Alice's Lullaby

I remember watching a Let's Play of Albino Lullaby years ago and being instantly captivated by its sombre, enigmatic atmosphere, uncanny monsters, striking visuals, and storytelling. When I found out a sequel had finally been released, I picked it up during summer sale, excited to experience it. Unfortunately, I was deeply disappointed. My 50 minutes of gameplay felt more like 3 hours (not in a good way). Right from the start, the game introduces a lock-picking mechanic that simply doesn't work well. It feels intentionally confusing: it's unclear which power stations recharge your lock-picking tool, whether the tool is currently charged and where you're supposed to get power when every nearby station appears inactive. Immediately afterwards, you're thrown into a town full of locked doors and power stations, yet none of the stations seem capable of recharging your tool. This is major game design flaw and creates an odd contradiction: the game teaches you a mechanic, fills the environment with opportunities to use it, and then prevents you from actually doing so. IMO this mechanic should have been introduced after Buck's house instead, once you're actually able to use it. Explorat…

The continuation of the game I've waited for YEARS. The world so colorful and dead, so beautiful and disgusting, so cozy and horrifying all at the same time. What can I say.. The story is otherworldly. Literally. I've never seen an old idea executed so.. differently. I've never seen anything remotely like this game. Scary? Yes. I was squealing in the first part, hiding behind the doors. I was squealing in the second part of the game too. No cheap jumpscares. But the world built so carefully and lovingly that it eats you alive while you there. You cannot help but to freak out the more you progress. And yet you find so many beautiful things along the way it's almost poetic. Play Albino Lullaby. Play Alice's Lullaby. You'll never want to leave. Ever. Welcome home, child.

It may be worth just describing my experience. So: The first game mechanic I am introduced to is a remote that can burn out locks, but needs recharging. The first charging station I find does not recharge the remote. I am unsure if I've found a very big bug inside the first ten minutes of the game. Upon entering a building, I find a television, and at that moment, the intercom outside turns on and the TV, ambient music, and voices all blur together at the same volume and at the same clarity. Changing rooms does not muffle the TV or the intercom. The music makes the intercom impossible to hear. I experience sensory overload and search the options menu to turn down the volume on the music. Only the master volume slider works. Unsure of where I'm meant to go or do I eventually bumble my way to Buck's house and go back to the past. I see frightening things around the corner who stare at me blankly if I enter their line of sight. I lose all sense of apprehension as I realize that nearly every monster I've encountered so far has either run away from me or ignored me and I officially don't know what I'm meant to be scared of anymore. I'm told I need to search the Past-Mansion for item…

I plan to review this game on my once-basement-themed YouTube channel (as I reviewed the first over 10 years ago) and so far I can say it's a blast and still has that hilarious writing and dialogue that we loved about the original. Yes it's got design flaws and sometimes it's unclear what you should be doing, but so far I'm really glad I played it. Also very cool to finally have a sort of Amnesia-esque hiding-from-an-entity sequence with Alice's "adoptive" parent. The first game didn't have a straight up horror moment quite like that so it felt like it added a lot. And awesome to start the game with narwhals just outta f*cking nowhere.

ANO ! Druhá epizoda Albino lullaby nazvaná Alice's lullaby je ještě divnější, strašidelnější a ujetější než první díl. Sice je tu pár bugů ale nic co by nešlo vyřešit ;) Tuhle hru vřele doporučuju ;) YES! Second episode of Albino lullaby called Alice's Lullaby is even more weird, scary and crazy than the first one. There are few bugs but nothing gamebreaking ;) I Really recommend this game ;)

Goes incredibly hard, alot shorter than episode 1 but perhaps my passage of time just got skewed and I guess there's replay potential and such too. Mild gripes were that the AI was a little scuffed and some of the mechanics weren't as punishing or as utilised as in AB 1. Like, I had to RUN infront of Buck in the past segment for him to actually see me. But yeah otherwise, incredible voice acting. Stunning set designs, I actually kind of understand what is going on now in the game, and I really liked the more abstract/ metaphorical ideas like for example the whole Narwhal symbolism. I do think this game shouldve released alot earlier though because I reckon that the hype around it is very much dead now only having been carried on by weirdos like me + enthusiasts, I'm pretty confident there won't be a chapter 3 but perhaps you devs will prove me wrong. I thank you for having given me one more game of this charmingly weird story. <3 7.6/10