Review: WayForward's LIT
Early this Monday, WayForward released the survival puzzler LIT. The title launched under the Nintendo WiiWare program for the cost of 800 ($8 USD) points. I was finally able to download a copy last night, and after several personally strong reactions to the title I felt that it was necessary to write up a quick an dirty review of the experience.
To the unacquainted, LIT is a horror title for the Wii, following two high school students Jake and Rachael. Jake and Rachael are stuck in their school, being stalked by some weird blackness that has taken over and "killed" your fellow students. I say killed, because the game is quite vague about what has actually happened to everyone. The concept is simple: Stay in the light to reunite yourself with Rachael, who periodically calls you on red, glowing phones scattered throughout classrooms.
Atmospherically speaking, the game is very good at what it does. There is a definite feeling that something is "wrong" in the homeschooling, and the mood is set from the very beginning with a pitch black menu screen, requiring players to use their wiimote like a flash light to find options. A very nice effect that really establishes the tone for the game. In game, the lighting plays an important roll in the game play, and as such it does a very good job of establishing what is where.
There are notable artifacts while playing, however. This is especially true when a "glint" appears next to a door Jake walks through, as they have a harsh black border that looks rather poor in contrast to the rest of the game. Some of the in game models, such as the cherry bomb, seem atypically low quality in the comparison to the rest of the in game models. The majority of the the problems are pretty inconsequential, as they are so rarely large enough to be obvious. There is one graphical "feature" that i found got in the way more often than not.
The game requires an extreme level of precision at times. You step one foot into the black and you're unceremoniously dragged under by the darklings. That's fine, it makes sense to me, the problem is that the edge of the light is slightly fussed out by a black haze. The haze often obfuscates the actual boundaries of the light, leaving you often barely inching into the darkness, only to be forced to start over that room. I found myself often screaming about this, only to get frustrated and shut it off for an hour or so.
There is also the problem with needless motion controls. You have to physically throw cherry bombs. You have to physically scratch a flare on the ground. We get it, it's a Wii game, but we don't need motion controls. After replaying the same cherry bomb heavy stage for the 20th time my wrist started to hurt. I can't imagine that anyone thinks that repetitive strain injuries make for a good game mechanic. Just wait for the Gym boss, you'll be in too much pain to toss the bird at the screen.
Pain and slightly muddled graphics aside, the game is fun. No matter how angry and frustrated I got, I still managed to keep playing for close to 5 hours. The puzzles are well thought out, challenging without being too hard to solve. There is a certain degree of "who arranges a room like this"? and "who the hell buys this many spot lights"? Maybe the darklings did it, I don't know. Bottom line is this: If you don't have a heart condition or carpel tunnel syndrome, the game is good. It's a puzzle game that requires a certain level of precision and speed, and there is no way to do that without it being really frustrating at times. It is also one of the only horror titles for the Wii. For $8, you can't really do much better.
Score: 7 of 10
Asterick
Posted to Video Games on 11 February 2009
· Comments (6)
Other stuff like this: horror, lit, nintendo, stay in the light, wayforward, wii, wiiware
I am going to snag this for the 3day weekend. Looking forward to playing HotD:OVERKILL tonight before/after LOST!!!
Glad to hear it's not all that bad. I was looking forward to this one.
Ditto to above. I guess I'll have to dust off my Wii. Last game I played on it was Killer7... (I know it isn't a Wii game...)
I was quite surprised with this title. I downloaded it and was playing for about 4 hours and didn't realize the time. It's atmosphere was very convincing and i loved the way the lighting plays into the game.
For 8$ this is a must buy in my opinion.
Counts number of horror games for PS3... not that many
Counts number of horror games for Wii:
Quite a few.
eg
Resident Evil 4
Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles
Dead Rising
Fatal Frame IV
House Of The Dead 2 & 3
House Of The Dead Overkill
The Calling
OK Ok I get it, I know you guys at gaygamer dislike the Wii, bit stop with the snide comments that just arent true. I agree in that the Wii needs more AAA titles but thats not to say it doesnt have any good games.
Now I might go dust off my Xbox 360 since its been used soley as a DVD player for the past month. And the PS3 which was turned on for an update and then promptly turned off.
I never ended up getting to Lit. HotD:OK kept us busy for a few hours.