Step Into the Light- Lit Review


                                                The matching shirt and jacket just scream, "Hot Topic!"

High school is, at best, unpleasant for everyone. Some may have it better than others but it's an extremely difficult transitional phase. The combination of angst-ridden youth and the difficulties faced in high school can make a student feel that practically the whole world is against them. Lit takes these feelings and uses them to create an experience you actually won't want to play hooky from.

Lit is a dark horror puzzle game for Wii based on the safety we feel within light. The protagonist, Jake, is a student who wakes up in his high school surrounded by darkness. This darkness is inhabited by something sinister and deadly and seems to contain a black smoke-like substance. He soon finds that his true love, his girlfriend Rachael, is lost in another part of the school and trapped. The darkness can swallow anything instantly but is driven away by light.


                                                      Where's all the security guards when you need them?

The gameplay involves moving through the school using various light sources to create a safe path through each room. Lamps, windows, flares, even things like computers and TVs can emit the light necessary to keep Jake alive and drive away darkness. Unfortunately, Jake must also turn off some lights behind himself. Too many lights on at one time can blow out the rest. The variety of lightsources and methods of toggling them is what really makes this game a complex and interesting puzzle game. Slingshot pellets can break open windows, oscillating lights create a cone of moving light, TV remotes can control multiple TVs emitting dull light, and so on. You'll need to discover the right combinations of light, how to activate or deactivate them, and what order to do it in. Much must be considered while watching your power limit and moving carefully. 

Stepping in the darkness means instant death and starting that whole room over again. It can be both frustrating and rewarding. As a fan of action puzzle games, I love Lit. Lit is challenging, clever and unique with a cool aesthetic. I never found it unfair, just a bit flawed. The controls are quite intuitive and well mapped except for one big mistake. The button to use a tool in your inventory is mapped to the same button used for toggling nearby lightsources on and off. It's easy to accidentally turn off a light next to you, instantly killing you, when hastily trying to use a tool. Obviously, this is avoidable, but it killed me a few times until I got used to it. It still does sometimes. Still, Lit is a great game and this flaw doesn't break the game and Lit is a game that punishes impatience to begin with. Be sure to read the game's manual. It will help a lot, especially since the game doesn't put you through a tutorial.


                                                 Where the hell are the janitors? This place is a mess!

Lit also features boss battles, and the ones I've faced have been cleverly designed and unique from each other. This game isn't very violent. When stepping into the darkness Jake will be dragged into the ground. Defeating bosses causes them to sink into the ground. Jake doesn't seem to even be capable of using anything but light to harm bosses. Still, the game is quite dark and scary. Horror fans will likely yawn, but small children will probably be scared. Most of the game is dark and creatures will scurry away as you shine your flashlight. Bosses have a macabre gothic anime look to them and make disturbing screams, groans, etc. The game's music is varied enough not to become grating but it's creepy. For example, one track is definitely inspired by The Exorcist theme with haunting piano. The game looks and sounds great, but it will be too scary for some and not scary enough for those who want it to be. I'm not a horror fan, but I'm quite brave and a fan of suspense, so it's a perfect sweet spot for me.

Many rooms have telephones in them that will ring. Moving through a room fast enough to answer will reward the player with a phone call from Rachael that will play through the Wii remote like a telephone. After answering, completing the room on that same try will move the player toward unlocking game features. This is similar to a time trial feature and helps to add replay. One unlockable (It's not a spoiler. It's in the manual) is Dark mode which uses the same levels but changes the gameplay. The game is rather lengthy with significant replay value.

Lit is great. Its unique gameplay works like an inverted stealth game. As someone who loves action puzzle games, stealth games, and anything different and new in gameplay, I find Lit to be more than worth 800 Wii points ($8 USD). If you've been waiting for a great new WiiWare game, you've got it!

 Stumbleupon  Digg 

Posted by TideGear - Adam Milecki at 2/16/2009 11:10 AM
Categories: Downloadable,Wii,Reviews
 

What did you think of this article?




Trackbacks
Trackback specific URL for this entry
  • No trackbacks exist for this entry.
Comments
Display comments as (Linear | Threaded)

Leave a comment

 Enter the above security code (required)

 Name

 Email (will not be published)

 Website

Your comment is 0 characters limited to 3000 characters.