The Light Keeps Us Safe - Early Thoughts

First, off a bit of background, The Light Keeps Us Safe (TLKUS) is an apocalypse game by the team at Big Robot Ltd, It's just entered Early Access on steam so everyone can take a look and get a feel for this game as they work through finishing its development.

Overview

THE LIGHT KEEPS US SAFE is a procedurally-generated apocalypse in which only The Light can save us. Use stealth and evasion to avoid terrifying machines that patrol the desolate world, and employ the powers of Light to unpick their deadly traps.

So what's going on

Everything is gone, the power can't last much longer and you should have left when everyone else did but you didn't and as such you've been left behind to survive. Don't worry though there is a announcers voice who lets you know that they have left you but kindly given you a modular flashlight to survive.

You start in your little safely net of the bunker but soon you must go outside into the darkness and search for parts and food. Your trusty torch is the only thing to keep you safe but as you progress through the game it becomes upgradeable and with each new upgrade you can defend against a new emery or unlock a new area.

The out of bunker world or the darkness as I've quickly come to refer to it as is littered with light-based puzzles and challenges. Some in the form of working out patterns to avoid being killed by the enemies as you do to destroy them and others to make your way to the collectable parts. One thing you quickly come to learn about this game but won't be a surprise to many is that you can't solve everything from the start it does rely on you upgrading your torch and coming back to try them with your new abilities. This is great for the game though as it means those vast open worlds have a lot going on and you've got to explore them more than once.

Enemies like the challenges aren't all defendable from the start but when you do encounter a new one remember 'The Light Keeps Us Safe' as your torch is the primary way to disable them. I say disable and not destroy because it merely stuns them for a little while allowing you to pass by and continue on your adventure. Another way to evade enemies is by flanking them or luring them away from where you are trying to get either by staying inside their detection area but outside of their attack area or by throwing a bottle the opposite way to distract them.

Often with these types of survival games where you are learning as you go especially with dark style ones the main thing that keeps you hooked and playing is the audio. Something which this game has got down to a tee and yes that may seem like an odd thing to say but just try it. Whenever I jump in and play some more of this game I do so with no distractions, headphones on and it's just me and the game. It had me jumping at first when I was discovering new enemies but as you learn the sound of each of them and what other environment sounds mean it helps you to evade much faster.

There is no crafting within this game as the developers felt it was a bit dull which I can understand I'd much rather be playing through the game and taking on new enemies as I complete the challenges.

Final Thought

I've tried to give you a casual overview of the game and some of the critical aspects rather than go into too much detail as I feel TLKUS is one of those Early Access games that will continue to grow and develop so much that it'd be unfair to. This game has so much potential and with it already being so enjoyable I can't wait to see what Big Robot Ltd have in store for it.

Minimum System Requirements

Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system.

OS: Windows 7/8.1/10 (64-bit Version)

Processor: Intel i5 @ 2.7Ghz

Memory: 8 GB RAM

Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 TI or AMD Radeon R9370

DirectX: Version 10

Storage: 5 GB available space

Additional Notes: Requires 64-bit OS