Labrys

I went into Labrys half-expecting another Dead by Daylight knock-off with a coat of Greek mythology paint. What I got was something rougher around the edges but occasionally more interesting. The core loop drops up to five human prisoners into a procedurally generated labyrinth while one player controls the Minotaur, and the asymmetry here is genuinely tense when you have a full lobby. Humans scatter, lose each other in the corridors, and have to decide in real time whether to cooperate or bail on each other to make the exit. That friction, when it works, is the whole game. On the human side you are collecting equipment, equipping perks, and scanning the environment for tools like caltrops, smoke bombs, and iron gates to slow the Minotaur down. The standout piece of environmental design is the Temple of Zeus, a hidden location inside the labyrinth where you can hunt down energy balls, unlock the Thunderbolt, and actually one-shot the Minotaur with it. That one mechanic alone adds a high-risk objective layer that most games in this genre never bother with. The Minotaur side gets abilities of its own, including a charge that had a bug tied to FPS at launch, which tells you something about how the early build was shipped. Post-launch patches have addressed movement interpolation and network smoothing, and the devs have been transparent about what is still broken, but the honest answer from the community data is that the player count peaked around launch weekend and has not recovered. That last point is where I have to get practical with you. This is a multiplayer-dependent title with a tiny active player base. Matchmaking into a full 5v1 lobby without a friend group is close to impossible right now, and the Minotaur AI for solo and co-op play was still listed as a work in progress by the developers themselves shortly after release. The human gameplay was also self-described as "not so interesting" in developer patch notes, which is a candid admission that the experience for the majority of players needs more work. Voice chat exists and proximity-style play is part of the design intent, though proximity voice was still being requested by players in community discussions as of late 2023. The bones here are solid enough. Procedural generation keeps the maze layouts fresh, the mythology framing is a cut above the usual slasher skins, and the level progression system with unlockable perks and augmentations for both sides gives you something to grind toward. For a horror game at this price tier, the ambition is real. The execution is just uneven, and the player population has not given it room to prove itself. If you have four friends who will actually queue with you, there are a couple of entertaining sessions in here. If you are expecting to find strangers online on any given weeknight, you will be staring at a lobby screen.

Fred · Scout Team

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