The Town of Light (PS4, Xbox One)Game review play
0The Town of Light (PS4, Xbox One)
The plot—which revolves around a young girl called Renée and her incarceration in a psychiatric hospital—isn't the most original of ideas on paper, but it evolves into something much darker. Institutionalised child abuse isn't the sort of subject matter games often tackle, nor is it one to be taken lightly. But as the medical staff around Renée begin to pick her apart by inches, and as she screams for them to stop, it's clear that The Town of Light isn't interested in horror trivialities. It soon becomes painfully apparent that no matter what Renée says, no matter how much she begs or screams, her pleas for mercy will not be listened to. The Town of Light is very much like being dumped into the shoes of Rosemary Woodhouse in Rosemary's Baby.
That The Town of Light is based in part on events that took place in reality, in a location that's currently still standing, only adds to its flesh-crawling atmosphere. The location in question is the Ospedale Psichiatrico di Volterra psychiatric hospital in Tuscany, the ruins of which stand not too far away from the headquarters of the game’s developer, LKA. If this building looks anything like it does in the game as it does in real life—and the urban explorers that regularly venture inside heavily suggest that it does—then Volterra is one of the best environments for a horror story since director Brad Anderson came across the Danvers State Mental Hospital, which became the location for the movie Session 9.
Volterra is a crumbling ruin, filled with rusted iron railings, cracked paint, and dank rooms linked together by the longest and darkest of dusty corridors. The atmosphere is so oppressive you could choke on it. Unlike Session 9, however, The Town of Light isn't interested in manufacturing scares rooted in supernatural occurrences. It doesn’t need them. As I wandered through the hospital I realised that I'm not so much playing a game as I am on a sort of documentary-like journey with the game's narrator, Renée, as she tries to piece together the horrors of her past.
The Town of Light is an admirable exploration of mental health issues, and a disturbing horror experience to boot. Just don't expect to solve any puzzles or shoot things in the face with a shotgun.
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