Before going into this game, I saw many people saying it's reminiscent of the PS1 era and survival horror games of that time, mostly "Silent Hill" and its first three sequels. "Silent Hill" being my favourite survival horror franchise ever and the game handling the same kind of psychological horror mixed with utterly disturbing clunky PS1 visuals, there was no reason not to be excited for this. Having finished it twice, I can safely say that this is the best horror game I've played since "Detention".

"Lost in Vivo" is a story about a disturbed individual who loses his dog via a sewer drain due to a massive rainstorm and in trying to find his dog, he encounters various unsettling creatures and locations. A simple story, sure, but the underlying themes of mental health and eating disorders are sprinkled throughout the entire game which make it a much more dramatic experience. Much like "Silent Hill" and "Silent Hill 2", the beginning of this game is very slow and involves a lot of walking seemingly without any progression. Slowly, though, the environment around you starts to morph into something much more sinister and you start to question what even is real and what's just a figment of your disturbed mind. There will be moments where you walk through an opening and the moment you turn around that opening will no longer be there, or vice versa. It messes with your mind quite nicely and the fact that it never relies on jumpscares is fascinating to me. So many horror games nowadays, especially those from the first person, rely too much on loud noises and a scary face accompanying it (which is why I absolutely despise "Layers of Fear") that seeing something as subtle as "Lost in Vivo" reminds me of how good a horror game can be.

The atmosphere of the game is incredibly well structured. The environment you're in is always dirty, broken and honestly would be downright unnerving even without the supernatural undertones. You travel through sewer drains, an abandoned subway, an abandoned mine and finally an abandoned laboratory. All these locations are stereotypical for a horror game, but I haven't seen it done so well since "Silent Hill 2" and "Silent Hill 3" (which I still think has the most terrifying subway section). The music also helps build this helpless mood where each track is pure ambient dread and I must get the soundtrack as soon as it gets discounted. The sound design itself is also praiseworthy. Each creature has its own signature sound. There's a creature which can go through walls and because of that you will always first hear it and then spin around to find out from which corner it will come. It completely destroyed me the first time because I had no idea what to expect.

I loved the PS1 style of graphics. I've heard some complaints about it looking outdated, but it's honestly impressive to pull of these visuals these days. In a world where all AAA games try to be as realistic as possible with their presentation, it's a breath of fresh air to see a game utilizing low-end graphics to tell a story. This game wouldn't be as scary, or memorable, if it didn't look like that.

The gameplay itself is decent. It's got an inventory which I found to be pretty useless, except for checking my health status, although it's a nice nod to "Silent Hill" because it looks EXACTLY like the inventory from the first three games. The maps were also a bit confusing because it would highlight the area you were in, but you don't see an arrow or a dot of where you are or which direction you're facing so I would sometimes get a bit disoriented. Besides that, it's your usual FPS controls. You get a couple of weapons, two of them melee, and the amount of ammunition was never a problem for me. The knife is also another nice nod to the first "Silent Hill". The game also throws a boss at you at the very end and while it is easy enough to figure out how to deal with him, it got a bit frustrating, but in a good way.

There are a couple of neat moments where the game would break the fourth wall and they absolutely scared the hell out of me. The less said the better, but I will say that there's one moment where you think the game is going to end and it pulls a terrifying 360 on you and it was one of the game's finest moments of pure dread. Speaking of the ending, there are multiple endings that you can achieve and there are also two secret game modes as well as a New Game+ which spices things up a bit by being harder and placing enemies where there weren't any before.

All in all, "Lost in Vivo" is my pick for game of the year 2018 for obvious reasons. It's something that I think every horror fan should play and it's a shame it's got so little people playing it. Highly recommended!