Lightmatter
A first-person puzzler where shadows kill you. Watch your step or be swallowed by the darkness.
Lightmatter is a logic, indie and adventure game
developed by Tunnel Vision Games
and published by Aspyr.
Released on January 15th 2020 is available only on Windows
in 10 languages: English, Danish, French, Italian, German, Spanish - Spain, Japanese, Russian, Simplified Chinese and Portuguese - Brazil.
It has received 2,656 reviews of which 2,429 were positive and 227 were negative resulting in a rating of 8.8 out of 10. 😎
The game is currently priced at 19.50€ on Steam.
The Steam community has classified Lightmatter into these genres:
Media & Screenshots
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Requirements
These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.
Windows
- OS: Windows 10
- Processor: Intel Core i3 4170 / AMD A8-7600
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: NVIDIA GTX 660 / AMD R9 270
- Storage: 6 GB available space
Reviews
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
Puzzle game in the vein of Portal in which you are trying to escape a scientific facility after a disaster. The research done in the facility dealt with harnessing a substance called "lightmatter", which creates light and endless energy. But since the disaster, the shadows have become deadly - step into an area outside of the light and you'll be dissolved. To escape, you need to find a way that is illuminated, or otherwise light it up first. There are portable lamps for this purpose, and over time, more mechanisms are added. All the puzzles are logical and you should be able to figure them out without a guide. It gets harder in the later sections though, and you may have to ponder those puzzles for a while. And sometimes, it's not so much about thinking hard but thinking fast when you run and jump through areas with moving shadows. If you fail and your character dies, luckily, consequences aren't dire: You get to restart seconds before that death and lose practically no progress. Graphics are simplified. Maybe they could have been made to look more "latest 3D effects", but on the other hand, their simple look helps to sharply emphasize the contrast between light and darkness, useful for unambiguous navigation. The game was made by a small Danish team, and for what it is - indie, not a triple A game, not something meant to occupy you for tens of hours - it does its job pretty well. Recommended.
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It was fun. Props for no loading screens - i was going to the next level without even knowing it. Most of the levels were fairly easy - only 1 or 2 were "show me a walk through" hard. Death/Failure was made very painless with convenient restarts and no reloading screens/times. There are many similarities drawn between Portal and Lightmatter - but Lightmatter didn't have a deep enough story, satisfying enough reasons why things were the way they were, or enough time to develop a connection with the characters (i.e., who are you, why were you there, what did Allen poor into Ellen's hair and why, etc.). The game felt quick, but for what it was, it was a fun game to play. Good job developers - keep up the good work!
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Not bad. The puzzles are a little bit on the easy side if you're used to puzzle-platformers, BUT following in the footsteps of Portal, the voice acting is extremely well done. The story is pretty good, too! However, the game is pretty short. On a first playthrough, with me literally going as slow as possible, I still finished it in about 4-5 hours. I have more time only because I went back through to listen to Developer Commentary (yep, it's available, but don't activate it on first playthrough since it spoils some puzzles and disables all other audio while they're talking). With only a couple of exceptions, most of the puzzles can be completed in less than a minute, and there's only a few dozen puzzles here. That said, it means the game doesn't overstay its welcome. $20 is a bit steep for a game that could easily be over in one sitting, but it's a good game. Worth it at full price, but I recommend picking it up on sale.
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I'd give this game a 6/10. It's obviously an homage to Portal with several references to Aperture, Cave Johnson, Cake, etc. It was quite fun to play; the voice acting was good; and it ran well on a 10 year-old Core i7 + GTX1050. However, whilst similar in style to the Portal games, it's really not in the same league: the game mechanics are quite limited and so some of the puzzle solving can be a bit repetitive; the graphics are a but cartoon-ish (though that probably helps performance on my older PC); and it's relatively short - none of the puzzles are likely to have you scratching your head for more than a few minutes. All that said, if you feel in need of a Portal-type fix and and you can pick this up at a reasonable discount, then it's worth a go.
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This game has to be the greatest tragedy I've ever witnessed. I took my time with this game and completed it twice. Every single puzzles were really well thought out and well paced. None of them made me feel like I was cheating the game, and I couldn't cheese any of them either. That alone is quite the achievement for such a small indie studio. Immediately, I felt the huge inspiration on Portal and The Talos Principle, two franchises that I love to bits and will cherish until my very last breath. It's sad The Talos Principle isn't getting the huge recognition it deserves as to me it's on the same exact level as Portal. But I digress. Lightmatter's visual style is unique and incredibly well thought-out, blending a cold and menacing atmosphere with a novel gameplay mechanic: light keeps, shadows destroy. Get yourself ready to die in this game as this will happen a lot. But instead of being a punishment for not solving the puzzle, it becomes part of the process. Death in this game is a minor setback and an example rather than a problem. Alas, despite how much this game does right and how much love was poured into its making, Tunnel Vision Games unfortunately is no more since four years now. I've listened to everything the developers had to say in the developer commentary mode - one which is presented just like how Valve does! So many of the feelings I had from this game were confirmed by the developers themselves: from the inspiration to the game design. While Lightmatter threaded into Portal's footsteps, it still forged its own path as a puzzle game. The process of introducing each new puzzle elements and mechanics to the player were basically identical to how Valve would in Portal and Half-Life. There are no tutorials, there is only context. The only two concepts the game teaches you directly are how to jump and how to interact with objects. The rest is up to you to figure out: climbing ledges, using portable lamps, lighting up a path with connectors... Dev team, if you are reading this: thank you. This is one of the greatest puzzle games I've ever played. Listening to all of you explain the process of making this game was a delight. From how the narrative came to be, to how the environment was built, was all inspiring and simply amazing. You poured your hearts and souls into making this and it clearly shows. I wish the future was brighter for Tunnel Vision Games. I would have loved to play a future puzzle game from you all.
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Last Updates
| Steam data | 23 November 2024 08:07 |
|---|---|
| SteamSpy data | 21 January 2025 09:09 |
| Steam price | 22 January 2025 20:28 |
| Steam reviews | 21 January 2025 22:00 |
Online players
3
Developer
Tunnel Vision Games
Publisher
Aspyr
Release
15 Jan 2020
Platforms
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