Although the game has been developed by Just a Pixel, Light is the first game to be released under the new third-party scheme being run by Team 17 (the Worms’s series). Light sees you taking on the role of an individual who wakes up in a strange, yet familiar, location and you have no idea who you are or what you are doing here. As you progress through various levels and collect some of the hidden information, you soon realise who you are and what your purpose is. With dialogue only being delivered to the player via text documents, the main aspect of the story requires you to find all of these files to get the most out of your experience in Light.
The way in which Light differs from your typical stealth based game is that everything is simplified yet still intriguing. The game uses minimal controls and is very simple to play. Many PC gamers will feel at home playing this game as movement are controlled by using A, W, S and D. Aside from that, you are able to look around the environment by clicking the right mouse and moving the mouse towards the direction you wish to look to. Hacking computers and cameras is simple and it’s only the main gameplay mechanic which adds any huge difficulty to performing these actions. There is combat in Light, but all it takes to kill an enemy is one press of the space bar and they will perish. As soon as you kill an enemy however, a two minute timer will begin and after this time reinforcements will arrive. Although the feature doesn’t really affect the gameplay, you can hide your fallen enemies in cupboards to enhance the stealthy approach.
Enemies are hard to miss as their glowing red outlines signal danger and fans of Metal Gear Solid will feel some nostalgia as they see how these foes act. While making your way through each level, enemies are consistently the same and come in the forms of security guards with shotguns and cameras. The upside to this is that you can learn which paths the enemies take and pick your moment as your heartbeat escalates and you narrowly avoid the dreaded vision cone. Cameras work in the same way and, although you can run through the vision cone, guards will be notified of your location if you stay in the camera’s vision too long. The stealth mechanics never seems unfair as there are numerous rooms you can enter which aren’t on patrol and there aren’t any time limits on a level, so you can take as long as you wish.
The tasks the main character is set is largely the same as you have to hack computers, plant secret documents and eliminate pivotal people in the story, although there isn’t too many of these acts. The majority of the tasks you are set are very similar to one another, but this has little impact on the game as the main part of the game is ultimately how you reach your goals and the tense atmosphere and split-second timing, especially later in the game, are extremely satisfying when successful. After playing through the campaign you’ll reflect on what you’ve played and the reasons of your actions may not be your first thoughts, but the way in which you built up to those actions will be imprinted on your mind.
Upon first glance, the visuals in Light aren’t the most focused nor do they offer anything different to what we’ve seen before. When I first played the game I felt as though I was playing through a blueprint of a building and this adds to the overall charm of the game. In addition to adding to the charm, the game runs very smoothly and featured no graphical errors in the few hours I had experienced. The bright-glowing characters, cameras and interactive objects are very visible and the soundtrack fits perfectly with the futuristic theme (the upbeat techno music adds to the setting rather than distract you from the task at hand). Though I would have liked to have played through the game with some narration from various voice actors to help add some personality to the characters which you are constantly reading about.
Similarly to the recent Team 17 game Flockers, Light comes with a scoring system which awards points for no kills, hiding bodies in cupboards, being unnoticed and completing it in a par time. With the game not being released until July 14th, it’s unclear if there will be a leaderboard system set up or not, but it certainly looks as though there will be.
As much as I enjoyed playing through Light, I do feel as though it could have been longer. There are twelve levels in total and with the inclusion of Steam Workshops, I feel as though that the community would have a field day if it were to allow the creative freedom which Workshops provides. If you run into a few problems on a certain level and you are killed (and it only takes one shot to kill you) then you have to return to the beginning of the level. While this may be a problem in several games, the levels can be completed in a few minutes and it’s not a huge ask to restart a level which has proven difficult.
Despite its simple look and simple controls Light offers a wonderful stealth experience which will appeal to all gamers, whether you are a fan of the genre or not. For a game which doesn’t take long to complete, Light offers great replay value as there will be times where you can’t help but be seen and the urge to perfectly complete a level seems almost as important as the objective itself. The story develops very well and always has you asking questions about how it develops and how the events occurred. Hopefully it will receive more levels in the future and allow the community to personalise their experience as the game itself is a wonderful experience.
Light will be released via Steam on July 14th for £9.99.