Welcome to the gorgeous but non-sequitur world of Strayed Lights, an indie adventure from Embers where you are a “tiny flickering light seeking transcendence.” And by seeking transcendence, we mean beating the crap out of a bunch of other colored lights. If that sounds like the opening to one of those “this is your brain on drugs” commercials from the 80s, fear not, the only time you have to worry about any of that is reading the description, and we are past that now. Strayed Lights gives you no context to work with, so let’s get down to the game itself.

Release Date: April 25th, 2023
Developer: Embers
Publisher: Embers Platform: PC, (reviewed) PlayStation, Xbox, Switch
Price: $24.99

I love making fun of odd or poorly conceived stories, but there is not much to work with here. You are a newborn creature made of light, who descends into a violent world that at least throws you a tutorial. Where you, oh small being of light, fight against a large being of light, which you defeat by matching your color to its attacks. You can choose either blue or orange, and purple attacks simply must be dodged. Parrying negates damage, parrying with the correct color negates damage and restores health. Defeating an enemy restores health, and dying sets you back to a previous checkpoint. Nice and straightforward.

Minute-to-minute gameplay is fine. It takes some time to get used to switching states between enemies. For instance, when you fight two foes at once, one might charge you with purple attacks that you can’t stop and must dodge while the other is attacking with a color; trying to fend off both takes some getting used to. Likewise, if one enemy is orange and the other blue – you’re only blocking one of them properly. Once an enemy is weakened enough, you press a single button to destroy them and absorb their essence, which earns you a skill point per enemy. These skills are mostly used in combat. For example, one gives you a powerful frontal attack, while another lets you heal. None of the skills are really game-changing, but they are useful.

As previously stated, beyond mindless violence, I have only a general idea of what is going on. In the first area, you help a smaller, weaker being, who then grows to a boss that opposes you, so you must defeat them. After you fight and defeat them, they become an ally again. There is no dialogue or context, and the only words on screen are tutorials.

The world is certainly atmospheric, and it is clear which atmosphere it’s trying to convey, light, dark, scary and frankly simply gorgeous – but why? Why is it dark and corrupt? Why are there weird glowing pink eggs that unlock concept art? Only the above-average gameplay keeps you going, and there are limits to that. The soundtrack is also excellent for an indie release and if you get attached to it, the soundtrack is available on Steam/GoG/Epic as well as a deluxe edition that includes the game, soundtrack and an art book, which is a nice touch.

Bottom line, Strayed Lights is a nice enough game to put a few hours into, but the lack of any real story robs it of anything distinctive. It runs the risk of becoming “that one game,” what was it called again? The combat is excellent, but color matching enemies is nothing new, and once you have got the basics down it can get a bit tedious. Boss fights do offer a challenge, and each is a genuine spectacle, but without context, you are just going through the motions. Having said all that, it’s not necessarily a bad thing. Yes, more context would be helpful, but it’s a darned good fighting game and sometimes, like an old action movie, the action is more important than the story. So while I can pick at this one, I am happy to have gotten a chance to play.

The Good:

Gorgeous
Good gameplay
Good soundtrack

The Bad:

The story is thin as paint
The gameplay is not very nuanced.

Strayed Lights Review (PC)