The Town of Light Review

The Town of Light is an adventure game that aims to help you understand what it was like to be in an asylum in the late 1930s in Italy. According to LKA - the developers - the building you walk through is a “meticulous reconstruction” of a former psych hospital in Italy. LKA spent a lot of time of researching documents and accounts of what went on in the asylum and that is reflected by the various books and documents found in the game. But it seems like too much time was spent researching and making the building look exactly how it’s supposed to instead of investing an appropriate amount of time making a story that makes sense.

Video Review

The Town of Light

Where’s the light?

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I played through the game twice. From the beginning I was confused as to who I was and why I was at this asylum. LKA described to me that I was Renee, a girl who was brought to an asylum at the age of 16 and stripped of her humanity. What I was looking at was a dilapidated building which tells me the hospital is closed and she’s no longer a patient, but in no way does the game inform you why you’re there. I suspected you were visiting based on the description of the game on Steam, but it wasn’t until I read articles from people who talked with LKA that confirmed that you are visiting to remember what happened during that time.

The confusion didn’t stop as I played the game. You are supposed to be Renee but she frequently goes back and forth referring to herself in the first and third-person. Sometimes it’s “I am” and sometimes it’s “Renee is.” Even the description for the hint button says “Talk to Renee.” I couldn’t tell if this was intentional. It could have been a symptom of the characters’ mental illness but it came off as translation errors. And if you turn the subtitles on, you’ll notice many grammatical errors. Sentences have exclamation points in the middle of them, no spaces between words, no periods, no capitalizations in places, and missing or misplaced commas.

Looking at some of these pictures is almost like looking at the actual facility

The voice acting was very distracting, also, sounding like a text-to-speech program. I understand this is a character that lost her life inside this horrible place, but I felt no emotion in her presentation. I hate to pick on these type of errors but these are things that made the story more confusing than it already was, especially considering the character is mentally ill.

The Town of Light doesn’t advertise itself as a horror game but it does rely on some common horror tropes. People unlock doors of rooms you somehow trapped yourself in, there’s a scary looking doll, and the overall ominous feeling of the building feels like there could be a jump scare at any moment. I appreciate the latter. Hearing the sound of your footsteps and random sounds added a welcome and appropriate eerie feeling to the location. But the rest of the tropes set up scenarios that never fulfill themselves and felt like they were used because LKA trapped themselves in a narrative hole.

Puzzles end up being a guessing game. Some adventure games are known for how well they confound you but they follow a certain logic. Without the hint system, it’s nearly impossible to figure out where to go or what to do on some occasions. Any traditional puzzles you might find are rare and very easy. While I wouldn’t blame you for criticizing that, I get the impression the goal was to focus on making you feel something rather than involve you in tedious and unnecessary puzzles.

At some points of the game, you’re given the ability to make choices and while these choices change an immediate outcome, it doesn’t help to clear up any confusion or immerse you in the story. They suffer from the same potential translation problems as the speaking. Sometimes they’re in the first-person, third-person, and sometimes the second-person. The inconsistent perspective constantly bewildered me and made me wonder who I was answering as. There’s also no clear logic as to why your choices led you to where you end up creating the feeling the story branches are inconsequential.

The animated drawings are simplistic but very effective

Ultimately, the story struggles between telling Renee’s story and showing you the history behind practices in mental health of that era. Sometimes you’re trying to remember your own memories and what role you had in a relationship, other times you come across a flashback that details horrific memories. It all feels like mini-stories forcefully stitched together in order to serve the purpose of the grand vision: show the history of mental health practices.

I give a lot of credit to LKA in their depictions of those disturbing and terrible medical practices. Using drawings instead of cinematic cutscenes displayed the horrors powerfully. Some scenes are rendered in full 3D but those are also careful and appropriate; disturbing and shocking but not done for the shock. Not all the scenes packed an emotional punch but all of them successfully conveyed the weight and action of the moment. Some are graphic though, and not intended for children.

Technically the graphics are gorgeous. The textures, trees, grass, shadows, and lighting were all rendered wonderfully. The game is not optimized as well as it could be, though. My machine meets the recommended specs which are for a mid-tier PC and I couldn’t consistently run Ultra at 60 FPS. Most times I was around 47 and sometimes I could get 70. So if you have a mid-tier machine, you’ll have to choose whether you want absolutely beautiful graphics or a high framerate.

LKA definitely got the graphics right

I love the idea LKA had for The Town of Light. A documentary type of game that explores the unexplored territory of mental illness. What you see is horrible and makes you feel disgusted. But what you play is a confusing mess. The desire for a narrative and the desire to show history don’t collaborate well and that severely hurts the emotional impact of the game. And the ending completely upends the entire premise of the game. I want LKA to keep making these kinds of games and for that I support them but as a game, I can’t recommend you spend your time with this. You’re better off doing your own research on the history of mental health.