Loretta is a side-scrolling adventure game published by Dangen Entertainment for Nintendo Switch, and a psychological thriller that immerses players in a dark, noir-inspired narrative set in 1940s rural America. A lot of adventure titles tend to focus on silly, goofy stories so this much more serious tone is enough to help the game stand out by itself. Loretta offers a nice blend of point-and-click style gameplay and more visual novel elements, allowing navigating the tumultuous psyche of its titular character while things start to spiral out of control. That part certainly works. Loretta offers up a compelling atmosphere and multiple narrative paths which might be enough for some people. It struggles a bit more with the game element of it, though, and by the end it winds up feeling like a little bit of a waste of a very interesting premise.
This tells the story of Loretta Lou Harris, a woman who is trapped in a failing marriage and haunted by her past. That’s never a good combo. That’s almost always the combo for a bad time, but add in the oppressive backdrop of the ’40s and there you have all the ingredients for a full on psychotic break. The tale begins with the mysterious disappearance of her husband, setting the stage for a narrative that delves into themes of betrayal, desperation, moral ambiguity, and an ugly moose head decoration that just will not leave poor Loretta alone. Finding out what happened to Walter, her poor husband, is fairly easy. Getting Loretta to the end of her journey is a lot more complex, and it involves a lot of digging around into her (and her husband’s) sordid past. With enough digging, Loretta might just be able to make her way to the end. Just don’t expect it to be a happy one.
The narrative is definitely the title’s strongest asset. Loretta is going for a tone that feels half Pulp Fiction and half classic cinema noir, and on that end it absolutely succeeds. It very much feels like one of those old-school classic detective stories, albeit this time told from the other end of things. There are some elements of light horror thrown in here as well, and the overall package is really compelling and worth seeing through until the end. That’s the main draw here, and Loretta is one of those where how much someone likes it largely depends on how much they like the story. Fortunately, it is quite strong and there are plenty of memorable, unsettling moments that are likely to stick with one long after the credits roll.
Loretta is one of the those adventures where certain choices are supposed to matter, although it isn’t quite clear if that actually helps the story here. The branching storylines and multiple endings encourage replayability, as some decisions can lead to vastly different outcomes. Most of these decisions tend to boil down to “should Loretta do this really, really bad thing or this much less bad thing” and there aren’t any here that players are really going to need to agonise over. This level of player agency does add some depth to the gameplay, as Loretta can be either a fairly sympathetic character or a straight up monster depending on the player’s choices.
The branching story paths are kind of fun, but at the same time it can make the story feel a bit muddled. It always tends to hurt the cohesion of the story where there isn’t one definitive narrative being told, and that is unfortunately the case with Loretta as well. Like the heroine’s psyche, the storyline itself can feel a bit fractured at times, particularly if one winds up going back and forth between the evil and less evil choices. Some paths here wind up being more interesting than others, and a couple of the branch points can feel really weird if certain choices are made before it. There is this very interesting, very solid core to a story here. The branching pathways and player choices do help things feel a bit more immersive, but this is the kind of plot that feels like it would’ve benefited more from having one clear vision.
The art style is also quite nice and really helps reinforce the oppressive themes from the story. Loretta employs a pixelated art style that, while minimalist, effectively conveys the grim atmosphere. Upfront, this allows the player to pick from either keeping things in colour or in black and white. There’s a warning that black and white is supposedly harder, but honestly this is easy enough either way, and the black and white visuals just feel so much more appropriate for the overall style. The visuals are complemented by a haunting soundtrack and ambient sound design that enhance the sense of unease permeating it all. Overall, it is a well put together package that really helps boost the story even further.
Despite its narrative strengths, Loretta does not feel nearly as well put together in terms of the actual gameplay. It features some very light puzzle elements and inventory management, but these mechanics are underdeveloped. Loretta does have an inventory where she can hold certain objects, but it isn’t as if you actually use these. Everything gets used automatically, so either Loretta has what is needed and the story continues, or she doesn’t and needs to wander around a bit more to find it. It very much feels like a lot of these puzzles are solving themselves and for all the complexity of the story the gameplay feels extremely basic by comparison.
Even beyond that, though, there simply isn’t a lot here to explore. The warning up front of a ‘hard’ and ‘easy’ mode feels a bit odd because the whole thing is so short that it is very hard to imagine a way for someone to get stuck. This is a side-scrolling adventure game, so Loretta can move left or right and interact with certain objects in the room. It is very hard to miss anything, because items that can be interacted with pop up as soon as she walks past them. Environments are also very small and most items really just trigger a line or two of dialogue from Loretta as she comments on them and moves on. There are only one or two instances that feel like actual puzzles, where Loretta has to do something other than slowly walk around and pick up the one item that can be looked at to use on the one other item that can be interacted with.
There are some strange transition scenes between the story segments that typically seem to serve as some sort of metaphor for what Loretta is going through or about to go through. The use of metaphorical mini-games and surreal imagery adds a bit to the storytelling, which is nice. These mini-games, however, while thematically relevant, are not necessarily fun or interesting from an actual gameplay perspective. There is a severe lack of instruction and unclear objectives, and sometimes you are going to need to just stumble around for a couple of minutes and hope they somehow trigger the thing they were supposed to. Others are painfully obvious, and there are multiple mini-games where the goal is to just tap on these pseudo puzzle pieces a couple of times until they rotate in the right direction and automatically place themselves in the right spot. They just don’t add much to the experience, and by the end they feel more like a disruption than anything else.
Technical shortcomings also don’t help things. Loretta runs uneven at times, and it always seems to occur at the worst possible moments. There were multiple jump scares that were straight up ruined because the game took a second to think about things before throwing them out on screen. It felt like it could be scary if the creepy imagery showed up when they were supposed to. Instead, they missed their cue. This sets up a jump scare, but then the jump scare is on a smoke break, and runs out in a panic just a second too late to actually work.
