Developer: Krillbite Studio
Publisher: Krillbite Studio
Platform: PC
Tested on: PC
Sunlight – Review
What is Sunlight? Regular old sunlight helps us grow, breathe, live, survive. It’s cast down on the precious Earth to make all living creatures and plants receive it with glory. Sunlight, the game, is in a way closely related to this circle of life. So when you play it, do like you would with regular sunlight; sit back, enjoy, receive.
Story
Sunlight is essentially all about its story and the message it’s trying to send; a message that gets you thinking about life. A lot of the story it tells (with or without subtitles) is pretty vague with loads of metaphors and poetic freedom. Therefore we found it best to turn the subtitles on, making it easier to let everything sink in. It’s a story that sometimes even seems to be random text about life, death, philosophy, the human race, and more. This makes it hard to pin down an exact subject, but a lot of emotions and feelings are described at the very least, sometimes chaotically, so don’t go in expecting some classically structured story.
Graphics
Like most aspects in Sunlight, the design feels free, artistic and non-restrictive. It’s like a paint palette shader, where trees and the environment move around in a dreamy fashion full of brush strokes. It works well for a game like this, as the graphics are like the story; poetic and philosophical. The only thing that’s maybe missing is a hint of which button to click (the left mouse button) whenever it’s time to do so. Some type of indication would be nice, aside from a glow around interactive objects, especially as they blend in rather well with the environment.
Sound
The sound in Sunlight feels like an excellent experiment. While there’s the expected sound of footsteps or wind as you walk around, this all blends with atmospheric synths and such, to give the game a more mystical vibe. That’s not the experimental side though; no, the experimental side is that each tree surrounding you is telling the same story, yet they all have a different voice. This makes you wander around, looking for the voice that sounds most familiar or soothing. It’s a great experiment with great effort put in thanks to the many people who got recorded for this game.
Gameplay
The goal of Sunlight isn’t all too clear, and that’s fine. After all, it’s a game that’s about life, death, philosophy, the human race, and this type of philosophy is allowed to get a bit hazy. Sunlight is not only a bit vague, or poetic if you may, it’s also a game that takes you just about 30-40 minutes to complete. Because the game is abstract and rather short, it’s more of an artistic experience game than anything else. Something you could literally try out in an art gallery, perhaps with a VR headset even (if the game supported it). Perhaps you could even see Sunlight as an interactive book if you will, but for now, we will define the gameplay as a walking simulator, as you will literally be walking around in a rather tranquil forest. The walking happens slowly, like an old man taking a stroll on a Sunday. It’s alright though, because, in Sunlight, nothing is about going fast. It’s about going for a ride and listening to whatever the game tells you.
The game gives you freedom by allowing you to walk in all directions, using a map that has some randomly generated parts in it. One of these generated elements is clear to see, as the story is divided into pieces. Each time a piece ends, flowers spawn around you, no matter where you are. You then need to walk to one of them and pick it. Once you picked up a flower, the story continues. What you will eventually do with the flowers we will keep a secret, not spoiling the ending of an already short game. We can tell you though, that the above is all you will do for the duration of the game. This doesn’t make Sunlight a bad game, but again, it makes it more of an art installation in its own right than a game. An art installation where your opinion of it is probably based on the value its story has to you, and perhaps your attention span as you walk slowly towards goals. We rated it based on the fact the information given isn’t afraid to go into philosophical depth, combined with the unique sound qualities this interactive “game” has. To top that off, it also has some meditative qualities once you surrender to the slow pace you are forced to follow. It’s a game that can calm you down and teach you a thing or two by making you think about life.
Conclusion
Sunlight is more of an art installation than a game, as it lacks much in the interactivity department. That being said, it’s good at what it does. It’s experimental by turning trees into voice emitters that tell the same story, giving you loads of different voices to walk to, feeling comforted by voices that vibe with you. The same goes for the graphics and the seemingly random creation of the woods you walk around in. All these qualities made us grade the game as something good, but the value you give to it is still very dependant on the value you give to the philosophical information Sunlight tries to hand to you.
Sunlight - Review,
No Comments