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Lorelei and the Laser Eyesis a complex video game with a deep narrative and mind-bending puzzles. The game barely introduces itself and throws everything it has at you, leaving you alone with a myriad of puzzles and even more documents with hints for them.
All these documents paint a picture of what actually happened to Lorelei, although if the ending is anything to go by, not all of them are to be trusted. If you want to fully understand the story of Lorelei, then look no further as we dive into the key years and characters of the game.
Spoilers For The Entire Game Follow
Lorelei And The Laser Eyes Timeline
There arethree key yearsthat will end up embedded in the minds of any player that finishes Lorelei and the Laser Eyes:1847, 1963 and 2014. They are used in a lot of puzzles, particularly the ones dealing withthe core themes of the main plot.
1847, The Fictional Year
Whilethe whole game is up for interpretation, it is stated several times that the characters known as Lorenzo and Renateare fictional creations of Nero Renzo, a highly eccentric film director of the 1960s. The play Renzo wrote has Lorenzo,a member of an occult brotherhood, approachthe recluse artist Renatein her home, hoping to findthe mythical Third Eye.
The year 1847 is when the story culminates, withRenate suffering a transformationdue to her contact with the Third Eye. Lorenzopushes Renate out of fear, who crashes through a window anddies due to the fall. This playwas never shown or published anywhere, since it was only meant to work as a mirror of what Renzo was planning to doas his magnum opus.
1963, The Incident
Lorelei Weiss is a young, accomplished artist who focuses onpuzzle boxes and pieces reminiscent of computer programmingas her art form. After watching one of Nero Renzo’sdisturbing films, she comes into contact with him, and in turn,Renzo invites her to create real art with him.
Renzo tasks Lorelei withcreating the ultimate maze, one that is sensical and nonsensical, all throughthe use of the OCU-3 supercomputer. However, what he is really trying to do is tomirror his own unpublished play, The Third Eye,culminating in his own demise.
Renzo wanted to create an art piece that had no audience, refusing to believe that the value of an art piece depends on those who observe it.
Renzopsychologically torments Loreleiuntil he can finally recreate the final scene of The Third Eye. Renzo goes throughthe same ‘transformation’ as Renate, gouging both his eyes out, and chases Lorelei while firing a gun blindly. Lorelei, frightened,pushes Renzo out of a window. He dies due to the fall,just like Renate.
2014, The Present
51 years after the incident,Lorelei is still reliving it over and over again, unable to move on. The whole game is aboutuntangling her fragmented minduntil the truth can be brought to light, and the truth is as such:there was an incident, it wasn’t her fault, and it is time to move on.
Due to the unreliability of such a tale,everything else might be a fabrication of Lorelei, including the time she spent with her mentally ill aunt or her expertise in computer logic. Still, the only truth that matters to Lorelei isher own trauma, and letting it go at the final stage of her life.
The OCU-3 Supercomputer
All notes and data about the OCU-3should be taken with a grain of salt, since the device might never have existed in the first place. But assuming that it is real, it would givea different contextto what is happening in the game, and who we are playing as in reality.
Since 2014 is the ‘present,’ it is odd that there aredocuments dating after that year, not to mention the date we start playing the game on, which is relevant tothe puzzles set on ‘yesterday.’The main document in question is one set in 2022,talking about the OCU-3.
It is possible thatLorelei did craft a maze in 1963on the OCU-3, butonly finished it in 2014once she was ready to face the truth. Since Lorelei likelydied in 2014, it seems thatthe OCU-3 was rediscoveredeight years later, and we are playing assomeone in the present dayusing the OCU-3, and going througha finished version of Lorelei’s maze.
