Love Eternal
Top Critic Average
Critics Recommend
Critic Reviews for Love Eternal
The platforming elements of Love Eternal are delightfully frustrating fun with a limited set of mechanics put to creative and clean use. Multiple levels had me holding my breath, gritting my teeth, and cursing the wayward god who founded the whole endeavour.The hand-drawn levels are as beautiful as their challenges are frustrating. Unfortunately, an overly ambitious narrative coupled with a strange mid-game shift mars the game's myriad charms.
As a platformer, it's easy to understand, though the unpredictable momentum of movement unfortunately keeps it from feeling as precise as genre enthusiasts will surely prefer. Still, it's one of those "play in one sitting" type of games that you won't want to miss if anything about the premise speaks to you.
Two separate cores of equally engaging but shallow gameplay, and a fascinating but frugal narrative, competing to see which wears the player down first.
LOVE ETERNAL juggles the task of delivering a harrowing, razor-sharp platformer with a moody, haunting narrative. Its bite-sized length constantly makes an impact, striving to be one of the most unique games you will play.
This will not land for everyone. Its cryptic nature may frustrate you. Some rooms may push your patience to the edge. But if you are open to experimental design and willing to embrace discomfort, there is nothing else quite like it. It surprised me, unsettled me, and stayed with me long after the credits rolled. Love Eternal feels like the kind of game that reminds you what this medium can do when it steps into strange territory. It may not be comfortable, and honestly, it probably should not be. But it is absolutely worth experiencing. It's a title worthy of praise and worthy of love.
The biggest challenge in talking about Love Eternal is in trying to make sense of its failings. It isn’t awful, but worse: it’s just boring. It doesn’t offer much to chew on in terms of mechanics or story. At its best there’s a sense that Love Eternal has something it desperately wants to say, but it grasps at straws to say it and perpetually comes up short. So what else is there to say about a game as shallow as Love Eternal? Only that it’s like Celeste meets Silent Hill—Gris, but grimdark.
Challenging 2D horror platformer that will have you exploring a castle built of bitter memories
