Lust for Darkness brings intense psychological horror to Switch

Things are about to get a whole lot steamier on Switch thanks to the launch of Lust for Darkness, an intense, oddly erotic psychological horror game. It takes you on a nightmare odyssey through a world of the occult where Lovecraftian horrors lurk just out of sight.

You play as Jonathan Moon, a young man who suddenly receives a letter from his missing wife. He opts to investigate the disappearance himself, and the clues eventually lead him to a mysterious mansion where some form of eldritch, occult ceremony appears to be taking place.

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While the game’s opening casts you into the bowels of the mansion, it soon becomes clear that the real world has become interwound with another, a world called Lusst’ghaa; a perverse land inspired by the paintings of Zdzislaw Beksinski, the work of H.R. Giger, and the writing of H.P. Lovecraft.

It’s a genuinely alien place where the locals, by their own volition over hundreds of years, have transformed themselves into something deeply other so that they never cease to experience carnal delights. While they may be in a permanent state of ecstasy, it’s not the sort of place a fella like Jonathan Moon wants to get caught up in, what with the alien vegetation and roaming monsters.

The game’s a real looker, with some gross (in a good way) environmental designs and creatures. It’s a discomforting experience all-around, and yet I’m compelled to keep on exploring and solving puzzles. It nails that "want to look away but can’t" feeling, and it’s exactly the sort of thing we don’t see a whole lot of on Switch.

Lust for Darkness actually started out as a Kickstarter game where it went on to hit 600% of its initial funding target. You can find it available for download now over on the Nintendo eShop. I’ll certainly be playing this one a bit more over the weekend, and I’m excited to uncover all of its many secrets.