Mothmen 1966 Preview: A Date with Disaster

It’s the night of the Leonid meteor shower in 1966, and two college students, Lee and Victoria, are on their way to what’s supposed to be a perfect date watching the shower. However, there’s plenty of unspoken tension between the two as they drive through the opening of LCB Studio’s Mothmen 1966 demo, and it’s only downhill from here. 

The first of three so-called “Pixel Pulps,” Mothmen 1966 is a visual novel with adventure game elements inspired by pulp fiction and 80’s home computer graphics. Lee’s experience with the meteor shower and subsequent encounter with reporter Lou Hill and the supernatural creatures he’s chasing are rendered in extremely detailed pixel art, with an eerie green hue that makes the whole experience unnerving. 

Despite being a fairly compact, almost bite-sized experience, the Mothmen 1966 demo manages to pack a whole lot of feeling and narrative into the experience. Lee, Victoria and Lou all feel like fully realized characters with their own motivations, insecurities, and flaws. The interactions between them feel genuine in a way that adds to the overall creepy effect of the game. It’s easy to imagine having a strained conversation with your partner on your way to what was supposed to be a great night, only to have it thrown completely off the rails. 

Though the game eventually pulls you into deeper depths of weirdness than what most of us expect in our daily lives, by grounding things in such realistic characters and interactions, along with easing into the stress of what’s to come, Mothmen 1966 really effectively immerses you in its unnerving atmosphere, like a slowly boiled frog. The pulp fiction influences only serve to accentuate this feeling, giving the game a retro and almost Twin Peaks-like energy at times. 

It’s clear that this game has also taken some notes from older adventure games in the way it presents its puzzles. You’ll be put in tricky situations that require you to figure out what exactly you need to do to get by, and if you don’t, it can have some deadly consequences. This is cool in theory, but I did find myself struggling to progress at times because I couldn’t quite figure out the way I was supposed to proceed through an event in order to survive it. 

This can be frustrating, but not enough to take away from the overall experience. Mothmen 1966 is the fun yet serious camp of an X-Files, with all the mystery and suspense you could ask for. Pairing that with its gorgeous visuals and compelling writing, and it’s a scary season homerun. After playing this demo on Steam, I can’t wait for it’s early 2022 release on PC and consoles, and to see how LCB Studio’s other Pixel Pulps turn out.