The Lights Keep Us Safe is a fantastically dark experience

You wake up to a message from your walkie-talkie, and the voice on the other end is a female telling you that you are the only one left. She tells you that you should have run out of supplies by now and that you really should have gone to the light when everyone else did. You apparently didn’t listen and now you are in some trouble. You walk out of the room to find your hand flashlight, the only tool that you have left to you. You must figure out what to do. This is our review for The Lights Keep Us Safe.

From Developer and Publisher Big Robot Ltd, comes a game about flashlights and evil robots. The light from the sky has failed us, there is no food left, and you have hardly any power left to run your bunker. You make the decision to try and make your way back into the world of darkness, and it is filled with evil robots who are waiting to pick you off and kill you. As you prepare to leave the bunker you find a flashlight that was left behind. This is your only true weapon against the robots. What will you do to survive?

As previously mentioned, the flashlight is your only weapon against the robots. You start with a basic flashlight, and it really is only good against a few robots that are stationary. When you flash these stationary robots with the light they retreat into their pods. Basically, these robots can’t stand light, and this brings an interesting mechanic to the game as different types of lights do different things. Some lights will make things disappear into pods, and some lights will make things that are invisible appear. There are even charge modes on the flashlight that hurt certain types of robots as you try to solve these light-based puzzles.

This game makes you have to survive with nothing but the flashlight for a weapon, but it gives you some of the traditional items in this type of survival game. You will still need to eat whatever food you can scavenge, and you will need to drink things as well to stay alive. There is also a stamina mechanic that will allow you to run for short periods of time, and then you need to use your wits and hide. Hiding in plain sight is a viable survival option as well though. Just find a street light and stand under it to avoid the robots trying to attack you.

Graphically this game is amazing, and even though it is dark doesn’t mean you can’t see the beauty in it. The landscape is amazing and the amount of detail in the robots and the buildings, and everything else in this game has you stop for a few seconds just to look around. Each time you play through the game will give you a different landscape also, and what do I mean? The Lights Keep Us Safe is procedurally-generated, which specifically means that you will have new environments with every playthrough. With this feature added into the game, it gives you a different feel every time you play it.

Overall, The Lights Keep Us Safe is an interesting take on a survival game with you only being able to use a flashlight to survive. There is no crafting in the game either so you will need to use whatever you find to survive. The game releases on Steam on October 11, 2018, and so far it looks pretty good. There are things that are still being added but just watch this title.

Note: Our copy was previewed on Steam with a code provided by PR.

Written by
Long time game enthusiast and writer. I have beta tested a lot of Mmorpg's since I was thirteen including Star Wars Galaxies, Lord of the Rings Online, and Star Wars The Old Republic. Currently attending The Art Institute of Pittsburgh for a degree in Game Art and Technology.

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