With Dark Souls and Bloodborne developer FromSoftware remaining tight-lipped about its next difficult action game, Elden Ring, many fans are turning to indie games to provide the level of brutal action that the Soulslike genre so deftly delivers. One game that fans of Dark Souls should definitely keep track of is the upcoming action-adventure game from developer Zelart, There Is No Light.
There Is No Light is a brutal top-down action game set in a grim world where players will have to fight furiously to survive. Players must learn to be fast and efficient in combat, to tackle the difficult challenge level of the gameplay and survive battles against hideous monsters and bosses lurking in the shadows.
The tone and setting of There Is No Light will feel familiar to Dark Souls players, as it takes place in a world ravaged by a mysterious catastrophe. Forced underground, the last remnants of humanity turned to the Church of the Great Hand, becoming zealots resigned to the subterranean ruins of the old world.
The people of this underground society blindly follow their new god, The Great Hand. Every few years, they sacrifice chosen newborns to be taken beyond the gates to the Sanctuary, a terrifying world of horror filled with monsters. When his child is chosen as a sacrifice, one man takes up arms to save his child, venturing into the hostile world to try and open the gates and save his baby.
There Is No Light is styled around this grim aesthetic, and the world that the player must explore is a crumbling maze filled with unspeakable horrors waiting to strike. The game features a gorgeous pixel-art style that blends otherworldly horror with gothic architecture in an effective way. The hero must explore a ruined world where once-great promenades and exquisite courtyards now lay in disrepair and ruin. Hallways are filled with horrific biomass growths filled with eyeballs, and thrones now sport the skeletons of unnamed creatures. The game's art style and look is effective and sets a melancholy tone, much like the Dark Souls games.
There Is No Light's gameplay is challenging and fast-paced. The unique gimmick that this title brings to the table is allowing players to instantly switch between a handful of weapons to fluidly create furious combos. Players must move carefully and swiftly, as combat is designed to be a "deadly dance where one mistake can be the last." It relies on positioning and quick reflexes, much like the praised style of Bloodborne.
Players will need to be aggressive to quickly dodge and dispatch a wide variety of terrifying monsters. These include scythe-wielding humanoids who explode into flames, doglike winged beasts who lunge forward with gnashing sharp teeth and disgusting puddles of viscera that slide along the ground. There Is No Light gives players four different weapon types, which can be paired with a variety of special skills, like a quick stabbing attack or a wide-arching slash that creates some breathing room. The pairing of speed and versatile attacks makes the game's combat an enjoyable treat.
There Is No Light is also designed to be a non-linear experience for players to explore, allowing them to take on bosses in whatever order they are encountered. This is much like the equally grim indie Metroidvania Blasphemous, which effectively did the same with its sidescrolling action-adventure.
On top of this freedom, players must navigate both the levels and the karma system. This can affect the difficulty in various ways depending on the player's interaction with various NPCs. The gameplay in There Is No Light can be made much easier or much more difficult based on the player's actions.
The combination of the non-linear, grim action and karma makes There Is No Light an action-adventure title worth checking out for fans of somber, horror-styled aesthetics. For gamers who demand a horrific challenge, There Is No Light has a demo available right now on Steam that features two locations and a behemoth boss to take on. The game does not have a specific release date, but it is scheduled to come out later this year on PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation and Xbox consoles.
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