Oscura: Lost Light the third game in a series of platformers by Australian developer Chocolate Liberation Front. Based out of Melbourne, CLF has many tendrils in many Australian media avenues with ventures into TV and online projects as well as games. Oscura: Lost Light combines the old-school, challenging platforming of the 16-bit era and combines it a visual style somewhere between Playdead’s Limbo and Tim Burton’s sketchbook.
Oscura: Lost Light’s titular hero is the focus of the story, a hero created by mishap who sets off on a quest to restore light to his home, a place called the Driftlands, after he accidentally destroys an artifact called the Aurora Stone. Like Limbo, Oscura: Lost Light isn’t as much about what you can see on the screen, but what you can’t. Enemies and traps lurk in the shadows, and Oscura will need to use powers bestowed by four different crystals to make his way through each of the game’s levels.
The game keep things simple from the outset – WASD to move Oscura about, Shift to switch between any crystals you’ve collected and pressing and holding the Spacebar will activate your crystals for a short period. These controls are exactly what you want from a platformer – balanced with just a slight delay that forces you to really time your movements. The obvious way to wield these controls is to manipulate movement and switching with your left hand and the spacebar with your right. I mention this because I’m a glutton for punishment and successfully completed the game using only my left hand – and let me tell you, that was quite a challenge.
Each of the game’s levels feature some lovely visual design, with splashes of colour in the backgrounds merging with darkened, shadowy areas in the foreground. The developers have used the shadows and movement of the screen as it scrolls to hide some really quite devious traps, but have also included a pretty forgiving checkpoint system that will allow you to retry from very close to wherever you died without any major cost. This was a minor annoyance to me, as it felt a little like my actions didn’t really have much consequence. I wasn’t really punished for dying over and over.
Enemies come in all shapes and sizes from murderous plants that lurk in the dark to giant circular saws swinging from ropes. You have “attack” per se and so your best course of action is to avoid them however you can. Your four gems do provide the ability to manipulate certain elements of a level though. The gems allow you to conjure temporary platforms in certain places, destroy weakened sections of the level, slow time and even lower the gravity. They’re all quite cool and have a lovely lighting effect so you can clearly see which one you have equipped. The best puzzles in the game are the ones that require you to use two or more of these powers to navigate them.
Oscura: Lost Light isn’t a particularly long game but it is quite enjoyable while it lasts. This is tight platforming from a team that really seems to know what they’re doing. I would love to see them push their talents and create something more substantial because this game bears all the hallmarks of a bunch of people ready to create something truly mind-blowing. Oscura: Lost Light is out right now on Steam. You can grab it for US$9.99 and you absolutely should. It’s more important than now it’s ever been for Aussie gamers to support our local gaming scene.
Review Score: 8.0 out of 10
Highlights: Solid puzzles; smart level design; simple controls
Lowlights: Quite short
Developer: Chocolate Liberation Front
Publisher: Surprise Attack Games
Released: 24/2/2015
Platform: PC
Reviewed on PC
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