summary
- Last days of Lazarus is heavily inspired by post-communist Romania
- Immerse yourself in an unsettling mood with many religious, supernatural and superstitious influences of a land in disarray
- Play the game to discover the fate of Lazarus and his troubled and sinful family
Hello, I’m Catalin Marcu from GrimTalin, one of the two developers of Last days of Lazarus – a dark post-communist adventure that tells a disturbing tale of family, loss and sin. George, our Game Director at Darkania Works, and I are very excited that our game is finally coming to Xbox Series X.
While I was involved in the development of the game about a year after its creation, I immediately resonated with its setting not only in our country, Romania, but also in a difficult time for us: the post-communist transition period. I believe we achieved our goal of highlighting, through a supernaturally distorted lens, what our life was like during those difficult years growing from children to teenagers ourselves.
I was four and a half when communism fell in Romania. While there wasn’t much unrest in the small town where I grew up, the big cities and our capital, Bucharest, were in complete revolution. I remember one of those nights when my father went into the factory for his night shift, he said to me and my older brother, “Stay inside and behave. They’re filming in Bucharest.” I don’t know how much I understood at that young age the seriousness of what was happening, but my father’s worried face showed it was something important and those words stuck with me.
What followed was the time of transition. A generation of victims, as they called it. Our parents should sacrifice themselves to poverty and constant struggles so that my generation would have a real chance at a democratic life. Pretty inspiring! What that really meant was that the right people with the right connections got a free pass to loot almost anything from the country. It meant corruption was rampant. It meant a generation that was still blocked and stuck in the old way of thinking and surviving.
Communism did not disappear from our country overnight. Nor the cultural and commercial Russian influences. We still imported a lot of stuff from all the old communist bloc countries. This is the main reason why there are so many items in our game that look like they are from Russia. That is why there are texts in Russian here and there. Some people might mistakenly think that the game is set in Russia or that we placed these items in the game by mistake. In fact, this is what our life looked like back then in Romania.
During communism, one of the ways of coping was religion, and that remained a defining feature for us into the transition period. Our Orthodox Christianity has always been mixed with many traditions, many of them pagan in nature. We are religious but also believe in spirits, curses, disenchantments, fortune tellers and so on. It was common for people who found life particularly hard to become obsessed with religion and believing in our superstitions. We wanted our game to illustrate this distorted view of Christianity as best as possible.
Our country has always been praised for its beautiful scenery. This is also something we’ve worked hard to bring to our game, with some hauntingly beautiful locations inspired by our real-world locations and architecture, like the monasteries and the Bran Orphanage nestled in lush forests are.
Personally, I’m very happy that I got the chance to work on a game that sheds light on our country, its traditions and its troubled past. It is a rare environment in games and I hope you will take the opportunity to explore it and take in all the details. And of course you’ll help our titular Lazarus uncover the truth about his family’s troubled past and the fate of all its members. Last days of Lazarus is now available for Xbox Series X|S!
Last days of Lazarus
Grim Talin
$19.99
Set in post-Soviet Eastern Europe, Last Days of Lazarus tells the story of a troubled man, long-estranged, who, after the death of his mother, returns to his childhood home to spend some time with his sister Lyudmila. But as the land seems to crumble around him, so does reality itself, with a series of inexplicable events leading him in search of more about his family’s troubling past. Last Days of Lazarus is a first-person adventure game with a strong narrative, rich graphics, and supernatural elements, heavily inspired by post-communist Romania, its troubled history, spooky locations, religious beliefs, and strange superstitions. As the story unfolds, you’ll encounter questionable characters whose twisted version of the truth you’ll have to navigate. With a troubled past, you will struggle not only to solve the mysteries placed upon you but also to keep alive every glimmer of hope for redemption.
