The Town of Light

Another unsettling hit from LKA, this one is inspired by actual events and letting us explore a real asylum (Volterra Psychiatric Hospital). The game is slower and has a lot more talking than Martha Is Dead (you move around a lot), which I did not like because you didn't know where to go most of the time, but it's still an amazing game that shows/tells you a little bit about the horrible things that were done to people in asylums in the past.

It was just... wow
The Town of Light is a game about a person truly breaking down.
It doesn't scare you with jump scares; it makes you feel incredibly uncomfortable. And I don't think it's a negative that there's no running in the game, because that's exactly what they want you to do – soak up the atmosphere.
Playing as the main character and experiencing her memories of sexual abuse, trauma, vulnerability, and loneliness just forces you to process it all without any explanation or hope that the person can get out of it.
What am I even talking about? The lobotomy scene made me want to puke and cry at the same time, lol.
And the whole ending was so affecting and shocking that I simply didn't know what to feel. This is the game that gave me such shocking things and then left me with them.
What's especially frightening is the fact that the game is based on real events and practices in Italian mental hospitals before the 1978 reform, which further immerses you in this feeling of hopelessness.
The themes in this game may resonate differently with different people, but the game doesn't ask for anything in return, it only leaves you in thought and confusion. I'm amazed.

epic, excluding the aggressive flash bangs scattered throughout the game. i found myself bracing for impact, scrunching my face, and squinting my eyes every time i turned a corner in fear of the next memory flashback.
(completely unrelated, but i am absolutely torn over the fact that the original music played during the last cut scene has been replaced. not that the new music is bad, not at all, but the impact the original had on me back in 2016 could never be replaced or forgotten)

This is one of those games that really hits you emotionally because of how much melancholy it carries in its story. It’s based on real events and tells the tragic life of Renée, a 16-year-old girl who had the meaning of her life stripped away from her.
It’s a deeply emotional and psychological game, and I highly recommend playing it. The weight of everything that happens in the asylum and inside Renée’s mind honestly gave me chills more than once.
As for the achievements, you’ll unlock most of them just by progressing through the story. There are about four that require replaying a few specific chapters, but nothing too complicated.
An absolute work of art. Seriously—give this one a chance. It’s worth every minute.

Went to Volterra Psychiatric Hospital, found some interesting things, made a friend, lost friend, recalled childhood memories, got a Lobotomy, then I played this game.

Great game, with a solid theme that fits the game's atmosphere and level design very well. The abandoned asylum and the surrounding areas are amazing to explore with the added feel of horror.

It was interesting to play this after finishing Martha is Dead, which was the follow-up to this title made several years later. The evolutionary path from The Town of Light to Martha is Dead is very clear, and it is nice to see that this studio has such a strong hold over their artistic direction. They know what their strengths are, and they lean into them heavily.
Unlike Martha is Dead, you can finish The Town of Light easily in a single sitting. It took me just over 3 hours, and that time surprisingly flew by quite quickly. It was surprising because of how unsettling and, for lack of a better word, unpleasant it is. And that is the point. You play these games to have an extremely uncomfortable experience. That is the assignment, and this developer understands that assignment very well.
Visually, The Town of Light is not spectacular to look at, even considering its age. I was actually quite surprised by how aged the environments looked. That criticism is mainly leveled at the outdoor sections, of which there are mercifully few. The interiors of the abandoned mental asylum feel believable and ruggedly unsettling, and before long I forgot all about my misgivings about the appearance of the exteriors.
As for the gameplay, The Town of Light has some good ideas; it does not have a compass or a minimap or an objective marker or a quest log or anything, but in most instances you can press 'H' in order to get a hint as to where you are supposed to go next. This was a life saver, and it made me feel accomplished when I would take a look at the maps posted to the walls and was able to figure out where I was supposed to go next. It is not rocket science, but it is well executed.
They tried something with the element of choice in this game; several chapters are supposedly different, depending on how you answer certain internal dialog options. The way that they communicate what each choice means is extremely esoteric and unhelpful, however, and I went through the entire game having no idea what my choices meant or what the game was trying to tell me about them. It feels like this element of the game was slightly under-developed. Martha is Dead has several similar elements that feel slightly under-cooked and under-utilized, but I respect that they are trying something.
The worst parts of the game were all in the ending chapters. Without giving any spoiler details, you are expected to navigate identical-looking hallways at one point, searching for seventeen collectible things. The game obviously wants you to find them all, but it was such an enormous chore because it was so easy to get lost and turned around in that bland environment that it felt like a massive mercy when the game apparently decided that I had toiled for long enough and just advanced me to the next section before I had found all 17 things. That felt bad, and it was a super frustrating interruption to the otherwise solid experience.
The Town of Light is my favorite kind of horror game. You are never in danger, and you do not even really have to worry about any jump scares. The horror comes from the unsettling, believable, inhumane experiences of the characters. It can be a minefield when you are dealing with mental health in fiction. It can very quickly slip into the realms of exploitation and insensitivity, but just as was the case with Martha Is Dead, I believe this team played their hand deftly. They do not pull any punches, but the suffering never feels voyeuristic.
This is a real gem in the walking simulator genre, and I am extremely interested to see what this studio goes on to do in the future.