Developers from the independent studio Embers have showed off their upcoming project Strayed Lights and presented a small demo to give a taste of what the game is going to be.
Strayed Lights is a beautiful adventure game with action elements, the events of which take place in a very entertaining and mysterious world. The protagonist is a newborn speck of light that is destined to grow into something more. The world of Strayed Lights is full of wonders and inhabited by creatures of light and darkness.
The visual part of the game is astonishing, dark color palettes and bright light splotches contrast perfectly, creating a desire to stay a while and admire it. Locations, although simple at a first glance, are filled with tiny details and pleasant touches, whether it be waterfalls, a lake with plants growing around it, or a large but unreachable distant buildings that are about to crumble from age. That kind of balance and attention also goes to the lighting and color of the game itself, the hero’s story and even enemies.
The team has already implemented a photo mode to let players enjoy the beauty offered by Strayed Lights. At the moment, the system has very basic tools and settings but it already gives you a way to create memorable screens or even desktop wallpapers.
The game is built on those contrasts and it reaches beyond the visual aesthetics. The same can be said about the music: calm and quiet tunes during the exploration morph into livelier tracks for combat sequences. The OST echoes the beauty of the game, skillfully conveying the feelings and thoughts of living beings. While immersed in the game, you will notice more than once or twice how the music draws you in with its crystal clear feeling of sadness or hope.
The composers managed to downright brilliantly convey the atmosphere of the game through music and sounds, with a couple of moments from the demo still ingrained in my soul and demanding continuation.
Strayed Lights keeps to its mysterious atmosphere when it comes to the plot itself. The game does not give you a finished story on a silver platter nor does it hold your hand as you are given a chance to explore the world.
You are a mote of a light that has lost itself, and now your inner demons are tearing you apart. And it is only up to you and your actions if you manage to recover yourself. Gigantic beasts driven mad with overwhelming emotions, your own inner struggle, everything in the game goes on without narration or explanation and yet it is intuitively understandable.
It is up to you to choose an angle to view the story of the game from and what kind of thoughts it will evoke. For me, I see a very deep subtext in the game but it remains personal and so I am not going to express it or try to convince others and myself that my understanding is the correct one. I can only say that I am looking forward to playing the full version of the game once it’s out because the demo left a storm of emotions behind.
A bit more about the gameplay in general and battles in particular. Engaging in combat in the game is quite a frequent activity but it is far from an annoying one unless you get stun-locked. You will have to defeat various dark creatures but, sometimes, you can bring them back to the path of the light – be it through your fists or through your kindness.
The battles in Strayed Lights are mostly based around parrying and attacking is not an easy task in this game. Enemies are defined by their elements: Fire, Ice and Void (as I dubbed it for myself), reflected by a color, Red, Blue and Purple respectively.
Your character can change their ‘color’ to Red or Blue as well, but there is nothing to do about Purple but evade. Every successful parry allows you to store some energy for a Flash that will destroy your enemies. You can attack as well even though it is not quite as effective as parrying.
The protagonist also has a number of basic abilities to help get you through any predicament: stun an enemy, parry regardless of color, or attack and interrupt enemy’s action. There is a small skill tree that allows you to invest in the gameplay type you want by leveling up your protagonist in the respective way.
You need to parry enemy attacks with a corresponding color. For example, if an enemy attacks you with Blue claws, you need to parry with Blue yourself and so on. Purple attacks can not be parried in the same way, it will always get past your defense so your evasion skills have to be on-point as well.
Proper synchronization with enemies will greatly help you in battle but even meeting 2 monsters at once can cause a headache. Enemies can attack continuously, causing you to be stun-locked on the ground while they slap you to death.
The variety of enemies in the game promises to be great. Even in an hour-long emo you can encounter foes of all shapes and sizes: from an incomprehensible grotesque shapeless blocks and weaves of shadows to monstrous animals. Strayed Lights features a pleasing fauna, just take the foxes that you can encounter in the game!.. all the more reasons why it feels like such a sucker punch when you see monsters slaughtering these innocent critters.
The battle against the first boss, a sort of dark gorilla, is the first emotional trap of the game that you will get sucked into. It is hard to remain emotionless in the face of everything the title has to offer.
To sum it up, Strayed Lights is a very interesting, charming and mysterious game that evokes a strong emotional response. The plot might be hard to understand but is addictive with its wordless magic. The game is deceptively simple but it doesn’t prevent it from playing with your feelings and your own personal experiences. It is a great thing when a title can hook you from the first few minutes. I hope the game will manage to keep to that high bar till the very end when the full release version is out.
The release of the game is slated for April. Check out the Steam page to find out more.
