La-Mulana Review – In These Ruins, No One Can Hear You Scream
Other than that though, the game is still pretty fair. Resources are very scarce, so players would have to approach every new location in the ruins with extreme precaution. Still, don’t let me scare you away from playing the game. It can be done. Just don’t expect it to be easy, by any means.
You are, of course, not entirely defenseless on your adventure. Lemeza, the protagonist, is armed with a whip from the start. Along the way you’ll find swords, shields, guns, and other projectiles to help you face the eight Ankhs (bosses) that must be defeated in no particular order to reach the final boss. The trick is finding many of them in the first place. Tons of puzzles and traps await you in La-Mulana and I pray for the soul that takes on this game without any help from the internet.

One of the best aspects of La-Mulana is how in spite of its intimidating gameplay, it still has plenty of personality, namely from an old man who frequently sends you humorous emails along your journey. He brings a sort of brevity that makes things seem less horrible when you’ve been trudging through the ruins for hours now. The revamped graphics also help as well as the game is always pretty with its location all varying in style. Because you might be spending hours at a time in any given area, the music may start to get on your nerves a bit, but for the most part, it’s not bad.
Newly included in this Steam version is a reworked Time Attack mode which essentially works as a Boss Rush mode, giving you every weapon right off the bat when you feel like taking a load off from exploring. With a variety of difficulties here, the easy mode is actually surprisingly generous, letting me get a lot further than I expected. Other than that, I can’t say the game has much replay value, unless you really like going through games as quickly as possible. While by the time I hit 10 hours of gameplay I was still not even halfway through the game, I saw a speedrun of some guy going through the entire game in 13 minutes. How? He is probably a wizard, that’s how.

Overall, La-Mulana is a great game that very well might kick your ass, but don’t let that stop you from trying it out. If and when you get past sections of these cruelly difficult ruins, it feels immensely satisfying. Because every action you take must be carefully thought out and executed, you feel like a T-1000 once you’ve figured out that puzzle that has been figuratively laughing at you for the past few hours, making the loss of hair fairly worth it. For those that don’t mind a bit of stress and for those who have had a hard time finding a game that has really given them a challenge over the past decade, look no further than La-Mulana. Fans of 2-D platformers will find a lot to like as a whole, so long as you don’t underestimate it. It can be beat, it has been done (in 13 minutes no less), but I sure as hell couldn’t do it. Still, I had a fun, but painful time.
Final Breakdown
[+Controls and level design make every action count in a big way] [+Pretty, varied environments] [+Plenty of personality to make you hurt less] [+Tricky, challenging, and satisfying puzzles] [-Can be painfully difficult] [-A couple of secrets are just downright unfair] [-Single song for every location plays on a loop]
You can purchase La-Mulana on Steam for $7.49 until July 22nd!