The Light Keeps Us Safe
- September 5, 2019
- Big Robot Ltd
Get on Steam"The Light Keeps Us Safe" is a first-person survival game set in a post-apocalyptic world. Players must navigate dark environments while avoiding alien creatures that thrive in the darkness, using limited light sources to stay safe. With a focus on stealth and strategy, players scavenge for resources and repair structures to survive and uncover the truth behind the cataclysmic event that changed the world.
PC
Windows
Reviews
- The game features a great atmosphere and impressive visual design, creating a sense of dread and immersion.
- The light mechanic is innovative and adds a unique twist to the gameplay, allowing players to interact with the environment in interesting ways.
- There is a variety of enemy types and challenges that can create tense moments, making the gameplay engaging for stealth enthusiasts.
- The game is plagued by numerous bugs and technical issues, including frustrating movement mechanics and game-breaking glitches.
- The narrative is underdeveloped, leaving players with many unanswered questions and an unsatisfying ending.
- Gameplay can become repetitive and lacks meaningful direction, leading to a feeling of boredom after a short playtime.
- gameplay104 mentions
- 15 % positive mentions
- 77 % neutral mentions
- 8 % negative mentions
The gameplay of "The Light Keeps Us Safe" is centered around a stealth loop that involves running, hiding, and collecting, but it suffers from unpolished mechanics and frustrating controls. While the atmosphere and unique light mechanics are praised, many players find the gameplay simplistic, repetitive, and lacking depth, with issues such as inconsistent enemy behavior and movement bugs detracting from the experience. Overall, the game shows promise but requires significant improvements to its mechanics and design to fully engage players.
“Gameplay is fun once you get into it and you can have some truly adrenaline-infused moments as you are being cornered by multiple enemies whilst running out of options/resources.”
“The core gameplay loop is simple -- run, hide, collect -- but works fine for the time you'll probably be playing this game.”
“I really love the stealth aspects and the general lack of in-game help made it a lot of fun figuring out how to get into the different structures without getting caught by the somewhat mindless mechanical enemies.”
“The controls - no matter how you map them - are awful, the lighting isn't spooky, it's just impossible to see anything, and the mechanics just fail at every turn.”
“While the game design is solid, overall it feels unpolished, uninspired, and unfun.”
“The core mechanics are too simple; it's way too easy to figure out where you need to go because every objective has near identical light setups, and the enemies are very simple and very dumb.”
- atmosphere72 mentions
- 67 % positive mentions
- 29 % neutral mentions
- 4 % negative mentions
The game's atmosphere is widely praised for its stunning visuals, sound design, and immersive world, creating a sense of dread and intrigue reminiscent of titles like "Stalker" and "Half-Life 2." While many players appreciate the atmospheric elements, they also note that the gameplay mechanics and story feel underdeveloped, leaving the experience somewhat lacking in depth. Overall, the atmosphere stands out as a highlight, but the game requires further refinement to fully realize its potential.
“The atmosphere and visual art direction is incredible, the stealth is decent, and the light mechanic is a neat concept.”
“This game is a beautiful and thrilling stealth-em-up with amazing sound design, atmosphere, art, and setting.”
“Neat atmosphere and concept, but the game is kind of boring and the mechanics are lame.”
“Everything about the atmosphere and the robot design and the sound direction combines to create a sense of dread that never lets up.”
“The spooky atmosphere and the initial 'oh no, I gotta hide and stay quiet' very quickly becomes kind of dull and meaningless when you realize that the robots aren't actually that dangerous; you can pretty easily just go around them or escape if they actually manage to spot you.”
- graphics40 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- 43 % neutral mentions
- 8 % negative mentions
The game's graphics are generally praised for their artistic style and atmospheric quality, effectively integrating a unique aesthetic into a realistic environment. However, players have reported issues with glitches, a lack of customizable graphics settings, and significant frame rate drops, which detract from the overall experience. Despite these drawbacks, the visuals are considered beautiful and promising, contributing to an engaging gameplay atmosphere.
“Graphics are awesome, especially considering Big Robot's trademark art style for the majority of their games. It's really impressive how that has been integrated into the realistic environment.”
“Graphically beautiful, fantastic sound, intriguing world, solid stealth so far, and it looks like it's going to be really cool as it gets built out.”
“Graphically, the game is great, with tons of atmosphere.”
“The general idea, and the graphics looked promising at first, but finishing the game left a semi-bitter taste.”
“I have a fear that the graphics are dark to balance the poor engine, and yet the framerate drops for some reason in some places. The options menu does not provide any ways to balance the graphics settings.”
“This combined with the fact that there is no way to change or turn down graphics settings makes it almost impossible to play.”
- story32 mentions
- 9 % positive mentions
- 81 % neutral mentions
- 9 % negative mentions
The game's story is largely criticized for being minimal and repetitive, primarily revolving around a simple goal of gathering parts to upgrade a flashlight, which leaves players wanting more depth and narrative substance. While some players appreciate the atmospheric elements and world-building mechanics, the overall plot is considered underdeveloped, lacking closure and meaningful context. Many reviewers express disappointment that the intriguing backstory hinted at in supplementary materials is not effectively integrated into the gameplay itself.
“It’s actually a fine example of game mechanics contributing to the storytelling, because there’s some serious world-building that happens once you realize how some of your modes work.”
“It's an utter shame as I mentioned the backstory for Signal from Tölva is simply brilliant (the PDF backstory, not as told in-game) and I sincerely hoped it would be exploited for another game.”
“I can't wait to see where the plot leads.”
“Story-wise it's bare-bones and it shouldn't be played for that reason.”
“Even the story suffers from being undercooked, building plenty of atmosphere but not much substance, and it ends in just as unsatisfying a place.”
“The setting and the story are kept unexplained, and the ending does not really provide any closure.”
- stability22 mentions
- 18 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 82 % negative mentions
The game suffers from significant stability issues, including numerous glitches, unpredictable AI behavior, and problematic movement mechanics that detract from the overall experience. Players report that these bugs make it frustrating and unworthy of serious play, especially on higher difficulty levels. Many recommend avoiding the game due to its unfinished state and the lack of meaningful direction.
“I love the concept of the game, but the amount of glitches makes it unworthy to play.”
“The game has been abandoned for a while so don't buy it, it's highly buggy and is not even close to being finished.”
“[b]tl;dr:[/b] Game starts okay, but buggy movement, unpredictable AI, and artificial time-based difficulty ruin what could have been a fun indie survival game.”
- optimization18 mentions
- 17 % positive mentions
- 39 % neutral mentions
- 44 % negative mentions
Overall, the game's optimization has been criticized for being poor, with players experiencing choppy performance and numerous bugs, particularly in later levels. Despite some users reporting stable performance on their rigs, many feel that significant optimization work is needed, especially given the game's early access status and its short length. There is hope that future updates will address these issues, but currently, it feels more like a beta test than a polished release.
“Currently, there are no major performance or framerate problems on my rig.”
“Needs optimization (hopefully we'll get this throughout the early access campaign).”
“It's still too soon to play other than beta test for performance issues.”
“Also by the third level it was getting choppy to play; mind you, my PC is no pushover. I think the game really needs some optimization work.”
“The bad: it's extremely short and feels like it is poorly optimized. I have a Vega 56 and a Ryzen 2600X, and a steady 60 FPS in this game is impossible if you are not underground. The game is also extremely short, and there are numerous parts of the game that feel like they are nowhere near complete or that they don't tie into other parts of the game.”
“I figured it had a lot of promise, even though it had all the early access problems, including bad optimization and lots of bugs.”
- music4 mentions
- 25 % positive mentions
- 50 % neutral mentions
- 25 % negative mentions
The music and sound design contribute to an eerie atmosphere, enhancing the overall experience with effective robot sounds. However, the lack of ambient music and a more engaging main menu detracts from the immersion, leaving players with a sense of incompleteness.
“The sound design, music, robot designs (and their sounds), and lighting makes it all come together into an eerie experience.”
“It just plops you in the main menu with zero fanfare, and continues to give off a very 'rickety' feel and a sense of missing features as you play. Some ambient music would help at the very least, though the robot sounds are great.”
- humor2 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is noted to be less prominent compared to similar titles, such as "Sir, You Are Being Hunted," which suggests a more serious tone and less comedic relief. Overall, players feel that the game lacks the wit and charm found in its counterparts.
- emotional2 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
Players report a strong emotional immersion in the game, highlighting its ability to deeply engage them and evoke powerful feelings. This level of emotional connection is noted as a rare and impactful experience in gaming.
“It's been a while since a game has sucked me in and made me feel this immersed.”
