The Town of Light

Walking simulator through an abandoned mental asylum that tells a depressing story.

A very good game - psychological horror at it's finest. You really have to do several playthroughs to unlock everything. It's heartbreaking...

underated

I first played this game in 2019 when I was still a console user and more recently in 2023 on PC, so why is it that I'm writing a review now all the way in 2026? Because it's stuck with me all this time. It functions as a basic walking simulator, but it's the atmosphere that makes it so unique. While it visually is nothing sinister, the vibe of a long abandoned asylum juxtaposed with pleasant afternoon sunshine is immensely chilling (for me atleast), and it's even worse when you know it's based on a real one located in Italy. I'm always cautious of fictional media that revolves around mental hospitals and their patients, as they can so easily fall into being icky and exploitative, but this manages to avoid that by just being straight up in its depictions of how horrifying this type of environment was and the particular vulnerabilities that came from being a girl in that system. As expected for a story like this one, it tackles subjects of medical treatments that are actually just torture and mutilation as well as patient abuse like sexual assault. We learn all this through a mix of flashbacks, documents, and nauseating artwork that emphazies the creepiness of everything. And onc…

This game was really tough. I finished it, and I think once was enough for me. It left a lasting impact, and I don't think I ever want to return to it.

Firstly, this Game is absolutely a Walking Simulator with an interesting story wrapped around it. There are no jump scares, only an upsetting story that is pretty well told. No spoilers, but the basic premise is that a female psychiatric patient returns to the asylum to basically "remember" what happened. The game moves quite slow with unskippable cutscenes, but a good bit of interactable objects. Basically everything is scripted, the puzzles aren't hard, and the few collectibles make this game a very chill experience with a depressing story. It's a decent game with a little bit of player choice across the short 2 hour playthrough and I was able to get all of the achievements in just over 3 hours. If it wasn't such a sad/upsetting story then I think it would have more mass appeal. TL;DR - 5.5/10 - Very Competent Story Telling, but Too Slow and Too Sad for me.