The same unfortunately can’t be said for the obligatory fishing minigame, which takes a while to figure out. Instead of a dry step-by-step explanation, Doug explains things in a dialogue with his friends. The dice and card games are quite fun for how simplistic they are, and the way the rules are introduced is handled brilliantly. One of his defining character traits is that he comes up with new games for his friends to play. These sprout from the mind of Doug, one of Varney Lake’s protagonists. That’s still the foundation of Varney Lake’s “gameplay”, of course, but where Mothmen 1966 broke this up by adding simple puzzles, Varney Lake takes things even further by incorporating actual minigames. Just like with its predecessor, Varney Lake transcends the classic visual novel by adding gameplay elements beyond simply making choices that alter the outcome of the story.
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We highly recommend simply turning down the sound on your PC or console and listening to something of your own instead.
There isn’t a whole lot to Varney Lake’s soundscape and what’s present is painful and obnoxious. The presence of actual chiptune-esque music could have made a major difference here, but instead, we’re presented with shrill and loud beeps and boops for sound effects. While Varney Lake’s visuals might be divisive, we can’t really imagine anyone being a fan of the visual novel’s audio. Still, we can imagine that the ZX-spectrum-like visuals will remain as divisive as they were with the prior release. The game brilliantly juxtaposes the bright colors of summer with the dark and shadowy places where the vampire prefers to spend his time in. We’re not entirely sure if that is because we already knew what to expect or simply because what’s present here is more aesthetically pleasing though. The striking retro visuals that we first saw in Mothmen 1966 make their return here, and although we weren’t entirely convinced by what that first game looked like, we did enjoy Varney Lake’s art a lot more than that of the previous title. If the premise is intriguing enough, you should simply give this one a chance for the story, even if the audiovisual presentation doesn’t necessarily resonate with you. What follows is a surprisingly gripping story with a high replay value, and we’d be doing the story a disservice by giving away too much. The moment when the teenagers discover exactly what they are dealing with is brilliant and defines Varney Lake.
The reveal of the vampire happens early on, at least early enough that we wouldn’t consider this a major spoiler, even though there is some buildup towards the reveal of the creature. The ensuing story spans several decades, taking things well into the ‘80s, and fans of Mothmen 1966 can even look forward to meeting a familiar face along the way. Set in the summer of 1954, Varney Lake introduces us to a group of friends, Jimmy, Christine, and Doug, who cross paths with an actual vampire. Varney Lake provides a fantastic example of the genre, perhaps even more so than its predecessor.
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Subsequently, the stories presented in the Pixel Pulp series could have been ripped from the pages of one of these magazines, although with the added element of the story being influenced by readers’ choices. If you’re unfamiliar with what these were like, they were relatively cheap collections of horror stories involving mysteries, cryptids, and other creepy things. The Pixel Pulp series takes inspiration from actual American pulp magazines that ran from the late 1800s to the late 1950s. If you didn’t play the predecessor, or if you’re still on the fence about whether you liked it or not, you can read on to find out if Varney Lake is up your alley. Convergently, if you liked Mothmen 1966, you’re going to love what’s on offer here. The two tales are intrinsically tied to one another after all, if not by subject matter then by presentation and overall atmosphere.
If you haven’t read our review of Mothmen 1966, you should probably do so before you continue reading this one, even if Varney Lake, the second entry in LC Game Studio’s Pixel Pulp series of visual novels is supposedly a standalone story.
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