Lorelai – A Single Incapacitated Parasite

This is the last game in the Devil Came Through Here trilogy taking place after the events of The Cat Lady and Downfall.

First thing I noticed about this game was, huge improvement in the graphics so the game does look very good when you start it.

The story is about Laura Wood, or as she likes to be called Lorelai, her nickname which is the same as the game’s title. She lives with her mother in a cheap apartment (they call it a flat in this game since it is British), along with her stepfather John and infant stepsister Bethany.

Lorelai was very close to her father, shown from flashbacks in the game, until his untimely death from cancer. When her mother Miranda remarried to John, he was clearly shown to be an alcoholic and abusive towards her. Lorelai was the only one to see through him and plots to move out and take Bethany with her for their own safety.

The other games in this series have always focused on some type of psychological conditions, so it’s clear the primary focus of this one is alcohol addiction.

The story can be hard to follow at first since the first two chapters go back and forth between the present events and what happened before that such as Lorelai’s first day at her new job in the local nursing home. There are also multiple hallucinations she experiences too. After that it’s a journey back and forth between life and death as Lorelai attempts to escape John and starts to work for the Queen of Maggots.

Onto to characters, I like Lorelai, she’s independent and caring with her desire to protect her stepsister. I love her taste with the roses in her hair and the scene where she blocks out the world with her favorite punk rock band.

Then there’s Zack, her neighbor who often wears an oversized tuque (that’s what we call those hats here in Canada, not beanies like the rest of the world does!) and if you choose the right dialogue options, he and Lorelai can become a couple. I liked talking to him about the games he makes, there’s Easter eggs in his room of the two previous games, and both he and Lorelai reference other games like Skyrim and Dark Souls from time to time, so it’s believed that Lorelai is a gamer, but she tells Zack she played a lot more with her dad when she was younger.

Other than that, there’s the mysterious figure Jimmy who tells Lorelai the truth about the Queen of Maggots and his fate is determined whether you feed him or not in his crow form. I didn’t like Miranda or John especially the latter because of how abusive he was. It’s like he is a parasite Lorelai has to eliminate just like Susan Ashworth has her own tasks. Miranda was clearly a cigarette addict and it’s sad how Lorelai was never able to save her in the end.

Lorelai also befriends Maria, one of the nurses at her job and she teaches her the ropes, but what made me start to dislike her afterwards was when she set up a prank with one of the corpses of the recently deceased resident. No one knows if Lorelai and Maria remained close afterwards.

The chapter were Lorelai has her first day on her new job before the events of Chapter 1 was interesting. Some of the residents were funny like Dorothy calling them all “buggers” because she can’t come up with any nastier insult! Then there’s Marjory who you can choose an outfit for, I always picked the red dress because you’re never to old to put on something sexy.

I tried to get a screenshot of the bubbles on Lorelai’s head but didn’t get it in time. I feel like this chapter shows her growing maturity, how she’s ready to work hard to make a living and start a new life with Bethany.

After Lorelai fails at her attempt to kill John, the Queen of Maggots gives her a difficult task as a ghost to interfere with the life of Al, the cook at her workplace.

I tried this with both results, you either sober him up, or do as the queen asks, which is lure him back to the alcohol. The only difference you get is the whole dream house scene afterwards and whether the queen continues to help you or not. It felt good to help Al sober up, and there’s a scene where he goes to the store and Susan Ashworth now works there, she’s doing a lot better now.

The Queen of Maggots has always been seen as an old woman, but her true form is actually a cross over of an enormous humanoid mannequin creature with maggots attached to it. Jimmy asks Lorelai to destroy the monstrous form hidden in the house. She feeds off the souls of the living and often targets mortals who have endured suffering from mental illness or abuse, so it’s no wonder Susan and Lorelai were of interest to her. She offers them second chances at life but at the expense of others, this leads to them becoming dependent on her. That is why I liked choosing to help Al quit alcohol for good, because it showed Lorelai not going to rely on the Queen of Maggots forever.

Jimmy was able to see the queen’s true purpose because he was not dead in her realm, only asleep, and found her monstrous form consuming endless souls. So, we blew her up with a molotov.

The only question I never got answered was why she goes by the name Lorelai as well

John is more like the secondary antagonist of the game who just goes from an alcoholic to a murderer when Lorelai tries to stop him, so killing him felt good in the end especially after what he did to Bethany. (Well, what he did to Miranda’s corpse was pretty bad too.)

The game has multiple endings and the only big difference is whether you feed Jimmy or not, and if you light the candles. On my first run I did neither of those things and was very dissatisfied to see Lorelai move across town but she was struggling to move on.

Then, on my second run I did the opposite and got the golden ending, Zack and Bethany live again and she wakes Jimmy up. Lorelai moves into a better apartment with Zack and Bethany, she continues to work at the nursing home, while Zack keeps making his games and cares for Bethany in Lorelai’s absence. Golden endings in this trilogy are always worth it.

So, that’s the end of this trilogy, Lorelai is an interesting character, if not as relatable to me, but she was definitely not boring. She survived abuse and built herself a better life, depending on what choices you make for her.

This is the first game series I managed to get all the achievements in and I highly recommend this game and its predecessors The Cat Lady and Downfall if you either like horror or games that deal with mental health and other life challenges.

Cat Lady Review

Downfall Review

This game was an interesting conclusion and I enjoyed it, even if it wasn’t as strong as the others.

👽Emily