Vidjama Gmaes Work

The Lies of P demo is out now on any console worth talking about, and it’s pretty great. As someone who isn’t a big fan of Soulsbourne titles, I was worried that I’d end up getting frustrated and quitting early on, but I’ve actually had a pretty good time and fully finished the demo zones. Just don’t ask my neighbors for comment about the colorful language coming out of this house over the last few days.

Lies of P is part of what is commonly called the “cozy game” genre, that being low energy titles designed to be played in order to unwind and relax after a hard day at work. The breadth of your game time is going to be spent exploring a destroyed remains of Krat, a once bustling city that has fallen victim to a lack of confetti and friendship. You play as Pinocchio, the creation of Geppetto, who awakens and starts a journey to save the city and celebrate his birthday. You’ll need to navigate a city of mad puppets determined to wish you a happy birthday with lots of heavy hugs and smooches.

The game is all about making things more convenient for you as you progress. While the map can be a bit winding and confusing at first, you routinely unlock new passages, ladders, and gates to provide shortcuts to make your next trip through the area a little shorter. Stargazers are all around providing fast travel locations and while using a Stargazer does respawn all the puppets on the map, it refills your health tools and gives you a quick way to go back to the central hub and take care of your upgrades.

Along the way you’ll also come across new friends like the Mad Donkey who if you can beat at an arm wrestling contest will give you his adorable donkey mask as a reward. These more unique enemies tend to not respawn. You gain a material called ergo by winning handshake contests that can be spent on upgrades to your stats.

Like I said this is a pretty cozy game. You do drop your ergo if defeated but once you respawn you can just go back to where you dropped it and pick it up. Otherwise there are no game overs, Lies of P will never ask you to do a quickscope headshot, or a quicktime event, and there aren’t game mechanics that rely on your knowledge of third century Chinese pottery. You can even toss a coin in a bowl and summon an extra friend to help during the big encounters later on. It’s all a fun, cozy, laid back party with people who love you.

Lies of P launches on consoles this September. Check out the demo now on consoles and PC. Like and subscribe for more one minute demos.