Many games give you the ability to brutally destroy your enemy, but in Lightless, you must use the light to stun them, or use limited oil to cast fire onto the creatures. You cannot carry a weapon for very long in this game at all.
Lightless is an atmospheric puzzle game that sees you exploring a strange world after falling into a sinkhole. Surrounded by darkness you must make your way through this strange environment, discovering the various puzzles and letters that have been hidden around. Monsters also live within the darkness, waiting to instantly destroy your defenseless self. Thankfully, it looks like you weren’t the first one to travel down here.
You progress through following strange notes that were left behind, you can also find a flashlight which then becomes key in solving the mysterious puzzles that are left down here. Using the flashlight your surroundings grow even darker, but you can aim your light at rocks and reflectors in hopes of triggering something that allows you to move over. Powering up rocks, reflecting light off in one or two directions and making sure you don’t succumb to monsters are the three things you’ll need to balance to make it out of this hole alive.
Many of the puzzles in Lightless are very clever, forcing you to think about where to aim the light before finding a way to move forward. The light also stuns dog-like animals, allowing you to move by them quickly and safely, before they come back. Giant, bear-like creatures are not so easily stunned, but can be tricked to run into big holes or into oil, that you can light on fire if you happen to have an oil container and are fast enough. These creatures seem to be attracted to light, forcing your flashlight to sometimes be more dangerous than it is helpful.
I got the chance to play the demo of Lightless at the GameFest 2019, where they presented a vertical slice, showcasing many different puzzles within the game. The premise behind Lightless is very interesting and all of the puzzles are well thought out and polished. There are some tricky ones thrown in. Following random notes, which presented a story of someone who didn’t seem to fare quite as well as you have, also gives more history to the world below tying the entire game together.
Lightless does not currently have a release date, but you can find more information on the game as well as various social media platforms for the developers on their website.
