Strayed Lights Review (PC)

good
key review info
  • Game: Strayed Lights
  • Platform: PC
  • Show system requirements
  • Gamepad support: Yes  
  • Reviewed on:
Strayed Lights key art

Strayed Lights doesn’t pretend to be the next soulslike game to challenge fans of the genre, but it does draw inspiration from the formula. The most obvious resemblance to a brutal From Software game is its combat, which feels very much like it’s been borrowed from Sekiro. Every fight is a dance of colors trying to get the right timing on a parry.

Developed by Embers, Strayed Lights is far from being as challenging as any of the classic soulslike like that we all know and love (to hate). If you’re looking for more of a sensorial experience rather than a challenging one, Strayed Lights is the perfect game.

In Strayed Lights, you step into the role of a strange creature that can shift their color between orange and blue. This is a fundamental mechanic for the game’s combat, as players must match the color of the enemy and try to parry attacks.

Strayed Lights lacks any gore and tries to play the pacifist card by not exactly killing any of the bosses in the game. Also, the most effective means to “kill” an enemy is to time your parries correctly until you can use the ultimate ability to grind them. The game does feature an attack move that you’ll unlock in the first few hours of the game, but it’s less effective than a parry and it’s only meant to be used as a filler when the enemy is not attacking.

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The objective of every fight is to quickly fill the stagger bar of the enemy by using well-timed parries. Once that’s full, you can automatically kill the enemy by using a special ability. Boss fights function about the same way, although there are a couple of QTEs (quick time events) that you need to get right before the fight is actually over.

Combat is tight and fluid and parry windows are generous enough even for those who lack the reflexes to be soulslike fans. That’s me saying that Strayed Lights isn’t a challenging game and that’s alright if you’re not looking for that kind of experience.

Correctly parrying an enemy not only fills the stagger gauge, but also heals you if you took damage. However, if you parry the enemy while in the wrong color, you won’t take damage, but won’t heal. It’s an interesting system that completely removes the need of “health potions” or “estus flasks.” In fact, Strayed Lights does away with just about any kind of loot. Your character doesn’t need weapons, armors or any other accessories to fight the enemies, you are actually the weapon.

Enemies are far from being challenging and they quickly become boring due to lack of variety. At least they retain the same moves, so you can get rid of them very fast. Even when you fight multiple enemies, the game doesn’t really pose a challenge if you’re careful.

It goes to show that the folks at Embers didn’t really want to gate the difficulty and make their game an enjoyable experience for everyone. The character progression is very basic with just a few abilities to unlock and several other enhancements. You only get ability points after “killing” a boss, but the enhancements can be unlocked once you have absorbed enough energy from the enemies.

Even though you can unlock all abilities and switch between them during fights, you have a limited number uses. Killing an enemy replenishes one usage of your abilities, so there’s really no point in not making use of them as often as possible. Fights don’t last long typically, unless those that involve a boss.

Story-wise, there’s not much to tell since Strayed Lights offers a non-dialogue based narrative experience, so there’s no voice acting, lore, or any text to read apart from the hints and tutorial tips. The main goal is to soothe creatures like you who succumbed to their emotions and became monsters. As you progress, your character will ascend and unlock new abilities.

Ascending means a transition to another biome as well. Strayed Lights puts a lot of effort into conveying emotions through visual and audio stimuli. As such, the art style is absolutely gorgeous, although I will say that biomes are very empty. The soundtrack is just as outstanding thanks to Grammy award-winning composer Austin Wintory who’s involved in the project.

The world of Strayed Lights is truly beautiful, but empty for the most part. There are no secrets to discover, and exploration is only encouraged by the existence of certain rings that will improve the amount of energy you gain. Once you find a certain number of rings, the percentage of energy you gain increases by 5, so it’s worth finding as many as you can, but that’s the only benefit of any exploration endeavors.

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The Good

  • Gorgeous visuals, outstanding soundtrack
  • Interesting combat mechanics
  • Great worldbuilding

The Bad

  • Enemy lacks variety
  • Gameplay loop can become repetitive fast
  • Undercooked story
  • Barebone character progression system

Conclusion

Strayed Lights is a simple game that had one novel idea and the will to turn it into a sensorial experience. Despite the fact that the combat feels like it’s been inspired by From Software’s games, Strayed Lights lack that challenge of a soulslike title.

The easy-to-understand combat system isn’t actually hard-to-master at all. The game is not as brutal and unforgiving as Sekiro, Dark Souls or any other similar title, so if you die at any point throughout a level, you won’t have to backtrack at all. Same goes for boss fights, which are easy to overcome, yet quite spectacular.

Overall, Strayed Lights is an enjoyable experience as long as you’re not expecting another challenging soulslike game. The eerie atmosphere, gorgeous visuals and outstanding soundtrack make it stand out from the plethora of action-adventure games.

Its only fault is that character progression and combat are too simple, so the gameplay can quickly become repetitive. Despite having built a beautiful world, there’s really no exploration incentive and most of the landscapes are empty and devoid of life.

Review key was provided by the publisher.

story 5
gameplay 7
concept 6
graphics 8
audio 9
multiplayer 0
final rating 7.5
Editor's review
good
 
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Strayed Lights screenshots (26 Images)

Strayed Lights key art
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