Dark and Light

53%
Game Brain Score Based on 5,434 reviews
  • gameplay
  • graphics
  • stability
Dark and Light Game Cover
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Dark and Light is a sandbox survival RPG set in the mysterious world of Gaia. Harness the power of magic and summon mythical creatures to aid you in challenging battles. Harsh environments and dynamic weather systems require players to build and customize shelters for survival, creating a living, breathing world full of wonder and peril.

  • PC
  • Windows
  • Cloud
  • NVIDIA GeForce NOW
Genres & TagsPlay Modes

Reviews

53%
Audience ScoreBased on 5,434 reviews
gameplay141 positive mentions
stability523 negative mentions
  • The game offers a unique blend of survival mechanics and fantasy elements, making it enjoyable for fans of both genres.
  • The graphics and world design are beautiful, providing an immersive experience.
  • The taming and crafting systems are engaging, allowing for a variety of playstyles.
  • The game has been abandoned by the developers, with no significant updates or bug fixes in years.
  • There are numerous bugs and glitches that can disrupt gameplay, including issues with taming and building.
  • The player base is very low, making multiplayer experiences sparse and often lonely.
  • gameplay618 mentions

    The gameplay of "Dark and Light" has received mixed reviews, with many players noting its similarities to "Ark: Survival Evolved" in terms of mechanics, crafting, and survival elements. While some appreciate the unique blend of magic and RPG features, others criticize the game for its unfinished state, bugs, and clunky mechanics, leading to a frustrating experience. Overall, the game shows potential but requires significant improvements to its core systems and performance to fully engage players.

    • “The game's blend of survival mechanics, sandbox building, and magical elements provides a fresh and engaging experience.”
    • “The taming of pets is great fun, having to shoot the mob with an arrow and anchoring them to the ground is very enjoyable. It gives a real feel of capturing the mob, and the quest line, although a little buggy, is really good for understanding the mechanics without becoming a chore.”
    • “Gameplay-wise, there is a ton of stuff to research and mess with, and the character progression system is very engaging. The gameplay is very challenging early on, but this makes milestones, such as taming your first boar or getting a flyer, feel rewarding.”
    • “Frankly, even if they didn't allow hackers and griefers, the game mechanics would still suck because buildings can be destroyed with a spell, which is ridiculous.”
    • “While the premise was a great hook and it had tremendous potential at first - the game is an unfinished mess of an asset flip from Ark with no story, no direction, and broken mechanics/quests everywhere.”
    • “The gameplay sucks, but it kind of feels like it could get better over time.”
  • graphics607 mentions

    The graphics of the game receive mixed reviews, with many players praising the beautiful environments and creature designs, often comparing them favorably to other titles like Ark. However, numerous complaints highlight issues such as poor optimization, graphical glitches, and significant performance drops, especially on lower-end systems. While some players find the visuals stunning when settings are adjusted correctly, others express disappointment that the in-game graphics do not match the promotional materials, leading to a frustrating experience overall.

    • “The graphics are gorgeous and the mounts are really cool, if you like spending 24 hours to tame a small dragon.”
    • “The graphics are amazing, the creatures I’ve encountered so far have been incredible, scary, and high-leveled.”
    • “The graphics are lush, the draw distances are awesome, and the level of detail on many items and mobs makes for extremely pleasant viewing.”
    • “The graphics are dull and boring, the colors are shades of grey, and it looks like it was made in the 2000s rather than in the 2020s. I was expecting this game to be much more interesting, but I've found nothing that would keep me playing the game.”
    • “The graphics are shockingly poor, and there are so many animation glitches and graphical bugs it's not funny.”
    • “I wanted to like this game but the graphics right now are terrible even on max (nothing like in the videos and screenshots), it takes 10-15 minutes to load into a server (if it loads at all) and once you get in there is so much lag on the server that you rubberband or it takes 1 minute or so after harvesting to get your resources.”
  • stability544 mentions

    The game's stability is widely criticized, with players reporting numerous bugs, glitches, and performance issues that significantly detract from the experience. Many reviews describe it as an unfinished and unpolished product, often likening it to a "buggy mess" or "unplayable" due to frequent crashes and game-breaking glitches. While some players acknowledge the game's potential and express hope for future improvements, the overwhelming sentiment is that it remains in a frustratingly unstable state, particularly for an early access title.

    • “Well optimized, and no glitches....”
    • “This game runs great for early access; in my opinion, it's a much fuller experience than in Ark.”
    • “The game runs great and has tons of content.”
    • “Flash forward from 2017 to 2023, the game is still super buggy and laggy and now abandoned in early access.”
    • “I cannot recommend this game in its current buggy and incomplete state.”
    • “The game is still super buggy and worse than Ark was when it started.”
  • optimization517 mentions

    The game's optimization has been widely criticized, with many players reporting severe performance issues, long loading times, and numerous bugs. Despite some improvements noted in recent updates, the consensus is that the game remains poorly optimized, often likened to the early days of "Ark: Survival Evolved." Players recommend waiting for further optimizations and bug fixes before investing in the game, as it currently struggles to run smoothly even on high-end systems.

    • “The game is still early access, but I have seen great strides in improvement/performance in the recent patches.”
    • “Optimization is very well done.”
    • “I see you improved aesthetics, both in cities and the general world, as well as performance, so kudos, honestly.”
    • “This game is outrageously unoptimized.”
    • “It is unoptimized and full of bugs.”
    • “The game is completely unoptimized.”
  • story418 mentions

    The game's story and quest system have received mixed reviews, with many players noting that the narrative is either minimal or poorly implemented. While some appreciate the presence of quests that serve as tutorials and help guide players through the mechanics, numerous reports highlight bugs that prevent quest completion and a lack of coherent storytelling. Overall, players express a desire for a more fleshed-out narrative and improved quest functionality to enhance the gaming experience.

    • “The game has an added layer adding towns and NPCs that are voiced and a quest line that explains magic and how the crafting system works.”
    • “Dark and Light's massive sandbox world takes the storyline beyond the traditional MMO, delivering a unique blend of MMO and survival mechanics.”
    • “The quest system that is in place is essentially a sort of tutorial that guides you through how to do things in the game.”
    • “However, I knew we were in for a failure the moment they dropped a half-assed DLC map without completing the core game and didn't even separate out the quests between worlds, so if you were playing the original map, there were quests you could never complete popping up on your quest manager.”
    • “Sadly, this game, when it first came out, had some great promise, but as most people have already stated, it's a dead game. There have been no updates since 2020, and even at that point, the game was a mess, playing the base game would provide you a ton of quests that related to the DLC, and vice versa.”
    • “While the premise was a great hook and it had tremendous potential at first - the game is an unfinished mess of an asset flip from Ark with no story, no direction, and broken mechanics/quests everywhere.”
  • grinding267 mentions

    The grinding aspect of the game has received mixed reviews, with many players noting it as excessively tedious and time-consuming, often comparing it unfavorably to similar games like Ark. While some enjoy the grind as part of the survival experience, others find it frustrating, especially regarding resource gathering and crafting, which can feel like a "grind simulator." Players suggest that adjusting server settings can alleviate some of the grind, but overall, the consensus is that the game requires a significant investment of time for minimal rewards.

    • “You'll need a second life for grinding.”
    • “If you like PvP and not grinding, go to the unofficial servers right away.”
    • “The game is way too grindy; the stat upgrades don't feel very impressive, the towns/cities are extremely empty, skill progression doesn't add anything other than you learning the next tier of craftables, there's no progression, and taming is extremely much a chore to the point that there's no reason to do it.”
    • “It's a lot of farming for very little results, even after doubling the resource extraction rate.”
    • “The game is very grindy at the moment; not sure if that will change or just develop into different types of grind.”
  • monetization51 mentions

    The monetization of this game has been widely criticized as a blatant cash grab, with many users expressing frustration over its abandonment and lack of meaningful updates since its early access launch. Reviewers highlight the developers' history of prioritizing profit over quality, leading to a perception that the game is merely a rehash of previous titles designed to exploit players financially. Overall, the sentiment is overwhelmingly negative, urging potential buyers to avoid this title due to its exploitative practices.

    • “Yet another early access game with tons of awesome potential that gets treated as a cash grab and abandoned.”
    • “This game has been dead for years, Snail Games is always true to their motto 'dare to scam' where they will abuse the alpha system to get quick cash grabs, only to abandon it to start the next cash grab.”
    • “In its current form, it was released as a buggy, unfinished mess of a cash grab.”
  • music51 mentions

    The music in the game receives mixed reviews, with some players praising its beauty and immersive quality, while others criticize it for being repetitive and overly loud, with a broken volume slider that fails to adjust the sound effectively. Many users appreciate the soundtrack's ability to enhance the game's atmosphere, but frustrations arise from the inability to disable the music entirely, leading some to resort to external audio sources. Overall, while the music has its highlights, technical issues and repetitiveness detract from the experience for several players.

    • “The music is amazing, the graphics are superb.”
    • “It is a beautiful game with a beautiful soundtrack.”
    • “The music is astounding, and the world that you spawn into feels incredibly immense and it is full of absolutely gorgeous scenery and architecture.”
    • “The music is really annoying, and you can't turn it off.”
    • “The music volume slider does nothing.”
    • “By the time I got into single player mode, I was frustrated and annoyed by the choppy FPS and music, so I cannot comment on the gameplay itself.”
  • humor42 mentions

    The humor in the game is often derived from its bugs and chaotic interactions, with players finding amusement in glitches like characters getting stuck or absurd scenarios involving goblins stealing their items. While some players appreciate the comedic elements of these bugs, others feel the humor is inconsistent, with mixed opinions on the overall comedic tone of the game. Despite its early access status and frustrating moments, many players report laughing at the unexpected and often ridiculous situations that arise during gameplay.

    • “I understand this is in an early access stage where there are numerous frustrating bugs, but sometimes those frustrating bugs can be hilarious at times.”
    • “In the very first few minutes of play, I was assaulted and robbed by a group of villainous goblins... now mind you they did not kill me, nearly knocked me unconscious and stole all my belongings... I was astounded and laughing all at the same time.”
    • “I thought the biggest threat of this game was the players looking to kill you and take your loot... but man was I wrong. I was fighting a unicorn, no issue, it was a bit dark so couldn't see very far, suddenly I had some goblins come and attack me... I honestly couldn't stop laughing, was so surprised, never expected to be robbed of all my items by a couple of tiny goblins.”
    • “It is not funny.”
    • “The graphics are shockingly poor, and there are so many animation glitches and graphical bugs that it's not funny.”
  • atmosphere24 mentions

    The game's atmosphere is widely praised for its immersive and beautifully detailed world, evoking feelings reminiscent of MMORPGs like World of Warcraft and Guild Wars 2. While the atmosphere is generally captivating, some players noted that bugs and clunky gameplay can detract from the experience. Overall, the combination of solid graphics, music, and a unique setting contributes to a compelling atmosphere that many find engaging and enjoyable.

    • “The world is beautiful and atmospheric, and there is a very high level of immersion.”
    • “What this game does right is create atmosphere, and I found myself saying 'wow' a lot more times than I have in the past with these types of games.”
    • “It has a wonderful atmosphere, solid graphics for an early access game, good movement scheme, and more.”
    • “More could be done to make the nights scary or build some atmosphere around the concept.”
    • “The game has a very threatening atmosphere and you will get killed by reapers, panthers, and other grisly creatures.”
    • “The atmosphere, setting... magic and swords... this could've been something fantastic.”
  • replayability18 mentions

    The replayability of the game is generally considered decent, with a large open world and various progression elements that encourage exploration and base upgrading. However, many players note that the world feels limited, leading to only a few weeks of engaging content for most. While there are bugs and performance issues, some players find enjoyment in single-player or less populated servers, suggesting that the game has potential but requires further polish to enhance its replay value.

    • “Dark and light has a lot of replay value, with a lot of progression and a large open world to explore. There is always something to do; you can try to upgrade your base or gear, tame a stronger and better creature, or go out and explore the world.”
    • “Bugs galore, but for its price and replayability, definitely a nice game and worth it even if you end up in a PvE or non-PvP official server. There's always hope.”
    • “The replayability is decent.”
    • “Replayability: a lot of grinding and dying.”
    • “Replayability: most survival games actually have replayability, but unfortunately the world is not big enough to really provide more than a few weeks of adventuring to most players.”
    • “Just missing a lot of polish and a few things to make it more playable which many others have mentioned several times over the years.”
  • emotional12 mentions

    The emotional responses to the game highlight a deep sense of frustration and heartbreak among players, stemming from its perceived abandonment and persistent bugs that disrupt core gameplay. Many express feelings of anguish over in-game losses and the challenges posed by unresponsive mechanics, leading to a sense of disappointment and a desire to give up on the experience altogether. Overall, the emotional tone reflects a mix of hope for improvement and sorrow over the game's current state.

    • “You look at it and just want to cry.”
    • “It's challenging, frustrating, heartbreaking, encouraging.”
    • “I watched as he battled the treemen, tearing into them as they knocked over the nearby trees, but finally with a crash one stomped grunt into the ground as I cried out in anguish... my pig was gone.”
  • character development8 mentions

    Character development is a standout feature of the game, with a focus on character-based quests that enhance player engagement. Reviewers appreciate the depth of customization and progression options, noting that it surpasses similar games like Ark in both character design and utility, allowing for a more diverse and complex gameplay experience.

    • “The best part is character development; all quests are character-based, no running to NPCs for quests. God, I hated that.”
    • “It's an 'ark-like' RPG focused more on character development and less on taming armies of creatures.”
    • “The complexity of the crafting, the snap together building, and the character development make it stand out.”
    • “Additionally, there is much more utility and gear sets than Ark and other games, which create an opportunity for diverse character development.”
    • “The aspect of the game that rises above Ark is your character development.”
Positive mentions (%)Positive
Neutral mentions (%)Neutral
Negative mentions (%)Negative

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Play time

19hMedian play time
213hAverage play time
6-100hSpent by most gamers
*Based on 149 analyzed playthroughs

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