Bought this game for the art style and interesting premise, was not expecting it to hook onto me like it did! Spent an entire night just plowing through this game (the ol' "1 more turn" problem got me)! This is another classic worker-placement, time management game (think Diner Dash or Cultist Simulator). Took a bit of time to wrap my head around it, and found that if I wasn't on top of thing it could easily lead to a game over, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. The one problem I have is that the game is short. Quite short. This problem isn't exactly helped by the fact that it is focused on three separate campaigns. If there were 2-3 more campaigns or a "skirmish mode" that would have been great, but with levels that are focused on the completion of specific missions I can see why this wasn't done. All in all, a good little puzzle game, just wish that I could spend more time with it.
This is going to be a divisive little game. It's really going to appeal to folks who played the original or already own the remake. For folks who are new to Pathologic this is either going to encourage them to buy the full game or turn them off of it completely. The game also makes more sense if you have some knowledge of the Pathologic's story before going in. Personally, I dig it.
I love this game. I discovered Of Light and Darkness though a top=ten game list on Youtube, outside of that and one silent play through, there was nothing else. I wan enamored by what I saw of the game's hints of story and the excellent artwork, so I purchased it as soon as I could off of Ebay (a good purchase being as how my copy came with the box, manual, fold-out map, the Prima strategy guide, and other bits). It soon managed to find a special place in my heart, despite it's faults. Speaking of faults, let's get those out of the way: The narrative in-game makes some sense, but to get a full grasp of the story you NEED to read the fluff in the manual. This game is definitely heavier on the Puzzle elements than the Adventure elements. To be precise, there is 1 core puzzle mechanic and about 5 side mechanics, and the game revolves entirely around them. The game is short. Your first play through will take you longer than the others because of the amount of note taking that you'll be doing (and you will want to keep those notes, unless you just decide to break down and use a walkthrough). Now with those out of the way, we can move on to the stuff that made this game worth the purchase: James Woods! Mechanics that put the pressure on and encourage you to make use of every tool that you have available to you in order to quickly and efficiently solve the puzzles. Art design and locations that are not only impressive for the age of this game, but remain memorable even after you've finished playing. Because it's a puzzle game, and because you can set up your own challenges, Of Light and Darkness does encourage some replay for those who enjoy it. A narrative that is both expertly written and delivered through the animations and voice actors (albeit a little difficult to follow if you aren't paying attention). This game is worth your time and effort. Describing it is difficult and off-putting, but that doesn't start to diminish the quality of this piece.
