[Disclaimer: I received a review key for Light - Die to Surive through Keymailer, a third-party website/company that connects publishers and developers with content creators. The game was given without promise or expectation of a positive review, only that the game be played and content be created through the playing of the game and the experience. Unless otherwise noted, all content in the following article is from my own playthrough of this game.]
Light - Die to Survive
Systems: Windows, Linux
Release Date: July 31, 2024
Publisher: NoteBuddy, Inc.
Developer: NoteBuddy, Inc.
Time Spent: 73 Minutes
Now that we've covered the basics and generalities in Light - Die to Survive back in Monday's article, I will go over three of my four attempts at playing and trying to pass the first chapter. I technically have all four of the videos I recorded all of the playing I did in Light, but for some unknown reason, the second video ends up corrupted every time I try to export it from Steam on the Steam Deck. I can watch the video on the Steam Deck, so I know it's a thing, but every time I try to export that one file, it saves as 1.4KB, so I'm not sure what's going on in the exporting process for this one file because all of the other video files come up as their actual video. Not that there was anything overly revolutionary in that second video other than showing some progression in figuring out a couple of the solutions in what you're supposed to do for certain phenomena as you walk/run down the long road.
Playthrough #1: The First
I genuinely like the slightly messiness in this video. It's not flashy or showy or really professional-looking. It's just me starting up the game, technically for the second time but the first time was only for two minutes and to get screenshots of the title screen. It shows the process of trying to figure out how to best get the game to run well enough to be playable and presentable on a system that the game was both not designed or optimized for and one that doesn't have a large enough player base to help guide new players.
So the medium settings were somewhat playable, but I honestly didn't feel that there was a significant difference on the Steam Deck between the Low and Medium settings, so I just left them on low for the slightly better frame rate; I'd rather have a stable 30, especially for YouTube videos.
As you can tell from this first video, I figured out how to make it past the mannequin, but was flummoxed by the phone which will be covered below. But, the main purpose was to just start up the game and see how best to run it on the Steam Deck.
Playthrough #3: The Second
I'm a bit miffed by the fact that I seem to be unable to export my second video although there wasn't a lot of progression so maybe that's not a bad thing? I'm just annoyed mainly from a completionist view in that there's a gap in my experience playing the game that I can't share, even if that experience wasn't productive.
Instead of doing a long-winded commentary, I'm going to bullet point the highlights from the video without hyperlinking any of the timestamps because I cannot afford a personal assistant to do it for me. And there was a lot of progression that happened in this video.
- 01:42 - First viewing of the dumpster creature.
- 01:48 - Dead
- 02:55 - Thought I could try to sneak by, even with the flashlight lit.
- 02:55 - Dead
- 03:41 - I thought this time I would try approaching the dumpster but with the flashlight off.
- 03:46 - Dead
- 04:30 - The first time I saw a mannequin up on the hill and thought I should treat it like the first mannequin and keep it illuminated and hope that it would disappear.
- 04:37 - Success!!
- 04:55 - I thought this time I would completely ignore the dumpster with the light off.
- 05:06 - Now there's a portapotty and thought I should stop to have a look around.
- 05:44 - Blinking Road Closed Sign
- 06:13 - Dead
- 07:35 - I thought I would investigate the portapotty this time around.
- 07:37 - Dead
- 09:31 - First time noticing the object in the road. I didn't recognize it as a hand at first. After the screen glitch, I looked around for a mannequin and when I didn't see one, I thought it was safe to proceed.
- 10:23 - Dead
- 11:26 - I stopped here at the portapotty because of where I died last time. I thought this was similar to the phone mannequin, that I needed to solve a puzzle to not die in the next area.
- 12:26 - First spotting of the ditch mannequin.
- 12:34 - Dead
- I think I died here because I went too far down the "Road Closed" dirt road.
- 14:19 - I got the mannequin to disappear using the same, "shine the light on it and walk away from it" technique.
- 14:29 - First sighting of the water tower
- 14:34 - A figure, similar to the dumpster creature, I briefly spotted hanging from the water tower but it disappeared too quickly to get a good look. I turned the light off in the belief, this time around, that I should only illuminate things when I specifically needed to and not at all times.
- 14:50 - Road cone and road sign
- 15:16 - Dead
- 16:35 - I have no explanation as to why it took several passes for the mannequin to disappear, but this started happening more and more frequently.
- 19:02 - Unlit lamp post
- 19:05 - Dead
Playthrough #4: The Third
I'm going to keep a similar format to the previous video just to maintain some level of consistency.
- 02:26 - I walk towards the ditch thinking that the mannequin will be there.
- 02:38 - The mannequin is located in a very different location, which I appreciate, but again, I wish that the game did this after every time you respawn to make each run/attempt slightly more interesting.
- 03:02 - Still a bit confused by the water tank at this point.
- 03:25 - At the road cone and sign, I actually take the sign into account and determine that you're supposed to walk around the cone (counterclockwise, yes?) before continuing.
- 03:36 - There's the sound of a mannequin appearing/disappearing I think, but I couldn't find anything. The sound does crop up again in the same general area, but I never did figure out what it's associated with.
- 03:49 - An unlit lamp post. I probably should have noticed that it being off was likely a hint as to what to do with my flashlight.
- 04:12 - The bus stop!
- 04:17 - A red arrow on the back right of the bus stop.
- 04:19 - Screen glitch
- 04:21 - Almost simultaneously after the glitch, there's an animal/creature sound along with a similar dust-up of animation on the right side of the road quickly followed by one on the left side of the road.
- 04:49 - Dead
- 06:43 - I thought that maybe with the mannequin now on the hillside, that maybe I was supposed to try something different, even if it meant going past the Road Closed sign.
- 06:45 - Dead
- 07:30 - Don't know why the mannequin didn't disappear here.
- 08:46 - I thought I kept the light on the hillside mannequin for as long as necessary since it had never disappeared before.
- 08:47 - Dead
- 10:09 - Apologies, I was trying out all of the buttons to see if anything happened that hadn't happened before and I accidentally hit the controller/hint screen, which doesn't really give you any hints.
- 12:33 - Dead
- 15:10 - I briefly considered maybe I should go down the hillside since the direction of the dust-ups went from right to left and happened around the area that the red arrow was pointing, but the drop down the hill looked too steep to be a thing.
- 15:38 - I did briefly think about heading up the hillside, but again, that didn't seem right either, mainly because the title of the chapter is "The Long Road."
- 15:47 - Dead
So this is where my current playthrough of Light - Die to Survive has languished, right after the bus stop with no idea as to what I'm supposed to do with the bus stop itself, the red arrow, the creature sounds or the dust-up on both sides of the road. I only just saw that Kiki Cakes posted an annotated walkthrough, so I'll likely return to the game to see how far I can get with only the occasional handholding and see how much I can figure out on my own. Maybe only to see what the other two environments are like.
But I still stand by my original conclusion from Monday's article, that I like the concept, but any sense of fear or dread drops off dramatically after having to repeat the same sections time and time and time and time again while trying to figure out the next piece of the puzzle.
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