REVIEW : LIT: Bend the Light (XBOX Series X)
The appeal of many puzzle games is that you must follow predetermined stages in order to arrive at a finite solution. A sandbox game, on the other hand, gives you a collection of tools to employ but no clearly defined solution. LIT: Bend the Light combines the two in an interesting way by giving you pre-determined stages while also encouraging you to experiment and come up with a variety of answers. Get lit AF in here, people.
The presentation of LIT: Bend the Light has a little steampunk flair. The wooden levels will have a number of reflective bright surfaces and a variety of glass pieces to refract light. On every level, the light will always come from the same mechanism—a kind of paraffin lamp fastened to a gear. Many of the reflecting and refractive surfaces can be put into place, and this cog can be moved up and down on a track.
We are never told why we are acting in this way, so we have no idea why. But it doesn’t matter.
Things start out quite simply as you bounce off more reflecting surfaces than you will ever need as you advance through the levels. Things start to get a little trickier and the game really starts to open up when these surfaces may be adjusted.
When the message “1 of X solutions found” appears after finishing a level, you start to understand LIT: Bend the Light is different from other puzzle games. You’ve already identified one solution, which is fantastic. If you’d like, move on to the next one. Alternatively, you can try different approaches by replaying the level and experimenting.
It is not sufficient to merely rotate the light source a few degrees and call it a new technique. It works in the order that you employ the provided tools, or even when you employ less than those made available to you.
And don’t assume you have solved all the puzzles because the game says you have. There is a specific achievement for finding more solutions than the developers anticipated, and you can keep experimenting to find even more. But I’ll talk more about those later.
It’s more fun to experiment with some levels than others. Later stages can be tricky because there are too many options, whereas earlier levels can be enjoyable since there are fewer variables to play with. On one level, twelve glass spheres of varied sizes that could all be moved caused a real headache. Furthermore, this was one of the rare levels where the light had to be reflected twice. This implied that changing even one glass sphere could cause the entire solution to become skewed.
You do, however, have a few choices available to you. You have three skips available if a level proves to be too challenging. You shouldn’t run out of levels since there are only 31 in all. Additionally, you can fine-tune your preferences by holding down the X button if there is anything that only needs to be moved a tiny bit.
There are a few little environmental riddles in LIT: Bend the Light as well, but they must be solved accidentally. You’ll need to find out a way to get around the immovable portions of the level where the moveable things can get trapped.
These immovable obstructions obstruct the light more effectively, yet they might be annoying since they prevent you from solving the problem.
But LIT: Bend the Light has a genuine tranquilly, making it difficult to stay angry for very long. It is practically hard to angrily leave because of the ambient piano music and soothing light.
You can get an accomplishment by listening to the main menu music for ten minutes. There are several odd accomplishments in LIT: Bend the Light, such as discovering the developers’ hidden image and finding more solutions than they did. There are also some that ask you to come up with novel solutions on a level-specific basis.
