The look of Lux-Pain will remind you more of a point-and-click adventure game than anything else. There is very little in motion on the screen while you play, other than characters that pop in as talking heads to spout some dialogue before bowing out. The interaction you do have with the game revolves around some touch-screen activities that showcase pretty visual tricks, but nothing that moves outside the one-room frame of reference.

Dark graphics, some voice talent, and a moody storyline will make Lux-Pain worth the journey for some players, but the overriding emotion you're likely to have while playing is, "Where's the rest of the game?" Static graphics aside, the locations you'll explore in point-and-click style are well designed. Things are fittingly banal while you are exploring the halls of a high school or public building, and can quickly shift to become grisly when you uncover a piece of the dark mystery your character is trying to unravel. Overuse of some effects dampens the level of anxiety you have after seeing the same scary sequence 50 times in a row.

Discussions with characters becomes a process of listening, reading, and watching facial expressions - at times, you'll be able to customize your own mood and facial expression, which may send the conversation in a different direction. There are a ton of characters you'll interact with, each well designed with and full of interesting backstory they'll share with you if prompted. The booklet of art from the game that accompanies the Lux-Pain retail package is a nice extra that showcases the time and attention that went into creating a colorful game world.

The story of Lux-Pain is fairly complex, in that nonsensical way that otaku have come to know and love so well over the years. Tracking down the source of an infection, you enter Kisaragi City and start investigating strange incidents that prove the infection is coming from a mental parasite called Silent. Somewhere in the city, a person is carrying the original form of Silent. Unlike physical diseases, people will carry Silent and show no outward sign. The organization that sends you to the city and monitors your progress became aware of the Silent infection through tracking mass suicides and acts that point to a deranged mind.

This is the point where we point out or remind you that Lux-Pain carries a T for Teen rating. They aren't kidding. This would be a terrible game to give your young child, because the content is most definitely for adult consumption. In my more conservative moments, I'd say that a M for Mature rating would not be out of place, but most of the really bad stuff is delivered in the form of hints and suggestions. Reading people's minds to uncover Silent infection will also expose thoughts they are having that often are dark or brooding. Later teens will get it and enjoy the more mature subject matter, but younger teens may just find it confusing or disturbing.

Aside from interviewing characters to uncover their issues and gather clues as to the whereabouts of the original Silent carrier, you'll mostly spend time exorcising Silent from people you meet and in places you visit. The clues you'll have as to where and when this happens are pretty blatant. Lux-Pain refers to items used to sense activity beyond the physical plane, not just reading minds but sensing the presence of something otherwise unseen. The way this works feels a bit like a mini-game; when you see the sigma symbol on the screen, you tap it to activate your power. This brings down a screen-on-screen effect that desaturates the color of the scene and freezes characters you may be talking with. Scratching at areas where you know there is a shred of infection will uncover a "worm" that you can isolate and destroy. This act frees memories and associations for people that you can combine and implant in other people. This is the primary mechanism in the game aside from just exploring locations and talking with people, so it really defines Lux-Pain. Without a huge amount of variety, the search for Silent becomes a ticket punch, moving from one location to the next looking for people that might offer you another clue and that need your assistance. If you make it through to the end, you've unraveled quite a story, but it still doesn't make a whole lot more sense than it did when you started.

With such a one-note presentation, Lux-Pain has to work to provide some level of challenge for players. Think of Lux-Pain like an interactive book, and you're closer to what the real experience feels like. The scratching/mini-game segments aren't that difficult, but they do make for some frustrating moments when the worm proves elusive and the clock runs out. There are even some interactions you'll only be able to do a specific number of times, making it important to practice your technique for controlling other characters long enough to remove Silent. The outcomes if you are wrong are horrific, making this a game that is more experienced than played. Controlling the stylus in certain interactions can be difficult, but you can redo most interactions, so no dealbreakers here.

Lots of use of touch-screen mechanics here, with options to speed dialogue through strategic button presses. The scenes that show memories unlocked after a sigma session aren't that thrilling once you've seen 10+ previous conversations, so having the option to skip is a nice touch. Otherwise, it's hard to find as many finishing touches to the game in terms of design. You'll wander through the city without a great sense of why you would/should go any place. There seems to be no importance attached to sequence, other than the limits placed on the number of interactions you can have with some characters. The scratching mechanic connected to the sigma-sense mini-game isn't that thrilling because of the size of the insertion point. You can switch over to the scanner to find an elusive worm, but mostly you'll be able to see its presence on the top screen as you work in the bottom. This takes a minute to get used to, but you'll start to figure out where to tap to uncover these psychic leeches.

Freeing people from their fears or providing them with a firewall against the negative impact of Silent on the city is a satisfying job. Less satisfying is that you must visit every location and interact with characters to move the story forward. It's like an RPG, but without that level of control that a single-player RPG provides. The examples of interaction are when you visit a location your spouse has visited already, only to hear something about your spouse stopping by already. The battles are so subdued, more like a casual game or puzzle game than anything heavyweight that requires resource gathering or deft strategy. Players looking for something very different will no doubt find it here, but once the well-produced veneer wears off, is there anything new or classic about Lux-Pain? It's a nice package with lots of exploration and dialogue, but in trying to become an immersive gaming world, the Lux-Pain developers seem to have lost the forest for the trees. Having a million features is only good if people understand when and how to use a particular feature.

Lux-Pain feels like a game (through the first couple hours) that will unfold beautifully and expose some type of epic story. The reality is that Lux-Pain jumps from concept to executive without a firm sense of how the story can become more than a circus without some master plan. The game is a satisfying representation of what Harvey Birdman might look like if crossed with Resident Evil, as long as you understand that Lux-Pain is light on action and heavy on drama and atmosphere. Just don't pull on any particular plot thread, lest the entire fabric of the game unravel... Probably best as a rental.