The Town of Light is a Different, More Personal Take on the Horror Genre

They say that you should never return to the scene of a crime. Quite who these people are, I don’t know, nor am I sure why they are saying these things – are they criminals, trying to thrown us off the scent? But developer LKA.it put you in the shoes of someone returning to the scene of multiple crimes, it appears, as you are playing a girl returning to a mental hospital in 2015, having spent time there during her formative years.

Multiple crimes and, it appears, creepy experiments have taken place at this hospital, and if the books you can find and look through are anything to go by, the bodily harm that is suggested is disgusting, and beyond words criminal. Told through a mixture of the protagonist narrating key moments, and your own exploration, it’s not entirely clear what happened here based on the short, twenty to thirty minute Alpha demo I played, but it sure as hell sets the scene, and left me wanting to find out more.

It starts innocuously enough, despite a cut-scene that showcases our character being locked away, hearing screams and not really knowing what is going on, suddenly it’s 2015, beautiful daylight breaks through the trees in a deserted Italian woodland area, where we find the hospital. It’s pretty, but dilapidated, the trees and bright sky reminded me of The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, a bit.

Inside, dusty floors and furniture are shown with beams of light breaking through windows that are made prisons thanks to iron bars. It’s not pitch black, but a torch helps to illuminate the dankest corners, as we find books, scraps of paper containing information, and a slide show projector that has pictures of the asylum on it. Our character is preoccupied with finding her doll, and her voice is almost panic-stricken as she wants us to find her: she’s not safe, it’s dark and cold.

Eventually, after turning on the power, it’s time to go upstairs, where the creepyness is ramped up, thanks to sounds made more fearsome because of the surroundings. There’s something darkly oppressive about being in this kind of place, especially as the journey so far has revealed some very odd things. Then, after looking around some more, there’s the doll. And suddenly a cutscene, that suggest… well, in truth, I’m not entirely sure. There’s a hit of parental violence, as mother is discussed by our narrator, and shadows creep away from the heavily stylized aesthetic scene.

Then it’s back to exploring, and our doll needs to be comfortable. While carrying it, you can’t use your torch, and you can’t put it down. It’s horribly alive-yet-not eyes appear to be constantly looking just away from the first-person viewpoint, jarringly glassy, placed inside the cracked doll-face’s eye sockets. But a jaunt back downstairs leads us to a wheelchair, which we push back to the stairs, where there’s a functioning lift on it. Back upstairs, dolly needs to be warm, and so we find a weird heat-lamp contraption. Music appears to play when you find the right things, but that could be coincidence.

And freedom again. Until the previously locked area is opened up, and The Town of Light starts to play camera tricks based on perception. Suddenly you can’t go back, and you can’t turn around. You have to push on. Eventually another cut-scene plays and that’s all there’s time for.

Something special could be happening here. This is a horror game that, so far, has no real jump scares, instead pulling on the deep sense of fear instilled that everything is just not quite right. Sanity and stability is under question, and it’s not clear why this girl has come back here, nor even why the mental home has shut down. Knowing that The Town of Light is inspired by real events and locations just adds that little bit extra to an already tantalizing prospect.

That said, there’s a worry it could go down the Silent Hills route, and have you repeatedly go through the same locations, with new things happening. That’s fine, and all, but it’ll only work if everything else is one hundred percent on-point, and in honesty, the voice-acting needs a little work, as does some of the dialogue (though it’s difficult to tell if the weird diction and grammer is intentional due to the character or not). Also, while there’s nothing wrong with having a “press H for a hint” system, if the “puzzles” are too obtuse to unfurl in what I can only assume is the opening of the game, then a little bit of work might be needed in terms of signposting. With it apparently out later this year, I’m very interested to see where it goes from here.