Albino Lullaby: Episode 1

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Escape a surreal underground Victorian town that rebuilds itself around you.

Platforms: PC, VR
Stores: Steam
Price: Paid
Rated: Mostly Positive on Steam (70% of 384 reviews)
Players: 1
Controls: Keyboard and mouse or controller; VR headsets supported
Made by: Ape Law
Released: 2015

Not on itch.io. Albino Lullaby: Episode 1 is on Steam, PC and VR. It is not in the itch.io part of the site you came from.

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What frightens You wake as yourself in a dark, surreal Victorian town clinging to the cliffs of an underground cavern, a place of prison slogans and mechanical rooms, and try to escape while the twisted Grandchildren haunt its hidden spaces and the mansion around you rebuilds itself in real time. The makers set out to frighten without jump scares or gore.
Content: disturbing imagery.

Albino Lullaby: Episode 1 is a first-person psychological horror game by Ape Law, released in 2015 with VR support. You try to escape a dark, surreal Victorian town under the earth while the twisted Grandchildren haunt it and its mechanical mansion contorts around you.

About Albino Lullaby: Episode 1

Albino Lullaby: Episode 1 was made by Ape Law, a small studio formed in 2013 by Justin Pappas, a level designer on BioShock Infinite and the Tomb Raider reboot, and released on Steam in September 2015. It was built to support VR from the start and plays on a monitor too. It was planned as an episodic series; this first episode is the one on sale.

The store calls it a Lynchian psychological nightmare in which you play as yourself. You find yourself in a dark and surreal Victorian town that clings to the precipices of underground cliffs, full of prison slogans, strange machines and cartoonish, hand-inked rooms, and you try to escape it. The game space transforms around you in real time, a mechanical mansion deconstructing as you move through it, while you uncover clues to where and what you are.

The threat is the Grandchildren, who haunt the town's hidden spaces. The makers promise horror that does not rely on jump scares or gore, with no cutscenes and the story told through the rooms, and they allow either sneaking past the Grandchildren or a bolder approach.

It suits players who like surreal, stylised horror in the spirit of BioShock's set design, especially in VR.

How to play Albino Lullaby: Episode 1

Buy Albino Lullaby: Episode 1 on Steam; play on a monitor or with a PC VR headset.
Explore the underground town in first person, looking for the way out.
Watch the rooms change around you and look for the hidden spaces.
Sneak past the Grandchildren or face them, as you choose.

Screenshots

Albino Lullaby: a grinning pale face looks out of a booth in a red-lit wooden corridor

Albino Lullaby: a sign reading All prisoners must be fully seated above a balcony, next to a Lift to Surface sign

Albino Lullaby: an old barber chair under a mechanical arm in a dim, purple-lit room

Albino Lullaby: a hand-inked green Victorian hall with a staircase, striped wallpaper and portraits

Tips

Look everywhere: the story is told through the rooms and objects, not cutscenes.
Expect the level to move; paths open and close as the mansion rebuilds itself.