My first official appointment at PAX East this year was with Apogee Entertainment. For those who don’t know, Apogee is responsible for the classic Duke Nukem and Wolfenstein games. This time around however, they were showing off a new project called Lucid. If you have played/enjoyed Celeste, then you should be in for a good time with Lucid. Long story short, the world is in shambles after the Lucid giant falls and Oenn is tasked with reviving the giant.
My appointment with Apogee was for 3o minutes but the developers and I were having such a fun time playing and chatting that before we knew it, an hour and a half had passed and it was noon. A demo can take things in one of two directions. It can take you on a ride where you lose track of time and have a blast playing it or it can feel like it’s going far too long. If you couldn’t tell by my recap, Lucid is a really fun time. While playing the game, you can see that Lucid was inspired by a lot of other classic games and that by no means, is a bad thing. Being able to climb up walls and hang on them is right out of Celeste. The same could be said for Mega Man X with the way you can hang on walls too. During the demo, I was able to sequence break the game by climbing said wall like Mega Man X does and I surprised the developers with that move.
Lucid is a Metroidvania styled game so there will be plenty of backtracking to do but it doesn’t feel forced. Sometimes in Metroidvania games, you will know you can’t do something and never know when you’ll get it. Getting certain upgrades feel very natural to the story in Lucid. For example, you need to regain power to an area and you’re able to traverse half of the temple. You’re ushered out and the power is regained to the whole area but you will be led back to the temple afterwards and take on the other section. I love the fact that you do things in one area and it affects another. Think like in Mega Man X where if you defeat a certain boss, a different location could be altered.
I have mentioned in the past that games like this need tight controls and Lucid has that and then some. This game feels simple to pick up but will be a challenge to master. The developers in the meeting were saying that they would love to see speed runners play Lucid because you can play it really anyway you’d like. You’re able to equip talismans to change your style of play. You can also discover Crystal Arts to perform special moves as well as the ability to craft upgrades for your style of play. During the demo I found a Crystal Art to dash side to side and one that allowed Oenn to dash upward. Being able to dash upward really helps with the vertical platforming. Oenn attacks in the air similarly to the way Shovel Knight moves through sand blocks with the special gauntlet. The hidden paths and level design take a page out of the Metroid series too.
You will have to get to an altar to upgrade your equipment as well as fast travel. Lucid does something interesting with the fast travel in that you unlock it during your journey and then unlock more one at a time. The interesting thing is that you can only leave them at altars and travel to different alters. It’s a lot like how the Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom handled fast traveling. The music and sound design is fantastic in Lucid. When you discover things in the journey, you get a jingle that plays to let you know that you found something interesting/important.
I had a blast playing Lucid during my meeting with Apogee. I really enjoyed how the platforming is tight as well as having the option to traverse the locations the way I wanted to. If I wanted to go fast on blue crystals on the ground and then dash up and over, I can. If I only want to use the explosive projectiles and up dash the whole game, I can. I’m really looking forward to Lucid and it has to be one GamerFudge’s “Best of PAX East” this year!