like it all the same, though I also used a guide (link below). In fact, the main takeaway I got from this is that it has pretty good controller support if you don’t feel like picking up the mouse and keyboard and want a more casual experience. I think where you’ll get the most out of this is the aforementioned plot mixed in with the atmosphere and sound design.
The art direction and atmosphere is fantastic, it’s a lot of the same 2D hand drawn graphics but it feels polished and colorful while mixed in with 3D animations. This delivers a vibe that can range from downright creepy to straight up beautiful. Like, what I can say about it is that sometimes it looks weird and off kilter, but it feels like it’s a design choice more than an actual misstep. For example the real Queen of Maggots being terrifying yet low res. Also the game has this tendency of zooming in, sometimes with great effect and sometimes it feels off but it works. In fact, the amount of times that I’ve sat down and stared in awe at one of the hand animated/painted environments is a lot and I feel like it also adds to the hope that the game seeks to portray as opposed to The Cat Lady’s and Downfall’s bleakness. There’ll still be horrifying imagery, but also beauty as well that can’t be understated. It’s a strange mix between the dream world and the depressing state of real life and whether it has color or it doesn’t they all blend in together to create a consistency that I enjoy. The character models are pretty well drawn and unique too, with Lorelai herself being the main outlier as someone who’s definitely goth influenced.
The sound design is also solid, starting with the voice actors/actresses. I can’t name one bad performance at all, everyone from Maisy Kay as Lorelai to the returning Margaret Cowen as the Queen of Maggots does a fantastic job. Two voices are ones that I recognize from IMDB, one being YongYea who I used to follow on Youtube for a while did great as Jimmy the Traveler and apparently Stephanie Sterling played someone in the “Alcoholics Anonymous” section which I didn’t even notice. The music is also pretty solid and balanced and in more conjunction with tone! Everything fits together and sounds great in the moment whether it sounds like a mid 2000s sad boy song or string pieces created by someone named micAmic. The actual environment sounds are pretty immersive too, no complaints and honestly something I want to point out: in Chapter 4 there was a train puzzle of sorts where if you flip the switch a lot it sounds like something out of the Silent Hill main menu and I’ll be honest these sounds make me cream my pants bro on god. The only thing I could really complain about is that sometimes the dialogue cuts out near the end and that’s kind of annoying and I have no clue what it could possibly be that I would need to fix it either.
Overall, is it worth playing? The answer is yes, it’s a highly satisfying conclusion to the “Queen of Maggots” saga while retaining its own plot that you can experience solo. While not as emotionally heart wrenching as The Cat Lady gives you a feeling of hope (at least with the Golden Ending), it's a lot more polished in pretty much most areas and delivers a vibe that's warmer. I would say that at the end of the day, while I view Downfall as the worst one, I don’t know if I could choose between The Cat Lady or Lorelai on which is better. Both are unique in their own reasons, yet worth the purchase regardless. Get this game by any means, get them all.
Links:

Well, out of the trilogy, (The Cat Lady, Downfall, and then Lorelai) this is the most beautiful one, visually thanks to the switch from the old Adventure game engine to Unity. Thankfully, unlike Downfall, you don't need to play the previous games to understand this one, however they are still good games that reward you for playing them, such as at least one cameo that happened showing what a previous character is doing years later, as well as giving many plot points that insinuate why the antagonist of the series is truly evil. This was a fantastic game that had cool horror sections and quite a few funny jokes, so while the story is not as hard hitting as The Cat Lady, or as deeply complex as Downfall, this game is certainly worth the price.

This is the third game in the "Devil Came Through Here" trilogy. Each game has a standalone story with some elements that carry over, so you could play them in any order, or even pick and choose. But I think they're best experienced in chronological order: The Cat Lady, Downfall, then Lorelai. Rather than following the same protagonist like most series would, in these three games it's the villain who stays the same. The Queen of Maggots offers the three protagonists the same deal: she'll give you strength, even life itself, if you'll just do her a favor or two....
All three games have an art style I would describe as "East Berlin ransom note," which suits their subject matter just fine. They all have unique visual flourishes and amazing soundtracks. Gameplay-wise they're point and click adventure games, but otherwise they're like nothing else I've played. They deal with some very heavy issues, including child death, suicide, eating disorders, domestic abuse, and alcoholism. There's no skirting around or coyness; you dive head-first into these problems and your only options are to succumb to them or overcome them. You can be the worst or the best versions of each protagonist, leading to different endings in each game.
I found the themes thought-provoking and interesting, far from nonsensical or shocking just to be shocking. Here are some comments on the story and themes, to answer some questions I've seen in other reviews (major spoilers, natch):
The Queen of Maggots is a real person/creature/god in the game world, but she also represents moral compromise. She feeds on pain and suffering and sees humans as mannequins -- objects for her to use and devour. Following her path leads each protagonist to treat people the same way and become villains themselves (in the bad endings). In Downfall, she gives her name as "Lorelai" -- surely a reference to the German Lorelei who lured sailors to their deaths -- but in this game she reveals that's just one of many names she's taken. Lorelai is also the protagonist's name, or rather, the name she has taken for herself. Neither one is Lorelai, yet both are. At the very end of the game, the player has the option to say "Goodbye, Lorelai" and eject the Queen from her life...at least for now. This is a recognition that you don't just defeat the Queen of Maggots once, but that her temptations return over and over throughout your life. Maybe not as strong, but still there.
Lorelai's stepfather is unkillable is because he made his own deal with the Queen. She plays her toys off each other. Likely the "Parasites" that the Queen assigns Susan to kill in The Cat Lady were other people she made deals with, ones she successfully goaded into becoming the worst versions of themselves. Lorelai's stepfather is one of them. He cares for no one but himself and treats other people like literal trash.
Jimmy is similar to Agnes from Downfall, a good person who can't be corrupted by the Queen. He's fighting the Queen even though it's a more dangerous and difficult path than giving in. He only survives if Lorelai cares enough to help him. Al, too, can either be pushed down a good or a bad path. Neither one can make it without some help. It's a similar theme explored two different ways.

The Cat Lady will always be my first love by Harvester Games and my favourite. That being said, this is a gorgeous little game and feels much smoother to play compared to the previous 2.