We have a soft spot for adventure games that aren’t afraid to wear their inspirations on their sleeve. Every now and then a game comes along that reminds us why we fell in love with these kinds of stories in the first place. LIFTED immediately gave us that feeling. From its opening minutes, it channels the spirit of classic ’80s adventure films, mixing treasure hunts, impossible escapes, quirky characters, and time travel into something that feels strangely familiar while still carving out its own identity.
The introduction alone sold us. It throws Ari, an easygoing college student, into a ridiculous situation involving his eccentric physics professor, a time-traveling elevator, and a romance-fueled treasure hunt that quickly spirals out of control. The whole sequence is staged like the opening of a blockbuster movie. It was so entertaining that our nephew literally grabbed the controller from our hands because he wanted to experience it himself. That’s probably the biggest compliment we can give those opening moments.
Once the story settles in, LIFTED proves that it’s much more than a series of flashy cutscenes. It quickly becomes a platforming adventure built around exploration, environmental puzzles, and traveling across different periods of history in search of a legendary tiara. The premise is wonderfully absurd, but it never takes itself too seriously. There’s plenty of humor throughout the journey, mostly coming from the chemistry between Ari and Professor Raventhorpe, whose constant enthusiasm contrasts perfectly with Ari’s reluctance to be dragged into yet another impossible situation.
As nostalgic gamers, we couldn’t stop thinking about Back to the Future while playing. Ari often feels like Marty McFly’s younger cousin, while Professor Raventhorpe has that same endlessly optimistic, slightly unhinged energy that made Doc Brown so memorable. Thankfully, they never feel like simple copies. They have enough personality to stand on their own, and before long we stopped comparing them altogether and simply enjoyed spending time with them.
The writing deserves plenty of credit here. LIFTED isn’t afraid to slow things down with conversations and lengthy cinematic sequences, but we genuinely looked forward to every one of them. The dialogue feels natural, the humor lands far more often than it misses, and perhaps most surprisingly, the performances do an excellent job of selling these unusual characters. After a while, we stopped seeing stylized models with invisible limbs and simply started seeing believable people with genuine emotions, flaws, and motivations. That’s not something every story-driven indie game manages to accomplish.
The soundtrack deserves just as much praise. Rather than simply playing in the background, it constantly reacts to what’s happening on screen. Quiet moments receive softer melodies while chase sequences explode with energetic orchestral tracks that make every jump and narrow escape feel far more dramatic. It creates that unmistakable movie-like atmosphere that stays with you throughout the adventure and often elevates scenes that would otherwise be fairly straightforward.
Gameplay gradually expands alongside the story. At first you’re mostly running, climbing, and double jumping through beautifully crafted environments, but before long new mechanics begin to appear. The grappling hook opens up entirely new traversal possibilities, environmental puzzles become more elaborate, and platforming sequences ask for increasingly quick reactions without ever crossing into frustrating territory.
The historical locations themselves are a big part of what makes the adventure enjoyable. Since Professor Raventhorpe’s “Anytime Elevator” jumps through both time and location, every destination brings a fresh setting with its own obstacles and visual identity. One moment you’re navigating ancient ruins, the next you’re escaping dangerous environments or searching forgotten corners for the next clue. The changing locations help keep the adventure feeling fresh from beginning to end.
The platforming strikes a satisfying balance between accessibility and challenge. There were certainly moments where we needed several attempts to get through a sequence, especially during faster escape scenes, but every failure felt deserved. We always knew we had mistimed a jump or reacted too slowly rather than blaming the game itself. Instant respawns keep the pacing moving, encouraging one more attempt instead of making repeated failures frustrating.
Environmental puzzles are similarly approachable. They rarely leave you wandering aimlessly, instead asking you to pay attention to your surroundings, connect clues, and use the movement mechanics you’ve already learned. They fit naturally into the adventure instead of interrupting its momentum. It helps maintain the game’s excellent pacing.
If there’s one aspect that occasionally works against the experience, it’s the fixed camera. Most of the time it presents the action in a cinematic way that complements the game’s presentation, but there were several moments where it simply didn’t provide enough information about where we were supposed to go next. During one climbing section, for example, the camera stayed so tightly focused on Ari that we couldn’t tell which ledge we were meant to jump toward. We spent far longer than we should have moving back and forth until we finally found the correct path almost by accident. Moments like these are thankfully uncommon, but they do interrupt the otherwise smooth flow of exploration.
It’s also worth mentioning that LIFTED knows exactly who it’s trying to reach. Younger players will likely enjoy the colorful characters, straightforward gameplay, and cinematic storytelling just as much as our nephews did. At the same time, older players who grew up on story-driven platformers and adventure films from the ’80s and ’90s will probably appreciate it on an entirely different level. We certainly did. Every new chapter reminded us why these kinds of adventures remain so timeless.
LIFTED is a game that focuses on memorable characters, enjoyable platforming, clever time-travel ideas, and a story that constantly makes you want to see what happens next. A few awkward camera angles occasionally get in the way, but they never overshadow what is otherwise a genuinely charming adventure. We don’t know why we came here, but we sure stayed for the platforming and the characters. By the time the credits rolled, we couldn’t help but wish Ari, Professor Raventhorpe, and Julius had one more impossible journey left to take.
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