Lust for Darkness

Sadly its not as good as I expected and is at best a decent game best bought cheap at sale. If you play the sequel Lust From Beyond first this game will feel a huge letdown as I experienced. Best way is to play this first in order. Play this before Lust From beyond you may like this better for first time play then. The sequel is 300% times bigger, more polished with better balanced exploration and gameplay. This one feels more a short stealth exploration with very little happening in terms of horror or mystic. The main villain barely appears in 3 scenes before bossfight and main heroine central to story Amanda has equally less screen time barely 3 scenes again after intro cutscene. You play her husband Jonathan who, after 1 year of his wife Amanda's vanishing finds out her location in a Gothic mansion owned by a millionaire scion Willard Yelverton. Willard leads a dark secret cult of orgy seeking to enter another dimension Lusst Ghaa through rituals to invoke it's God of Lust. For decades his cult started by his grandfather has been seeking a woman who can see the other powerful dimension, sense it's vibrations, whose child offered is the key to open it.
For most part you just sneak around the mansion trying to locate your wife and her newborn child while travelling alternately between the Mansion and the dimension Lusst Ghaa, solving some puzzles, inspecting objects. It barely takes the story forward except collecting background history through collectibles. There is no action to complement the events. The sequel has action realistically where you are forced to kill people to save own life or directly fight bosses mixing stealth with attacks. Here the boss fight again needs strategy and stealth using the environment and location to defeat and get out of. That takes away satisfaction some. The Orgies, perversion, darkness, evil, character motivation, detailed background, Lusst Ghaa realm world is handled far better in the sequel than here. Graphics, movement are passable. The elements that are in this game are repeated in sequel like Orgies, a mystical otherworldly dagger, the Bossfights, Classic Piano Notes, Boss fight setting etc.
The usual dark shameful family secrets are trademark of the series. The Mask of Insanity one needs to wear in Lusst Ghaa to travel can induce migraine, dizzyness, strain eyes. The effect is deliberate and I wish developers realized we are playing a game that does not need such experiences to play. Do not play that part too much in mask. Use mask only when you need find a way forward through invisible portals or read hyroglyphics of Lusst Gha. Thankfully you cannot wear it long risking insanity and restart of that area. The way Jonathan is shown as a strong determined smart guy here contrasts to how he becomes a pale shadow under control of Amanda, a sidekick merely in the sequel. Both games have same story running separated by a span of 2-5 years. The dark, sinister, evil, absolute background of Cult of Ecstacy, Doreen Austerlitz, Yelvertons Mansion and Lasih remains, with leadership changing hands. I wish the game was longer with some more intruging chapters and puzzles. Graphics isn't bad in terms of levels. Default lighting seems veryd ark need incerase brightness. Lusst Ghaa looks definitive with some laws, rules, look, feel, mechanics in the sequel. Here it just feels like an incoherent dark colorful mishmash. When you beat Willard in end Jonathan says - Thats it? After finishing the game you ask yourself same - Thats it? Thats all to play? Overall would recommend buy cheap at sale, not expect a big well defined game like the sequel. The game still works and functions fully without breaking down. Its not bad just falls short on delivering what it promised.

I certainly wouldn't pay $15 USD for this, but on a 90% sale for $1.50 - why not?
My boyfriend and I played this together and it took us about 3.4 hours to complete.
If you are interested and catch it on a big sale - Its short and cheap enough that I don't think you'd be disappointed with what you get. There were some glitches and bugs, but nothing disastrous. Didn't really matter much.
So many people are saying how they loved the story - unlikely, as its as pretty bottom of the barrel as B grade gets... this laughable story with awkward dialog is just a good excuse to see weird sexy cultist stuff that turns pretty unhinged toward the end. No judgements, that's why I'm here too.
The game art is actually pretty cool, and parts of it fairly disturbing. Most of the assets are quite pretty - not sure why anyone would need such a vast variety of cups... or why I can pick them all up.

I love all things Lovecraftian and so I had to give this game a go. The mixed reviews on steam lowered my expectations, but I came out very pleasantly surprised! In my opinion, this game deserves MUCH more credit than it gets. Whence I thought I must write a review.

The game takes you on an exploration towards the darker sides of sexual desire, striking a perfect emotional mix of lust, guilt, disgust, fear, and eventually, loss of one-self. Most games either completely avoid these themes, or completely trivialize them. Lust for Darkness does neither, and explores all facets of lust with maturity and precision. Think "Eyes Wide Shut" but with more horror and a supernatural flavour.

Most of the game consists of looking for clues to figure out what's going on and to get through to the next section, with the occasional puzzle solving. The mechanics are dead simple, so don't expect fancy gameplay. Although the game is very linear, it does not hold your hand to tell you what to do, and indeed I got temporarily stuck a few times on my first playthrough, not being sure what to do next. But that's ok, and adds to the experience: the game wants you to feel lost. Exploration is rewarding: there are numerous messages hidden away in letters, books, notes, and other objects, which help you piece together what is really going on. Slowly but steadily, one pieces together the whole story. And the game masterfully helps you doing so.

I don't recommend anyone to rush through the game, although certainly that is possible. I'd say it takes about 3-4 hours if exploring everything in depth (and you'll probably still miss some things), and maybe about 1 hour if you speed through it for achievements. For this reason, I recommend getting the game on sale. That said, it's an indie game, so if you want to support the developer, get it on full price.

All in all, I can only strongly recommend this hidden gem, especially if you like Lovecraft and aren't afraid to explore the darker sides of the human psyche.

As Someone who genuinely enjoyed the story and gameplay of the rest of this series, I would suggest playing this game if you are invested into the story. Definitely short game (2-3 hours) and a little buggy in some parts. If you play the series for the adult scenes I would suggest saving your money as there is next to no spicy scenes in this one.

Its Pervert, Evil, Demonic, Shameless, Interesting, Repulsive, Dark, has Sex Orgies, Mask Parties, Stealth, Mystery, Demons and all that cheap at sale. Short game but decent one time play. game works. has decent levels, decent story. And sadly maybe bit of anti-climax. I hear the sequel is much more better and bigger. Anyways buy cheap at sale is not bad a one time play. I just don't see replay value.

6 / 10
Overall, I found it interesting, even if it becomes somewhat predictable at times. I've always enjoyed stories involving cults and occult themes, so this game immediately caught my attention. While it does some things well, I also feel like it falls short in a few important areas.
If you're looking for an unusual story and something a bit different from the average game, there's a good chance you'll enjoy this. It's not very long, which helps keep the experience from dragging on, and the puzzles are simple enough that you won't spend hours stuck on them.
My biggest issue with the game is probably the ending section. The "fight" with Willard felt incredibly underwhelming, and calling it a fight is being generous. Running around and waiting for him to use his power so you can continue felt pretty disappointing and anticlimactic.
There are a few tense moments throughout the game, but I wouldn't really consider it a true horror experience. It's more focused on atmosphere, mystery, and its strange world than on actually scaring the player.
In the end, I don't regret playing it, but I can only really recommend buying it during a big sale, something like 80–90% off. At full price, I'd suggest spending your money elsewhere. The game had a lot of potential and several things could have been done better, but despite its flaws, it was still a worthwhile experience.

Lust for Darkness is a prequel and a rough draft to a story that will later become Lust From Beyond. Rough is indeed the appropriate word here. The game is short, roughly 3 hours. The dialog, animations and puzzles are clunky. However, I am already well invested into this, and I am glad to have played out the scenes that are referenced in its sequel title. If you want to get the full story, pick this up, otherwise go play Lust From Beyond.
Best picked up during a sale, and hidden from your friends.