Final Light is described as a “procedurally generated roguelite Metroidvania”, but we’re not sure if that’s strictly accurate. The layout of each playthrough is identical every time, with only the powerups seeming to change between runs, not quite living up to the promise of a truly randomised world, and the Metroidvania aspects are pretty much non-existent. Players make their way to the end of each level and move on to the next, with none of the usual exploration and discovery that one would usually associate with the genre.
After some scrolling text fills us in on the story (something about some untoward goings-on inside a secret prison overseen by a shady unknown super-powerful organisation) and we’ve sat through a long static loading screen that looks like something from an early-2000’s PC game, Final Light sends us straight into the dingy prison with no fanfare whatsoever. Your task is to make your way through the prison while dispatching enemies and earning powerups. At the beginning your only weapon is a slash attack, and you have the ability to double jump to access higher platforms. Extra weapons can be collected from lockers, although there are no descriptions so it’s up to you to make the most of whatever you’ve picked up. Likewise the item shop consists of nothing but a list of icons and prices with no information about what anything is. It all feels a bit unnecessarily vague, almost to the point where you question if the game was even finished before release.
In the early going, enemies can be defeated easily by just blindly swinging your blade in their direction. There isn’t a whole lot of feedback to your attacks, and it sort of feels like you might as well be punching paper. Soon enough, new enemies appear such as flying bugs that are extremely difficult to see, adding to the misery of ceilings that collapse rapidly without warning, leaving players with the smallest millisecond to get out of the way. A dodge or block button would have helped massively, but again this feature seems to have been left in the recycle bin along with the audio/video/general options menu.
It’s difficult to recommend a game that’s lacking in so many ways. The story could have lent itself to a really interesting game, but Final Light unfortunately doesn’t do anything that countless other games haven’t done better. A little buggy, some ropey sound and graphics, and that slightly misleading promotional material combine to make Final Light an experience that unfortunately might be best avoided.
FINAL LIGHT: THE PRISON / DEVELOPER: ENJOYUP GAMES / PUBLISHER: ENJOYUP GAMES / PLATFORM: SWITCH / RELEASE DATE: JULY 27TH 2018
