Lonn – Test, action-adventure

Cyberpunk 2058

Finally, a classic, linear action-adventure in VR again! Lonn made me realize how much I miss the classic structure of story shooters like Half-Life: Alyx. The recently released Bonelab didn’t really satisfy my hunger either, so the surprisingly released Lonn immediately caught my attention. The indie game from the Australian SixSense studio has been hanging around in my list of expected VR games for several years. The fact that there was only a three-man team behind the project naturally made me a little skeptical. But the cyberpunk backdrops were far too pretty to ignore the SteamVR title.

The glowing city, my hiding place in the underground and also the high-tech corporations terrorized by a cult – all this exudes a lot of classic cyberpunk atmosphere. Sometimes I just had to stop to take in the billboards and works of art wafting between the street canyons. And then to be abruptly torn from the daydream by the stupid passer-by AI. Even if I only stand in the way of the bad-tempered punks and walkers, they quickly let their aggression run free. Some even twist their extremities in bizarre ways. The culprit is clearly a glitch and not an augmentation. The wildly flailing arms of the passers-by just look too silly for that.

Pretty still lifes, clumsy animations

The first few minutes of the game gave bad indications. The world of the year 2058 looks really pretty as a still life. A weak AI, clumsy animations and often copied graphic assets cannot hide the fact that there was only a small team working on a full-fledged action-adventure. The missions of the story gradually send the hero Lonn into different linear levels in which he fights against drones and rampaging cultists with guns and cyberblades.
In keeping with the theme, their sect “WUX-n” has dedicated itself entirely to the spiritual. Physical ethics plays a secondary role in the attainment of enlightenment at best, as a visit to their torture labs reveals. Between the long levels I return to the city. There I buy blueprints for weapon pressure and attachments for in-game currency or acquire new skills.