Lou’s Lagoon Review Mini

Lou’s Lagoon (Switch 2) Review Mini

Jack of all trades, master of none.

Lou’s Lagoon combines a lot of elements that individually all appeal to me. There is reand 3D platforming elements, a large world to explore, and you even get to fly a plane. But wrapping all that together is a big task

You play as a custom character who arrives on a small island to find your uncle has gone missing from his delivery service. You’ll quickly pick up the reins of his business while also working to find out what happened to him. Much of the moment to moment gameplay of Lou’s Lagoon is built around gathering resources, using those resources to craft more complex resources, and using them to complete requests from neighboring islands. The crafting is satisfyingly deep and yet unlocks at a good pace to never be overwhelming.

You’ll travel to these other islands via your airplane. You’ll also occasionally pick up quests that involve some basic flight challenges of flying through a few rings which never get particularly challenging. Your airplane handles well though I do wish there was a bit more for you to do in the space between islands. As is, your plane largely just extends the time between loading screens as each island exists as its own loading zone. That’s one of the largest issues I encounter with Lou’s Lagoon. For a game that is about running a delivery service, the simple act of traveling from island to another always involves multiple rounds of loading. You can eventually unlock fast travel to islands by completing certain tasks on each one, but even then you’ll be constantly loading back and forth looking for the right resources you need for each quest.

The Switch 2 offers a somewhat uneven version of Lou’s Lagoon. When playing docked the game runs quite well. The frame rate is generally consistent and the image quality is great. When playing handheld, however, the frame-rate will be sub thirty frames-per-second the vast majority of the time. The image quality remains very good, almost like the game doesn’t change settings between docked and handheld profiles, which I assume is contributing to the performance issues.

Lou’s Lagoon succeeds with a lot of the complexities of its various genres. Crafting focused games can easily become overcomplicated, but Lou’s Lagoon manages these systems masterfully. Where it struggles is in the more basic elements of its gameplay. It is a game about traveling that has unsatisfying travel. The Switch 2 version comes with far more compromise than it should, especially in handheld mode. If you can put up with uneven gameplay and a lot of loading, there is plenty to enjoy here, but it will take a bit of work to find it.

Summary

Pros

• Accessible crafting mechanics
• Flight mechanics make every game better
• Fun art design
• Neat mix of genres

Cons

• A lot of time traveling with nothing to do
• Constant loading screens
• Rough Switch 2 performance in handheld mode

A review code was provided by the publisher

Talkback

Worldwide Releases

Related Content

• Lou’s Lagoon [S2]

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