Kowloon’s Curse: Lost Report takes you to a city surrounded by perpetual gloom lit by neon lights as shadowy figures walk the streets – a place of constant surprises.
I honestly just love walking the streets of this game. It’s something that struck me as soon as I started playing and stuck with me the whole time I played. There’s a mixture of gloomy darkness and vibrant lights that give the city a delirious mixture of danger and curiosity. I could sense I was in danger, but all of the shining colors made me want to keep exploring. Plus, without revealing much, there’s so many odd places to uncover as you walk the streets. Even so, you feel like you’re slowly digging your own grave as you follow that curiosity that pulls you past all the shadowy figures. It’s like you’re walking into a closing trap, but you can’t help but keep going to see what else you find.
And I’ve been shot at for not being cordial enough to the people I’ve met, too. The town IS filled with dangers that require thoughtful actions in combat to survive. I have only seen one other game use an exploding joke cigarette to hurt someone (never expected to think of Who Framed Roger Rabbit? on the ol’ NES these days), so that sense of constant surprise and strange things extends into the battle system as well. The game is a dungeon crawler at its core, but uses the setting of the city and the faceless, unnerving inhabitants to create a special feeling that drags you ever further even as the people you meet try to kill you.
Kowloon’s Curse: Lost Report is just a taste of what’s to come in the main game, Kowloon’s Curse, and I’m definitely digging the flavor. Stirring up a desire to explore with its beautiful, yet decaying world and the dangerous, unpredictable people in it made for a game that was hard to stop playing, so I’m excited for my chance to come back to these streets again.
Kowloon’s Curse: Lost Report is available now on Steam.
