The world is dark, damp, and devoid of all human life. A massive, unending rain, has caused massive flooding all over the city, and the world and the only life left are the robots who now inhabit the city. You are here to help them reclaim the city and to help fulfill a robot prophecy about a guide who will save them. This is our review of Flood of Light.
From developer and publisher Irisloft, comes a puzzling platformer unlike any other. In this game, you play as a young female human that seemingly has no backstory whatsoever, but she has a big role to play in the salvation of the robots who maintain the now flooded cities of the world. If you are looking for a game that has action, and fighting, and killer robot battles like in Terminator, then you can turn around right now. This has none of that, however, there are challenging puzzles for each level of the city with optional extra puzzles to complete for those concerned about completionism.
Flood of Light is a game full of hand-painted backdrops and level art, which provides you with a great sense of the doom and gloom in the city. There are powered down robots and dark areas awaiting your presence to light the city and to retreat the flood waters. The game has dark areas but it also has light areas for you wander around in. This setting is perfect for this game, of course, it is because you have to light up the lanterns and bring hope to the lonely robots.
As we discussed before, your character is a small girl, known in robot legend as a Guide. She has entered the world with the power to control light sources. The light sources come from lanterns and sometimes from branches. If you have more than one light source and you move it onto a single source, then all of the lights actually branch out to make what looks like a tree branch of lights. The game begins with a tutorial puzzle or two and quickly moves into the hard stuff before you even reach level four. There are nine levels in the game that you have to solve puzzles on to beat the game and save the robot citizens from their gloomy situation.
How does this light moving work? Basically, the Guide has a circular range around her, in which the light is able to be called from its source to her. The light will float behind you as you walk and attempt to light the next lantern. Depending on the difficulty of the puzzle you will have to move some lights into place, and then in a separate section of the puzzle, pull the light back. These puzzles will definitely push the limits of your knowledge and skill in solving difficult problems, but hey, this is a great thing. My brain was getting the best workout that it has gotten in a while, and I loved every minute of it. The mixture of the puzzles, the backgrounds, and the sound will make you want more.
Note: Our copy was reviewed on Nintendo Switch with a code provided by PR.
