Platform: PC

Developer: BitMonster Inc.

Publisher: Bitmonster Inc. / Steam

Release Date(NA): May 9th 2014

Genre: Adventure, Role playing game

Nerd Rating: 6.5

Reviewed by Frag Winterbrew

Lili: Child of Geos is an incredible oddity of a game even for its status as an indie title. When I saw the Steam page for the game, I was filled with hype. An adventure RPG that strongly empathizes story, characters, and the world around them. As a quote from the Steam page, “come with us on a journey which will make your sides ache with laughter, where you will get to know and love Lili, and maybe even shed a tear or two.” That line and the undeniably sexy visuals had me sold on the concept.  I quickly decided that I needed to explore the island of Geos.

This game just racks me with curiosity in every single fiber of its content and existence. It’s nothing I’ve ever expected it to be and I really believe that’s part of the magic of Lili: Child of Geos. The title began its life as an iPhone game.  It was mildly successful on the platform and was intended to be ported onto PC. That usually is the commonly told tale of an awful mobile being pushed into a market of higher standards with no to little patches for the different platform. Lili took a different route and was actually remade for computers.  Over five-ish months it was polished and improved from its original rustic limitations. The visuals manage to show off the extent of this “polishing;” the final game is mind numbingly beautiful. I could rant about its graphics for hours.  This is some of the sexiest imagery I’ve ever seen. The world has a refined cartoonish vibe with backgrounds and characters having a Disney persona behind them.

The personality of the title is the strongest feature.  It’s silly, fun, and always entertaining. Every character has their own sense of style that is well reflected in their dialog, movements, and appearance. They’re fascinating to say the least, fitting perfectly into the wonderland that is Geos.

Fun little easter eggs like this one are pretty common in Geo

To think that a ex-mobile game was able to pull off world elements this gorgeous is simply maddening, that is until you get to the next shocker. The game play is nothing anyone would ever expect: a button masher! I was startled at first, but it turns out to be a fair system. It feels awkward getting into but becomes fun quickly. A button mashing game on PC just rattles the hell out of my brain, which is why I tried it on an Xbox 360 controller. Lili: Child of Geos plays better on controller than keyboard for the main combat, however, activating power ups is graphically set to keyboard icons. There are no controller button icons, leaving players to randomly mash buttons to figure out what does what. This was a poor design flaw, considering that after six hours of game play I still have no bloody clue what button maps out to which power up.  I do have hope that they will patch it into the game, as on release it only had partial controller support which they later improved to full support. The current definition of “full support” is you can use the controller to play through the entirety of the game, but it won’t necessarily hold your hand through that experience.

The story is just interesting enough to keep you threading through the game, but in actuality your main push will be wanting to see who you will talk to next and what they have to say. The protagonist Lili has a special spirit about her that enables her to fit into this strange world. Her interactions with the spirit constructs literally makes for the best parts of the game. It’s exciting to see the world detail and meet new people, and the combat is fun leaning towards okay-ish because it almost feels like filler in between the fun parts.  Lili: Child of Geos  also suffers from a short main quest line.  Playing through the game with a focused pace will net you around four hours of actual game time. It does have numerous side quests to hold completionists, although the game still feels incredibly short. The title’s replay value is questionable; you play for the characters and after you get to know them it feels less fulfilling to re-experience it.

Lili: Child of Geos looks vivid and feels silly which is the power of its personality. Its biggest fumble is that its game play doesn’t keep up to par with its world design. Geos is literally one of the most alluring delicacies I have ever had the pleasure of visiting in terms of design. But world elements, sexy visuals, and great one liners just don’t make it a top tier game. It’s a very accessible game and stands out well from others. It would be perfect for children getting into video games, though for adults it’s just missing something to make it feel complete. It’s by no means a bad game but falls short of being a great one. This means Lili: Child of Geos  gets a 6.5 out of 10.

For a link to the Lili: Child of Geos steam page click here.

For actual game play footage, click here!

Written by Nerd Bacon