Neverending Light

Description: A guided tour goes horribly wrong when everyone is eaten by monsters!

Sigh. Personally, I don't even know where to start with this one. I appreciate when game makers attempt to make a new and interesting game. Something that's never been done before. Taking those ideas and bringing them to life. For that, Neverending Light succeeds. However, for everything else, it falls flat on its face.

Using a flashlight (or other source of light) to look around and fend off creatures is a concept that is not often dealt with. The odd game here and there, but I've yet to see a flash game attempt something like this. If I have, I sure as heck don't remember it, and I sure don't remember it being pulled off this badly. I don't want to run the game ragged, because I can appreciate what the guy tried to do with this game, but.. I just couldn't sit through it the whole way. I didn't even bother trying to get the sole badge for this game, because that would have required completing the game, or even getting close to the end.

Anyway, the game deals with the main character going on a tour in some caverns. Nameless and faceless as a protagonist, the only thing that really drives the story are four main factors: survival, the obligatory love interest, your flashlight and, of course, darkness. I got about as far into the story as just shortly after finding your love interest, and then after losing her so abruptly, I had pretty much had enough of the game, and I started looking elsewhere.

For those of you that have the patience for this game, I commend you. For those of you who actually like this game, I question your taste. I say this because the game has four out of five stars as of this review's writing. This can't be some kind of crazy fluke, because over 20,000 (as of time of review, of course) have voted. Either this is a shining example of why the five-star system in any form is flawed and overrated, or more than half of the voters thought the game was decent.

So, I guess by this point you're probably wondering what irked me so much about this game. Well, if you've read this far, you're probably willing to stick around long enough to find out. You're about to be rewarded!

* The Darkness. Using the darkness as a tool for fear is hardly a new concept. When you know something is lurking out there in the darkness, that can be pretty terrifying. This game pulls this off fairly well, but only because your guy moves so god damn slow, and the fact that his main method of sight and deterrent sucks.

* The Flashlight. I appreciate the game creator aiming for a tiny speck of realism in this game, but the fact that the flashlight only lights up five percent of the screen in front of where you're aiming and the walls of the cavern are unforgiving, often times looking like there's a path you can take, but it turns out not to be the case.

I can't really appreciate a game that takes place mostly in the dark. Not a whole lot of fun takes place in the dark, besides what takes place behind closed doors, and Neverending Light is a disappointment, because its negatives just outweigh its positives. Maybe I'm being too harsh here, but I just couldn't find much of anything to enjoy in this game. Sorry.

Rating: 2/10

Achievement: "Go Toward The Light" (Medium - 15 Points)
Description: Collect all 49 sprite droppings.
Tips: These are little balls of light scattered around the game. It's my assumption that you can probably do a bit of exploring during the course of the game and easily find all of them, but considering, that outlook might be too positive.