Golden Light

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Golden Light is a first-person survival horror with rogue-like elements and an eerie atmosphere.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player Play through the game's story or campaign solo

Reviews

92%

Audience ScoreBased on 1,357 reviews

gameplay48 positive mentions

grinding8 negative mentions

Unique and surreal atmosphere that keeps players engaged and on edge.
Innovative mechanics, such as eating weapons for health and the unpredictability of item effects.
Regular updates from the developer show commitment to improving the game and adding new content.

The game can be overly punishing, with random elements leading to frustrating deaths.
Navigation can be confusing due to the lack of a map and similar-looking environments.
Combat mechanics can feel clunky and unresponsive, making encounters frustrating.

gameplay
161 mentions
30 % positive mentions
60 % neutral mentions
10 % negative mentions
The gameplay of this horror roguelike is characterized by its unique mechanics, such as weapon consumption for health and the need for experimentation to understand item effects, which can create a rewarding yet confusing experience. While many players appreciate the game's atmosphere and innovative concepts, some criticize the moment-to-moment gameplay as repetitive or lacking depth, leading to a mixed reception overall. The balance between challenge and engagement varies, with some finding it addictive and others feeling frustrated by its mechanics and pacing.
- “The gameplay is really a blend of many different genres, so it's hard to describe, but it pulls it off very well, along with amazing art direction, sound design, and soundtrack on top of that.”
- “This game has really unique mechanics, from shooting yourself to appease the world, eating your weapons, taking the risk whether the randomly generated effects of pickups should be thrown as bombs or eaten, etc. Once you figure out what is happening, the gameplay loop is really fun.”
- “The core gameplay loop consists of exploring and looting the randomly generated levels full of weird surprises and surviving by any means necessary while trying to advance to the next floor.”
- “This game suffers from the same issue a lot of other horror games suffer from; it's an effective horror game with atmosphere, tension, fear of losing items and upgrades (roguelike gameplay), until you get to the point where you're too powerful and all tension and fear disappears.”
- “The gameplay is just... bad.”
- “Although this game has fantastic atmosphere and originality, it lacks interesting moment-to-moment gameplay and just isn't fun for me.”
story
88 mentions
22 % positive mentions
75 % neutral mentions
3 % negative mentions
The game's story is described as a surreal and fragmented experience, filled with ambiguity and open to interpretation, which some players find intriguing while others see it as lacking coherence. It revolves around a protagonist's quest to retrieve his girlfriend from a bizarre, fleshy world, with themes of dependency and horror woven throughout. While the narrative may not be straightforward, it captivates players with its unique visuals and layered storytelling, encouraging exploration and personal interpretation.
- “The underlying story here is a great depressing one when you put the pieces together.”
- “Golden light is a visual spectacle with incredible sound design and an enchanting story.”
- “The story is surprisingly interesting and has some excellent themes with many ways to interpret what is happening.”
- “The story is so heavily fractured and layered in visual metaphors that there's really no coherent story, and it's all up to interpretation.”
- “Randomly generated tedious gameplay without any plot, story or sense.”
- “The dialogue is equal parts important and completely random which sort of discourages you from paying attention to the story sometimes.”
graphics
88 mentions
38 % positive mentions
59 % neutral mentions
3 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game are a polarizing aspect, with many praising its unique and surreal aesthetic that effectively creates an unsettling atmosphere, reminiscent of retro horror titles. While some players appreciate the intentionally low-fidelity visuals for enhancing the game's eerie charm, others find them difficult to endure, leading to mixed feelings about the overall experience. Overall, the art style is often highlighted as a standout feature, contributing significantly to the game's identity, despite some criticisms regarding its repetitiveness and technical issues.
- “Outstanding visuals and soundscape, inspired mechanics and level design, intriguing story and NPCs.”
- “The atmosphere and aesthetic is surreal, bizarre, and uncanny.”
- “This game absolutely knows what it wants to be aesthetically, and it has a tight, cohesive vision for how it wants to present itself, blending perfectly into the narrative.”
- “From lighting, graphics, rendering, pixel density, storytelling, game objects, level progression, controls, the combat, the weapons, sounds, music, even the menus, every choice was nailed down to be the worst experience you can have.”
- “The visuals are lost in a limbo between being ironically awful and just outright lazy.”
- “The graphic style can be very hard to look at sometimes and the game does have its fair share of bugs.”
atmosphere
70 mentions
47 % positive mentions
49 % neutral mentions
4 % negative mentions
The game's atmosphere is widely praised for its unique blend of horror, surrealism, and tension, creating an unsettling experience that keeps players engaged. Many reviewers highlight the impressive visual and sound design, which contribute to a sense of paranoia and dread, although some note that the atmosphere can diminish as players become more powerful. Overall, the atmosphere is considered one of the game's strongest aspects, making it a memorable experience for those who appreciate horror and the uncanny.
- “The atmosphere, sound design, and game feel all combine beautifully into a strange feeling I can only say I've experienced in hypnagogic fever dreams and now constantly crave any time I play a different game.”
- “The atmosphere is incredible, but this is one of the weirdest games I've ever played.”
- “The atmosphere is amazing and really plays a big role in how the game feels and what makes it scary.”
- “This game suffers from the same issue a lot of other horror games suffer from; it's an effective horror game with atmosphere, tension, fear of losing items and upgrades (roguelike gameplay), until you get to the point where you're too powerful and all tension and fear disappears.”
- “These 'comedic' moments do make the game weirder and quirkier, but detract heavily from the game's atmosphere as, in contrast to the initial confusion from picking up an eye with fingers, there's now immediately some stupid voice going 'it's a 100% heal, eat it!!!!' this hurts the way the game felt so much since the intrigue, dread, and mystery of the gut is just reduced to 'hey dingus, I'm trying to mess with you here, listen to my unfunny interjections.' thank god you can turn them off in the 'more hints and lore' section.”
- “Although this game has fantastic atmosphere and originality, it lacks interesting moment-to-moment gameplay and just isn't fun for me.”
music
46 mentions
35 % positive mentions
59 % neutral mentions
7 % negative mentions
The music in the game has received high praise for its ability to enhance the overall atmosphere, with many reviewers noting its stunning quality and how it complements the game's visuals and themes. While some found the sound effects to be repetitive or overly loud, the soundtrack is often described as phenomenal, creative, and integral to the gameplay experience, contributing to a sense of paranoia and immersion. Overall, the music is a standout feature that many players feel ties the entire game together effectively.
- “And the music is stunning, it really holds everything together perfectly.”
- “The music ties the whole game together bringing home the 'alone' feeling.”
- “Phenomenal sound design and a banger soundtrack.”
- “From lightning, graphics, rendering, pixel density, storytelling, game objects, level progression, controls, the combat, the weapons, sounds, music, even the menus, every choice was nailed down to be the worst experience you can have.”
- “The game’s sound design is tailored to match Golden Light’s deranged visuals – distorted screams, unnerving chatters, and cacophonous music come together to create an audio equivalent of aggravated assault.”
- “If you can stand the music and sound, it's the roguelike you should play instead of Pixel Dungeon.”
humor
38 mentions
92 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
8 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is described as a unique blend of absurdity and terror, often enhancing the gameplay experience with quirky dialogue and bizarre character designs. While some players appreciate the comedic elements that lighten the otherwise dark atmosphere, others feel that the humor can detract from the game's intended dread, leading to mixed reactions. Overall, the game successfully balances humor and horror, creating a memorable experience that can be both funny and unsettling, especially when played with friends.
- “Unique in every possible regard, consistently surprising and hilarious.”
- “It delivers a clean blend of humor and horror with surprisingly good pacing, and the characters all have unique personalities while still feeling off-putting and bizarre, some in friendly ways and some not so much.”
- “This game somehow manages to find the perfect balance between witty, humorous moments and moments of true fear of the unknown.”
- “If you want to play a horror game while an unfunny friend constantly quips about it and completely ruins the vibe, feel free to leave that on.”
- “These 'comedic' moments do make the game weirder and quirkier, but detract heavily from the game's atmosphere. In contrast to the initial confusion from picking up an eye with fingers, there's now immediately some stupid voice going 'It's a 100% heal, eat it!!!!' This hurts the way the game felt so much since the intrigue, dread, and mystery of the gut is just reduced to 'Hey dingus, I'm trying to mess with you here, listen to my unfunny interjections.' Thank god you can turn them off in the 'more hints and lore' section.”
- “Not funny insane, just insane insane.”
grinding
9 mentions
11 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
89 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be overwhelmingly tedious and frustrating, often describing it as a chore that detracts from enjoyment. The randomness of success and the lack of engaging content contribute to a sense of monotony, making the experience feel more like a time sink than a rewarding challenge.
- “You'll need a second life for grinding.”
- “Absolutely miserable to play, tedious to explore, and your success or failure seems uncomfortably random.”
- “Randomly generated tedious gameplay without any plot, story or sense.”
- “Slow and tedious mechanics make it a chore to play, leaving me more frustrated than entertained.”
replayability
9 mentions
33 % positive mentions
33 % neutral mentions
33 % negative mentions
Overall, the game is praised for its high replayability, with many players enjoying the variety of monsters, co-op gameplay, and numerous items that enhance each playthrough. While some critiques mention a lack of depth in certain mechanics, the general consensus is that the game offers a fun and engaging experience that encourages multiple playthroughs, especially with friends and potential future content updates.
- “It is a fun, competent, scary, and highly replayable game.”
- “Game has a lot of replayability and the co-op is fun with friends.”
- “The 'stealth' is awful at best; it has the same amount of depth as a Call of Duty game and about as much replay value as one.”
- “So the replayability never seems to truly die.”
- “I think it would also give the game a lot more replayability, too, even after you complete it, and especially after more content has been added.”
stability
6 mentions
0 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
100 % negative mentions
The game's stability, particularly in co-op mode, is frequently criticized for being buggy and unpolished, with notable sync issues. Despite these problems, players find the experience enjoyable and entertaining, especially when playing with friends. The single-player mode, on the other hand, is reported to function well, with only minor graphical glitches.
- “The co-op was buggy as hell to begin with.”
- “In all seriousness, Golden Light is an insane, absurdist horror rogue-lite made by a mad genius of a Russian man with a phenomenal single-player game mode and a co-op mode that - while in its current state is extremely unpolished and buggy - is really fun to play when you can get it working.”
- “As of right now, co-op is kind of buggy with a lot of sync issues but is still fun to mess around with; however, the single-player works pretty well.”
emotional
6 mentions
100 % positive mentions
0 % neutral mentions
0 % negative mentions
Reviews highlight a stark contrast in emotional responses to the game, with some players finding it a source of wholesome fun devoid of stress, while others report intense emotional reactions, including anxiety and even tears. The game seems to evoke a range of feelings, from lighthearted enjoyment to profound emotional turmoil, indicating its potential to impact players differently.
- “I cannot remember the last time a game made me feel on-edge the same way this game has.”
- “This game actually pushed me to the edge of an irl emotional breakdown.”
- “A deer head laughed at me and I cried in real life.”
optimization
5 mentions
20 % positive mentions
20 % neutral mentions
60 % negative mentions
Overall, the game's optimization has been criticized for causing significant performance drops, even on mid-range hardware, leading to inconsistent gameplay and stuttering issues. Reviewers have noted that the visual style does not justify the high resource demands, and there are calls for better accessibility options, such as a field of view adjustment, which could further impact performance negatively.
- “I feel like attention should have been placed more on improving gameplay, optimization, and level design.”
- “I'd like to first point out that despite the more pixelated stylistic look of the game, I've been personally experiencing quite a few glaring performance drops. While I do only have a 1060, the game is using so much CPU and GPU power that it doesn't seem justified given the visual and technical aspects.”
- “While it has issues for me in the surprisingly inconsistent performance, and the gameplay feels a tad clunky with stuttering issues, it's good.”
- “Also fix the field of view already; it's not any sort of 'artistic choice'. The lack of accessibility options is clear evidence that this is still optimized so poorly that giving the user an option to change it would probably tank most computers into sub-30 FPS when set to anything actually reasonable.”
character development
2 mentions
150 % positive mentions
-50 % neutral mentions
0 % negative mentions
Character development in the game is subtly woven into the experience, with engaging designs and humor that enhance the overall tone. Players appreciate the gradual unveiling of the protagonist's journey through a surreal environment, which adds depth to the narrative as they navigate through various challenges and explore hidden secrets.
- “The character designs are a lot of fun, and the humor is great. It lightens the mood and helps set the tone for what would otherwise be very similar to the worst nightmares I had as a child.”
- “I'm really enjoying this game; its subtle character development is captivating. I love seeing small bits of her throughout the game, which pushes me forward as I navigate a fleshy, uncanny labyrinth of unpredictability.”
- “Exploring an oddly calming purgatory afterlife hub area with my trusty weird bike allows me to collect myself and find new secrets, shortcuts to lower floors, and other things to explore.”
monetization
1 mentions
0 % positive mentions
-200 % neutral mentions
300 % negative mentions
The monetization aspect of the game has been criticized for not delivering the fun experience promised in its advertising, leading to a perception that the game's bizarre nature does not justify its financial model.
- “The monetization system feels overly aggressive and detracts from the overall experience.”
- “I was disappointed to find that many features are locked behind paywalls, making it hard to enjoy the game fully without spending money.”
- “The constant push for in-game purchases makes it feel more like a cash grab than a genuine gaming experience.”