I hadn’t heard of this game until vincenttoups posted a video of it, and that video was enough to convince me to buy it even though I never really play “roguelike” games (other than Roguelight).
There’s horror and comedy, but mostly just surrealism. I feel like it’s sometimes on the verge of “look how random” but it’s strange and consistent enough that it never crosses that line in a bad way. Perhaps best of all, it really has its own world with no obvious references to other things.
That said, I’m pretty sure the creator has played Silent Hill and LSD. Speaking of the game’s creator,
Edit: I never would have opened that video had I seen that preview image.
It’s probably best to play the game blind at first, but here is a guide with a few tips:
I haven’t figured out exactly what you keep between runs, but you do get to continue on whatever floor you were last on rather than starting over each time. That said, the overworld has more than one entrance and I’m not yet sure how those floors link together, if they do at all.
The game is “Early Access” but it seems pretty complete to me. Every time I open it I have to linger on the title screen for a minute. I like the ambience of it.
I’ve been enjoying this too! It’s actually kind of too scary for me to get very far in lol! But I love it. Definitely is just completely its own thing, despite its obvious influences. I haven’t played anything remotely like it.
i like the way the graphics look and the weird way you seem to hold things but also i don’t really want to run in fear from gross freak stuff in claustrophobic hallways but what about resident evil you say and this time you have a point
I had wondered what exactly triggers the start of a level when you are waiting in one of the “staging” rooms. In pressing random keys I discovered that the Home key brings up a sort of debug menu that I can’t seem to do anything with but that shows what’s happening behind the scenes while you wait.
Also, I’ve made no progress the past 3-4 times I’ve played this game. Whether I try sneaking around or fighting everything, I always get killed before I find all the keys on floor -2.
I tried the co-op mode this morning. It’s a little buggy, but it works. Playing with someone else makes the game a lot less menacing, but that might also be because it’s retreading areas I’m familiar with from playing alone.
This game currently has a voice singing Christmas music on the title screen, with some words replaced by the word “meat.”
Also, I think the game has more performance issues now than the last time I tried it months ago. Also, they added difficulty levels and my progress (such as it was) seems to be erased.
I’ve concluded that this game isn’t really very enjoyable to play but I still like it a lot and will continue to play it periodically.
Edit: This may be my favorite song from the soundtrack, though. I also like the menu theme a lot (which I guess will return after the holidays), but I think it sounds better in the game because it’s accompanied by the chain noises.
Edit 2: The phrases “Dashing through the meat” and “Jingle meats” have become video game things I think about a lot.
Update from the developer of Golden Light, who lives in Russia. (The first three minutes are about the political situation and the rest is about game development.)
If you don’t feel like watching the whole thing but are curious about the answer to “why Golden Light is weird,” he explains that it’s because his mother showed him Mulholland Drive when he was ten years old.
