This review is based upon the 0.80 Alpha release of Light.
Light is a Dark Puzzle Action game, in which the player will be exploring/escaping levels in order to take the light of the enemy of the level. While the first level feels closer to Little Nightmares, as the player will be avoiding the butler and attempting to progress the game. The game is a lot slower and the player will take time to progress through environments, puzzles are longer than Little Nightmares and may require multiple attempts to work out what to do. As the game progresses the puzzles become the more dominant aspect of the game, with a few chase scenes in level 2, while level 3 is a more slow methodical puzzle across the map.
To those who played the demo, the game is a lot slower than what you played, and action is sparse, especially if puzzle difficulty can impede progress. Later levels become more puzzle focused, especially level 3, which has little action events.
The visuals look great and the environments each stand out from each other, from the forests of level 2, caves in level 3 each give the player a different way to interact with.
Being a puzzle game, the game's length is dependent on how fast the player can comprehend the puzzle. Most of the puzzles are fairly simple, the problem is that at times you do not realise what you can interact with. Twice while playing the game I got stumped on puzzles, once was on the kettle in the first level which I could not tell you could interact with. The second time was at the boss fight in level 2, in which I did not realise you were meant to leave the central platform till I died multiple times.
Now if I broke down each level so far, each level took around an hour to complete:
Level 1 - Focus on the butler, the player will be sneaking through areas of the map as they try to get further through the building. Puzzles are simple and are based on environment interaction and looking for keys. This in my opinion is the strongest part of the game, and really gives an environment that makes it enjoyable being a cat. The enjoyment I have from knocking breakable objects off of shelves as a cat, brings me so much pleasure.
Level 2 - The player explores a forest as they are being hunted by a wolf, the level has a mix of large puzzles and chase scenes. Easily has the best puzzles in the game, as the player will be using charge blocks to open paths to explore, with a great boss fight which requires watching the wolves movements and a puzzle which seems complex at first until you explore the environment. The environment really requires though, as platforms can move and such parts can be burned to open new paths.
Level 3 - The player explores mines infested with spiders, the player will mainly be using movable platforms on tracks in order to move ramming devices and catapults, to open the environment to progress. While also avoiding the giant spider to progress into the mine. Easily the slowest part of the game, the platforms move slowly and the player will be leading around the child to do small actions. Although all levels took about the same amount of time, this level dragged as it felt like you were just waiting for the child to move repeatedly.
Now the most important part of the game, you are a cat. At first being a cat is actually really fun, I found the enjoyment of knocking breakable items off shelves. While at other times it may get tedious, the game feels like it is one large escort mission, where you're reliant on the child to interact with everything. This can become annoying as should you mess up a puzzle, you will be repeatedly waiting on the child to walk back over to interact with the player.
The function of the playing being a cat, makes puzzles more complex as it limits the players interaction without the support of the child. I can understand why this adds a variable to puzzles to make them harder. I just hope that in later levels we see the player having more interaction as the cat, and do not need a constant reliance on the child, as right now the game can be a lot of waiting around for the child to get to the player. Like maybe the player needs to climb to knock off objects the child can’t reach, or the cat is used to open up areas the child can’t get to.
Improvements & Bugs
One moment that really infuriated me while playing is the kettle you need to activate in level 1. I died so many times in the game, because there is no indication that you can interact with the kettle unless you are right on top of it. Just something that makes it stand out that I can interact with it would help a lot.
A bug we found is that should you be pushing a trolley, then the player cannot be grabbed by the butler, even if they are being chased. I did attempt to see if I could use this to trap the butler in a corner, sadly I failed.
Also while in the mines, I tried to use the rock breaker to progress, I think I was too close to the wall and when I called the child over I lost all control. Not sure how I did this, but easy fix just reloading the checkpoint.
Still I really enjoyed playing Light, once I thought of the game as more of a puzzle game it was a lot of fun, I just went in expecting a fast paced action game where I would be constantly chased. Looking forward to the future levels.
If you want to have a better look at Light and the gameplay outside of the demo my gameplay is below, I have placed chapters so you can look at the level if you get stuck:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1s6VMTJ1KZw
For any other Horror/Dark games I recommend check out my Curator page, the amount of games I’ve played is growing daily:
https://store.steampowered.com/curator/41770172/
