Leviathan: The Last Day Of The Decade, or just Leviathan from here on out, is a visual novel, adventure/quest and interactive fiction game for the PC and iOS. This game with so many genres attached to it comes to us from Lostwood LLC, an indie development studio. Due to some adult content found in this VN you do need to be 18 to buy it. There are no sex scenes (none that I have come across yet anyhow!), just some mature themes that aren’t suited for kids.
Leviathan takes place a dark fantasy world, that is, as the creators of the game put it, “mixed with cyberpunk and alien technologies.” A terrible plague called The Decade covers most of the continent and effects everyone who are not pureblood aristocrats. The afflicted suffer from great thirst, fever, chills and throats that are so dry they cough up blood, among other things. The Decade does its job well of making life hell, but life must go on and as it does we get a glimpse into this world and those who inhabit it.
You play as Oliver and the first thing he does is get his ass kicked for defending his friend from a group of bullies! Right off, I like how this kid works! These bullies are calling his friend “gay” and Oliver won’t stand for it! It doesn’t even matter if his friend is gay or not, Oliver won’t allow them to make fun of him. Unfortunately there are three bullies against him so things don’t end well, but at least he knows he did the right thing! Oliver is an interesting character who goes through hell and back and does his best to deal with everything that happens and keep sane though it all. Terrible things happen to his family, paranormal events take place and he even gets his own demon!
Leviathan covers a huge variety of subjects: death, sexuality, the search for the truth at any cost, finding out who you are, paranormal things and much, much more. It sounds like it could be too much and end up a jumbled mess, but let’s not be too hasty to jump to that conclusion. So far it has evoked a lot of emotion in me and has done a great job at making me think about certain things in a different way. There are many other themes covered and it’s one of those games that will elicit a different reaction from everyone who plays it.
I am reviewing the first three episodes of the game and will have the review, which breaks down each episode in as spoiler-free a way as possible, ready for you all sometime in the next week or two. If you like dark themes, interesting characters and plot twists you will definitely want to check the review out to see if the game balances everything out, or if it is a jumbled mess.
